Description

ISLINGTON

TQ3285SW ABERDEEN PARK
635-1/39/2 (West side)
20/09/54 Former Church of St Saviour
(Formerly Listed as:
ABERDEEN PARK
Church of St Saviour)

I

Former Anglican church, now a centre for the arts. 1865-66 by
William White. Red brick set in English bond, dressings of
blue brick and stone, roof of tiles. Three-bay chancel with
north and south aisles, and north vestries, north and south
transepts, nave of two-and-a half bays, octagonal tower and
spire to crossing. Neo-Gothic style. The east end has angle
buttresses with stepped offsets and stepped gables rising to
inset pinnacles; east window of five lights with intersecting
tracery of stone and hoodmould of brick. Two-light north and
south windows to first bay of chancel have plate tracery in
stone on brick mullions; north aisle of three bays, the second
and third with a higher roof, vestries with twin gables to
north, a later addition, entrance to vestries in east wall
with Caernarvon arch under a tiny gable. South aisle to second
and third chancel bay only with two lancets and circular
window over; coved brick parapet; clerestory windows in the
manner of spherical triangles; squinch between chancel aisles
and transepts. North transept has angle buttresses and
two-light windows with brick mullions and an external stack
rising through the apex of the gable, the face of which is
decorated with diaper work in blue brick. The south transept
has a four-light window with Y-tracery and three-light window
with cinqfoil to gable.
South aisle has two pairs of lancets with trefoiled heads and
quatrefoil over under a single hoodmould, and one set of three
lancets treated in the same way; clerestory has two pairs of
lancets with trefoiled heads and sexfoil over; south-west
porch with angle buttresses, pointed-arched entrance with
corbelled inner order, the inner arch having wave- and
hollow-mouldings; stone-coped gable. The north side has aisle
and clerestory windows as for the south and a gabled porch
with deep pointed-arched entrance with hollow chamfer and
hoodmould; original doors with decorative hinges. West window
composed of two pairs of lancets flanking a broad mullion of
stone banded with brick and pierced with blank quatrefoils,
with rose window above, all under a hoodmould; two bell
openings in gable which has diaper brickwork; octagonal
turrets to either side, their west faces having buttresses
with multiple offsets, with stepped pinnacles flanking the
gables. The tower is square in plan between the parapet and
the ridge of the chancel, then octagonal. The square dies into
the octagon through a combination of buttresses and broaches
to the non-cardinal faces; east, north and south faces have
two-light windows in the octagon with quatrefoil over, the
mullion of brick and the tracery of stone; brick cove to
overhanging eaves. Lead gargoyles to north and south faces;
octagonal spire with a slight bell-camber; wrought iron
fleche.
INTERIOR: . Single-bay sanctuary with canted sides and timber
vaulted roof decorated with stencil patterns, except in the
two sections over the east window which are painted with
angels; north and south windows with embrasures and deep
stepped splay to north, framed by a pointed moulded arch;
choir of two bays with open arcade to either side, the north
aisle forming the organ chamber, the arcade having an
elaborately moulded inner order, characteristic of the church;
to the south two clerestory windows with embrasures and deep
stepped splay, framed by a pointed moulded arch; to the north
an arcade of two sets of three pointed brick arches with an
inner order carried on stone colonettes; timber roof with an
adaptation of hammer-beam construction rising from wall
shafts. Painted decoration to sanctuary and choir of c.1895:
stylised flowers generally in lozenge patterns, taking their
cue from decorative brickwork in the spandrels of the north
and south arcades of the choir; reredos of painted stone
divided into three by columns having canopies of ogee profile
and crocketed gables, the panels depicting the Crucifixion in
mosaic, the two outer panels of 1914; two-bay sedilia to south
side under a hoodmould; chancel floor decorated with encaustic
tiles, renewed 1990.
Crossing open to a vault just under the roof; the first stage
decorated with lozenge patterns in red, yellow and black
brick, the next with diaper patterns in the same materials
with two engaged colonettes running up each side; the
octagonal timber rib vault carried on double squinches.
Nave of two-and-a-half bays: the arch to the crossing has a
double inner order, the moulded inner arches carried on twin
brick colonettes; the surface above the arch decorated with
brickwork in lozenge and other patterns; nave arcade of square
piers with corner mouldings and arches with double mouldings
to the edges and a central recess to the soffit; lozenge
brickwork to spandrels; clerestory windows with stepped splay;
north and south aisle windows have chamfered reveals and the
easternmost pairs have embrasures to outer sides only and
column substituted between them; king-post roof with arched
braces; encaustic-tiled floor, renewed 1990; polygonal pulpit
of grey and pink granite and alabaster, probably original and
by William White: short column shaft with foliage capital, and
open flat-arched arcade. Octagonal font on a short column
shaft with wooden font cover decorated with enlarged crockets.
East window of 1865, designed by N.H.J.Westlake and made by
Lavers and Barraud.
(Historians' file, English Heritage London Division).

Listing NGR: TQ3223685418

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17527873

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

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)