Description

TQ 27 71
1207- /17/10041

WANDSWORTH
MITCHAM ROAD
CHURCH OF ST BONIFACE

II
Church; Roman Catholic. Begun 1906-7; completed 1927. Architect: Father Benedict Williamson, with J.H. Benet Foss. Brick with stone dressing in Venetian Romanesque style. Nave with side aisles and integral square brick tower with stone banding around the belfry at north-west corner. Slate roof; copper-covered spire. Basilican plan. West elevation to Mitcham Road: Central double-height gable of nave pierced by large recessed rose window. This is framed by a simple segmental band of stone springing from stone lintels supported by four short columns with abstract Egyptianised capitals. Below these are two projecting features with stone Byzantine-style hoods with a single recessed window. Tripartite ground floor with central round-arched entrance divided by a single column. The columns on the ground floor all have the abstract, neo-Egyptian capitals. Above the middle column dividing the entrance is a carved stone figure of Christ.

INTERIOR. Two six-bay arcades, smooth and flat with clerestory windows above. Plain round columns with carved letters on the capitals. Timber tie-beam roof to nave. Lean-to aisles with timber ceilings. Aisle walls lined with mosaic panels in the form of tryptichs depicting the Stations of the Cross. Simple wooden panelling below. Apsidal chancel at east end with curved fitted altar of stone, with Egyptian-style capitals. South altar: statue in niche within larger architectural surround with triangular hood. North altar: Madonna and Child in niche within surround with semi-circular hood. Original simple oak pews. Organ gallery at west end.

Benedict Williamson (1868-1948) trained as an architect but became a priest in 1906, the year work on this church began. He returned to architecture in the 1920s, when he was amongst the first architects to take up Egyptian style motifs. This is recommended as the best of his later works.

Listing NGR: TQ2790071045

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26419485

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]