Description

735/6/680 WOODBERRY DOWN N4
04-FEB-75 (North side)
CHURCH OF ST OLAVE

II
Parish Church. Built 1893 to designs of Ewan Christian.
MATERIALS:
Red brick exterior and interior. Bath stone dressings. Slate roof.
PLAN:
Wide, high nave with lower passage aisles; low transepts and prominent chancel with apse; tower with small spire; south porch.
EXTERIOR:
West end has central triple lancet flanked by buttresses and lower lancets. Nave has high lancets with continuous hood moulds over windows. South transept has triple lancets, and south porch has ornamental brick work to pointed archway with a pair of timber doors. Prominent chancel apse to east end with lower north porch, the apse has a steeply pitched hipped slate roof with polychrome banding. Polygonal stair tower to north east has conical roof and stone upper stage with lancets. The church is attached via a linking range to the rectory, which is not included in the listing.
INTERIOR:
High barrel-vaulted nave is unexpectedly spacious. Red brick interior but for alternate nave piers, crossing piers and imposts of relieving arches, which are of stone; alternate square and circular plan piers. Tall crossing arch with side chapel to north. Apse marked by seven single lancets with coloured glass, of 893 and 1897 by Powell, these flanked by stone colonettes. Apse roof has gilded ribs on corbelled blocks. Furnishings from St. Olave, Old Jewry, City of London include wainscoting reredos in Lady Chapel, C17 carved pulpit, marble font with four angel's heads on column stem with acanthus leaf base, wrought iron lectern and desk. 1914-18 war memorial at west end. 4 plain pews, but otherwise no fitted seating. C20 altar rail. A good collection of glass in addition to apse, including other windows of 1903-17.
HISTORY: The Church of St. Olave, Woodberry Down was built in 1893, a late work of the notable Victorian church architect Ewan Christian. The church was one of several in the area built with the proceeds of the sale of St. Olave, Old Jewry, a City church that had soon before been demolished. A temporary iron church was built first on an adjacent site, this retained and extended as a parish room in 1896, but redeveloped as part of a new institute in 1926. The church was built to hold a congregation of 700. The church was reordered in 1994-5 when the nave was cleared for multi-purpose use.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE:
Attractive red brick church of 1894 in C13 style by notable church architect Ewan Christian, that was built with the proceeds of a demolished City Church of the same name, and that possesses a strikingly spacious interior with a number of furnishings brought from there.
SOURCES:
Buildings of England London 4: North. 1998.
VCH A History of the County of Middlesex v.8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1895)

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 30 October 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26528875

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.

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