Tag: Walker

Joan of Arc: a first for London

St Joan of Arc’s Church, 60 Highbury Park. London N5 2XH

The nave in the church of St Joan of Arc (c.2000), Highbury, London
The location of St Joan of Arc church in Highbury, London
St Joan of Arc church in Highbury, London (n.d.) from a parsih publication of 2013

The Catholic parish of St Joan of Arc in north London (UK) achieved a certain prominence during the 1990s when it was the local church of choice for the former British Labour Party leader and later Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family. However, the parish has two rather more interesting claims on posterity.

Firstly, ths buidling is the immediate succesor of the first Catholic church anywhere in the world dedicated to St Joan of Arc. From 1918 local Highbury Catholics had worshipped in the chapel of a convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns but increasing numbers of worshippers required the provision of a separate church.

The interior c.1950 of the first church of St Joan of Arc in Kelross Road, London N5
The main entrance c.1950 to first church of St Joan of Arc in Kelross Road, London N5

This new church was opened on 13 October 1920 just five monrths after Joan’s canonisation (16 May 1920). When the Carmelites left Highbury in 1953 the convent site was used for a new and much larger church designed by Stanley Kerr Bate (b.1906–?), which opened on 23 September 1962.

The church of St Joan of Arc church in Highbury, London; detail of west fron and tower c.1990
The church of St Joan of Arc church in Highbury, London; detail of west fron and tower, c.1990

Secondly, the new church tower was the first in England to be provided with a radioactive lightning rod. (Taking Stock). The idea behind this device –  Early Streamer Emission theory – was that a small quantity of radioactive isotopes at the tip of the rod greatly increased the lightning capture area. The theory has since been discredited. Worriyingly, with such devices there is always a risk that the effects of weathering and poor maintenance allows radioactive material to be released in an uncontolled way into the environment. I have no idea if this dubious device is still in place on the tower at St Joan’s.

Detail of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
The pedal division of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
The choir gallery in the church of St Joan of arc, Highbury, London, 2017
Builder’s plate on the organ in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
Detail of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
The console of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017.
Detail of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
The piston setter of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
The console of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017

The very nice neo-baroque pipe organ (1963) is by J. W. Walker and Sons Ltd, and is divided either side of the front wall of a spacious choir gallery at the west end of the nave. The largest pedal pipes are in a separate case on the gallery.

References

A Mission to Hackney

St Mary-of-Eton, Hackney Wick, London E9 5JA

Hackney Wick is an ancient settlement in the east of London, once owned by the Templars; ‘Wick’ is derived from a Saxon term denoting a small settlement. Hackney Wick is situated at the southern-most edge of Hackney Marshes, on the west bank of the tidal River Lea, close to the point where it empties into the Thames. Even today some large open tracts of land remain, now used mostly for sports and recreation, not least venues for the 2012 London Olympics.

Hackney Wick
Map of Hackney Marsh, London c.2012
Hackney Wick canalside, 2012
Hackney Marsh c2000
Hackney Wick canalside, c2013
The River Lea and the London Olympic[ic Park c2015 (www.flickr.com/photos/simon__syon/)

Canalisation of the River Lea began in the late eighteenth century and from then until the later twentieth century the Hackney Wick waterside became an industrial zone taking advantage of the plentiful supplies of water and easy access to the London Docks; smelting works, paper mills paint making, and other chemical-based process were pioneered here. For example the earliest plastics, Parkesine and shellac, were first commercially produced in Hackney Wick, as too the first dry-cleaning agents and a number of synthetic dyes.

Parkesine factory, Hackney Wick, London, c.2013
Factory buildings viewed across a field, near Hackney Wick c1795
Berger paint factory, Hackney Wick, London c1900
Factory buildings near Hackney Wick c1795
View of farm buildings near a stream in Hackney Wick c1795
Hackney Wick canalside, c2013

With industrialisation came a massive population increase, since in those days workers lived close to where they worked. Six thousand people lived in Hackney Wick by 1879. The nearby Rover Lea was heavily polluted by factory effluent and sewerage. In the 1880s the social reformer Charles Booth mapped Hackney Wick and noted that most of the the inhabitants were very poor and in extreme want.

The location of St Mary-of-Eton church London E9, c.1898, from William Booth’s ‘Life and Labour of the People in London’: http://booth.lse.ac.uk
The location of St Mary-of-Eton church London E9, c.1898, from William Booth’s ‘Life and Labour of the People in London’: http://booth.lse.ac.uk
The location of St Mary-of-Eton church London E9, c.2000.
The location of St Mary-of-Eton church London E9, c.2000.

At about this time Eton School opened an Anglican mission in Hackney Wick, where there had not previously been a church presence. This became the parish of St Mary of Etion and a fine Gothic-revival church was built (1890-92) to the design of  G. F. Bodley (1827–1907) & Thomas Garner (1839–1906), extended in 1911-12 by C. G. Hare (1875–1932).

St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, viewed from the south east c.1906
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, looking south-west, c.2000
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, the sanctuary c.2013
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, bell-tower gate and courtyard flanked by church (r) and hall (l), c.1950
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, viewed from the north east c.1892
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, from the south east c.2000
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, the pulpit c.2013
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, looking west, c.2000
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, from the north east c.2000
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9; looking east c.2000

From 1959 and throughout the 1960s the Eton MIssion developed a thriving youth club (the 59 Club), hosting up-and-coming bands such as such as Cliff Richard and the Shadows, seen here entertaining Princess Margaret when she visited the Eton Mission in 1962. Although the youth club is no more its motorcycle section is still-thriving as the ’59 Club’, as are the Eton Mission Rowing Club and several football and rugby clubs.

