Description

ISLINGTON

TQ2887SE HIGHGATE HILL
635-1/5/498 (East side)
20/09/54 Church of St Joseph

GV II*

Roman Catholic church. 1888-9. By Albert Vicars. White brick
set in English bond with dressings of stone, roof of slate.
Chancel and nave under one roof, dome over chancel, north and
south aisles, north-west tower. Two tiers of windows.
Neo-Romanesque in style. Much of the east end obscured by the
buildings of St Joseph's Retreat (q.v.) The dome has an
octagonal drum with pairs of round-arched windows set back
under a segmental arch; machicolated eaves to octagonal roof
topped by a domed lantern, ball and cross, all covered with
copper. The south aisle has, behind a low parapeted range with
circular windows, four pairs of round-arched windows between
buttresses with offsets, and corbel table to the eaves; seven
large round-arched clerestory windows with corbel table above.
The north flank of the church has a low parapeted range with
circular windows, a side chapel under a separate gabled roof
with six pairs of round-arched windows to the north and a
wheel window to the west; this chapel abuts the north aisle
proper, of which only one pair of round-arched windows is
exposed. Gabled west end with central round-arched portal
having two flat-arched entrances flanked by red sandstone
columns and the tympanum filled with statuary; rose window
above, stepped back twice under a round arch of gauged brick,
with plate tracery and flanked by pairs of red sandstone
engaged columns; above this four-light round-arched windows
set back in an arcade of sandstone columns; clasping
buttresses to south side of west front rising to a pinnacle;
the tower has a flat-arched entrance under a round arch to
west side; second stage with three-light window set back under
a round-arched arcade of sandstone columns; third stage has
sandstone columns in re-entrant angles of corners and statues
under canopies to three sides; blank fourth stage, after which
the tower becomes octagonal with domed pavilions at the
corners, round-arched louvred openings to the cardinal
directions flanked by sandstone columns; lombard frieze,
cornice and octagonal copper dome.
INTERIOR: . Chancel of two bays, the arcade and chancel arch
broadly Romanesque in character, but integrated with a
Classical treatment of Corinthian pilasters at the east end,
cornice and panelled archivolt to three sides, under the drum
of the dome. Painted panels to spandrels, pendentives and
north and south tympana; elaborate baldacchino with Corinthian
columns, intricate frieze of Renaissance ornament, dentil and
modillion cornice, broken pediments and open ogee crown, by
Sharp and Ryan of Dublin, 1904; altar of inlaid marble with
alabaster reredos; floor of terrazzo work decorated with
emblems in panels. Round-arched arcade to nave of six bays
with naturalistic and emblematic capitals; six-bay arcade to
side chapel with stiff-leaf capitals; painted panels between
clerestory windows; panelled, segmental-arched, ceiling
painted with angels and verses from the Te Deum by
N.H.J.Westlake. Wooden pulpit of 1937 in a Renaissance manner.

Listing NGR: TQ2887387183

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Joseph at Wikipedia
• Church of St Joseph official website
• Wikidata Q17552161

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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