Description

TQ 48 SW
251/4/10051
03-APR-00

BARKING ROAD
Plaistow
Memorial Baptist Church

II

Baptist Church. 1921-2 by William Hayne. Gault brick with red brick east front with stone and marble dressings and details; slate roofs. Byzantine style.
PLAN: open basilican plan with aisles and apse; liturgical east and west reversed.
EXTERIOR: east front with 5-stage square-section corner towers right and left. Each tower with polygonal angles rising to polygonal turrets framing octagonal drum and dome. Entrances to towers with round-arched marble door surrounds with square heads, each with a rectangular light in soffit. Round-headed window in second stage; banding between stages. Round-headed window in fourth stage below blind arcading and the drum of the dome with square pierced panel.
3-bay, 3-stage centrepiece consists of gabled centre with a wide arched marble door surround: triple order, with bulbous columns terminating in Byzantine capitals. Doorway architrave on twin central columns. Wide radially-glazed arched overlight. Doors replaced with plate glass. 3 arched windows to second stage flanked by single windows in bays right and left. Gabled head with 5-light Diocletian window. Polygonal turrets right and left. Side bays with pierced square panels to parapet.
2-storey north and south returns lit through segmental windows to ground floor and arched first-floor windows. Elevations punctuated by polygonal red-brick turrets and stock-brick pilasters. North return with square-headed doorway.
INTERIOR: sanctuary with deeply coffered ceiling, of geometrical pattern ribbing radiating from central oculus and with principal octagonal framing. Projector opening to west.
Aisles closed 1977 with solid walls underbuilding original 3-sided gallery, creating meeting room at east end, with kitchen to the south. Panelled gallery balustrade remains.
Western apse with wide semi-circular arch towards sanctuary. Total-immersion font under floor. Apse walls with open arched arcading at upper level standing on panelled solid balustrade and with rear wall pierced by 2 transomed windows.
3-sided timber pulpit to north of apse, with panelling and vitruvian scroll decoration. Organ case opposite, of 1924 by Spurden Rutt & Co. Ltd. Of Leyton.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Memorial Community Church at Wikipedia
• Memorial Community Church official website
• Wikidata Q26538777

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

• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)