Eton School continued active support of the church until the 1970s. At about the same time all heavy industry began to leave the area. After many years of decline and social deprivation Hackney Wick is now experiencing rapid post-industrial regeneration driven by the arrival of high-tech and creative industries that are taking advantage of the former factory sites and now very pleasant waterside situations. A major and much-acclaimed restoration and redevelopment of the church and its adjacent property was concluded in 2015, providing housing and new church facilities, while retaining the original church intact.

St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, west front, showing 2015 residential additions, c.2016.
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, interior, looking north-east, c.2016
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, viewed from the south west, new buildings c.2015
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, looking west, c.2015
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9,; the sanctuary c.2015

In 1965 a fine two-manual organ was installed in the church at a cost of £3,500 by the firm of Grant, Degens and Rippin (1965), their opus 12. This instrument replaced the existing organ (1898) made by the firm of J. W. Walker. Very little of the old instrument was retained, apart from a few bass pipes. The new organ featured in an EMI recording of some of J. S. Bach’s chorale preludes played by the organist Simon Preston accompanied by the English Singers (ref. HQS 1131).

Even today, the instrument has a bold contemporary appearance; its stark  unenclosed pipework sits on a high platform at the south-west end of the nave. The console was originally placed on a platform opposite but following the full restoration of the organ (2015), during the church’s restoration and redevelopment, the console is now on the floor of the church at the south-east,

St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, interior, looking sotuh-west, c.2016, showing the organ (1965)
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, organ-builder’s plate, c.2016
St Mary of Eton, Hackney Wick, London; the organ restoration funder’s plate 2016
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, organ console and sanctuary, 2016
St Mary of Eton, Hackney Wick, London; the organ console 2016

Barking with a prelate and a president

Barking Abbey, St Margaret of Antioch, London IG11

Map showing Barking in relation to central London.
Map showing Barking in relation to central London.

This week, and for the second time this year, I have travelled to the pre-Saxon Thames-side town of Barking, eight miles east of Westminster and now the civic heart of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. My destination was once again the pipe organ of the thirteenth-century parish church of St Margaret of Antioch.

Until the 1850s Barking was home to a thriving port, most notable for supplying London with coal, fish and grain.

Barking mill, Barking quay, c2015
Barking mill, Barking quay, late c19
Barking, c2015
Barking miill. Barking quay, somewhat idealised, mid c.19.
Map of Barking, 1777

By the early twentieth century the area had become a rather insalubrious hub for chemical-based industries, a major London sewage works, and a coal-fired power station. Such polluting industry is now a thing of the past, and many former industrial sites have made way for much-needed housing.

Barking Abbey, a reconstruction
Barking Abbey, a reconstruction

Before the Dissolution of the English monasteries under Henry VIII, Barking had been the site of a great convent, Barking Abbey, created in the 7th century by Saint Æthelburh and her brother Saint Earconwald. The parish church of St Margaret of Antioch was sited next to the abbey church.

The importance of Barking Abbey can be glimpsed from the fact that its abbesses held precedence over all other abbesses in England, indeed many of Barking’s abbesses were  former queens and the daughters of kings; three are saints. The site of the abbey ruins is now Abbey Green, a public park within which only the Curfew Tower gate to the abbey and the parish church remain intact.

Barking Abbey remains in the Abbey Green park
St Margaret’s church seen from the Barking abbey Curfew Tower in modern times
Barking Abbey Curfew Tower and St Maragret’s church, in modern times
Barking Abbey Curfew Tiower gate, town-side late c19, before clearance of the surrounding buildings

In medieval times pilgrims were attracted to Barking to view the Holy Rood, a painted stone carving of the crucifixion in the Chapel of the Holy Rood inside the abbey’s Curfew Tower, where it survives to this day albeit in a less than pristine conidtion; history has not been kind to it. It is dated to between 1125 and 1150.  According to Vatican records, on 22 March 1400 Pope Boniface IX granted a Papal licence (indult) to the Abbess of Barking “to have Mass and other services celebrated in the Oratory, in which a certain cross is preserved”.

Barking Abbey, the Curfew Tower, gateway and , Chapel of the Holy Rood. C19 engraving
Barking Abbey, the Holy Rood, , as seen in 1799.
Barking Abbey, the Holy Rood, as seen in modern times

The parish church itself is almost as wide as it is long and is very well maintained. The parish’s current Rector (and Assistant Bishop of Chelmsford) is Trevor Mwambe. previously the Bishop of Botswana whose intellect, spirit and clear-thinking leadership were not so well appreciated in Africa as they are in England. Also visiting the church when I was there was Sir Quett Masire, the 2nd President of Botswana (1980-98).

Bishop Trevor Mwambe, Rector of Barking, Assistant Bishop of Chelmsford
St Margaret’ s Barking, chancel screen and c18 plaster ceiling
St Margaret’s, Barking, the nave
St Margaret’s, Barking, the nave, from north to south
Sir Quett Masire, 2nd President of Botswana
St Margaret’s, Barking, floor plan

The church’s rather nice pipe organ dates from 1770, and was originally made by the London firm of Byfield and Green. Despite several nineteenth-century alterations and relocations within the building by the firm of J. W. Walker and Sons the organ has retained its original facade (now on the organ’ s west side) and its eighteenth-century sweetness of tone (although not so much of its eighteenth century tone-colour).

St Margaret’s, Barking, original organ-case front (1770), now the organ’s west facade
St Margaret’s, Barking, organ console (1913?)
St Margaret’s, Barking, south facade (1913?) in the chancel, north side
St Margaret’s, Barking, original organ-case front (1770), now the organ’s west facade, from the north side