Description

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ISLINGTON
CLOUDESLEY SQUARE
Former Church of Holy Trinity

(Formerly listed as Celestial Church of Christ, North London Parish, previously listed as CLOUDESLEY SQUARE, Church Of Holy Trinity)

09-MAY-05

GV
II*
Church. 1826-1829. By Sir Charles Barry. Grey brick set in Flemish bond, dressings of stone, roof of slate. Chancel and nave under a single roof, north-east and south-east vestries, north and south aisles, north and south porches. Early-C19 Tudor-Gothic style.

EXTERIOR: the gabled east end has a five-light window under a four-centred arch, with one transom, rectilinear tracery and hoodmould, quatrefoil window to gable, clasping buttresses carried up into ogee-topped pinnacles, with setback buttresses superimposed on them; parapeted vestries; four-bay aisles with pointed-arched windows of two lights with rectilinear tracery and hoodmoulds, between buttresses, the third bay from the east filled by a gabled porch with multi-moulded pointed-arched entrance, the mouldings dying into the responds, parapet and pinnacles; two-light windows to clerestory under four-centred arches with hoodmoulds, between pinnacled buttresses; porch bay to west, and then gabled west end flanked by octagonal stone turrets whose upper stages were obscured by scaffolding at the time of inspection; pointed-arched west window with one transom and cinqfoiled tracery; pointed-arched and multi-moulded central west entrance with large hollow chamfer and panelled doors of original design.

INTERIOR: shallow chancel under a sexpartite vault; four-centred chancel arch. Five-bay arcade with half a blank bay at the west end; the arcade consists of clustered columns with hollow chamfers supporting pointed arches, the column to the nave a vault-shaft. Gallery at west end in last bay of arcade, with billet moulding and arcading to balustrade, wooden pews in stepped gallery; late-C20 partition underneath separating the ground floor entrance rooms. These have a part-glazed and gothic detailed doors and screens. Stone spiral stair in south turret. Lean-to roofs to aisles; nave roof of shallow pitch with decorative trusses and ribs. East window of 1828 by Thomas Willement. The side galleries were removed in 1900, and the pews in the later-C20. Eastern two bays of nave refurbished by Ewan Christian in 1901. Organ case of 1820s. Brick and tile enclosed area of sand known as Mercy Land installed in north east aisle in late-C20.

HISTORY: the former Church of the Holy Trinity was Sir Charles Barry's third Islington church, built 1826-9. Before his famous work on the Houses of Parliament, Barry was responsible for the design of several of the 'Commissioners' churches' churches built after the passage of the Act of 1818 that provided for the expenditure of one million pounds on building 214 churches, the majority of which in the Gothic style. Barry's three are considered some of the best of the period that exploited the newly embraced Gothic style. Sir Gilbert Scott referred to Barry's Islington churches years later as 'really respectable and well-intentioned'. The Celestial Church of Christ took on the redundant church in the 1970s and occupied the building until 2017.

Listed at Grade II* as a well-surviving early-C19 Commissioner's church by the nationally important architect Sir Charles Barry, that possesses strong Tudor-Gothic architectural qualities throughout its soaring interior and striking exterior. It is amongst the best of the early Gothic style churches of this type and it one of three early-C19 churches by Barry in Islington (St. John's and St. Paul's, both also Grade II*).

TQ3130383750

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17552061

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

• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)