Description

SOUTHWARK

TQ3477SW GLENGALL ROAD 636-1/39/380 (East side) Celestial Church of Christ and attached wall and railings

II

Formerly known as: Church of St Andrew. Anglican church, now serving the Celestial Church of Christ. 1864-65. By E Bassett Keeling. STYLE: High Victorian Gothic style of the wilful and muscular kind associated with Keeling's work; plate tracery throughout. MATERIALS: ragstone with dressed stone; nave roof of tile, lean-to roofs of slate and tower roof of metal. PLAN: single-bay apse, choir; heating chamber to south and vestry to the north; north transept and aisle; suppressed south transept; nave of 4 bays; narthex and north-west tower of 4 stages with pyramidal roof. EXTERIOR: apse lit by 5 trefoiled lancets with red sandstone springing band; north side of choir lit by 4 quatrefoil lights set in pointed arch surrounds; north transept lit by wheel window with a pair of 2-light windows below; north aisle lit by continuous arcade of lancet lights, and the clerestory lit by paired lancets. The west and south elevations of greatest interest. The former with boldly scaled west window and an entrance flanking west porch, that to the south simply gabled, that to the north being the main entrance and forming the base of the tower; gabled aedicule to west and return, sub-ordered. Tower: each face of 2nd stage lit by a pair of lancets, and of 3rd stage by triplets; top, or bell stage, patterned on Italian medieval examples and recalling the top storey of GE Street's St James the Less, Thorndike Street of some 15 years earlier: large, paired lancets sharing a single column, set in gabled aedicule which is set flush into the wall surface. Large scale corbel table. Ritual south elevation articulated by buttresses, widely spaced at west end to mark gallery inside, and narrowly spaced to 4 nave bays; each buttress of 2 setbacks, the lowest stage becomes flying buttress to form an alleyway to the vestry. INTERIOR: the ambitious scheme for decorative carving never completed; there remain, however, some excellent pieces ranging in date from 1864 to the early C20. Historiated capitals to 3-bay blind arcade in south side of choir. Corbel shafts to chancel arch carved as singing angels. Chancel arch with inscription in Gothic script: 'The Lord in His Holy

Temple, Let All the Earth Keep Silent before Him.' Roof of choir and apse with wood ribs, boarded. Nave ceiling with drop acoustic tile since 1978; above are original arched braces and boarded ceiling, one bay of which exposed near chancel arch. Arch into north transept and into suppressed south transept, here of 2 blind bays. West gallery to nave, supported on Gothic cast-iron columns and having jigsaw cut gallery front in stylised floral pattern. Shafts to north aisle and transept of polished pink and grey granite. The planning is very Low in feeling, with an exceptionally broad nave and north aisle entered from the transept by a pair of stilted, pointed, segmental arches of different heights, a noteworthy feature. South wall of nave has band of billet moulding found throughout the design, and the windows are set well back from the wall plane. Of special interest are several carvings, including: at crossing, NW pier, a double capital showing fishermen; 2nd capital from crossing shows Christ surrounded by children and the 3rd Christ preaching; the rest are carved with heavy floral figures. Carvings dated 1872, 1876 and 1884 respectively. MEMORIALS: plaque on south wall of choir memorial to the Revd William Pheasant, MA, vicar, 1899-1916, who installed electric lights. Plaque in eastmost wall of nave, south side, dated 1884; it identifies 2 adjacent pillars as a memorial to Revd William Briggs carved by the parishioners themselves. Original furnishings removed when Anglican communion deconsecrated the structure and sold it to the Nigerian Celestial Church of Christ. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached cast-iron railings on low wall.





Listing NGR: TQ3408677464

External Links

• Wikidata Q26665344

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Recommended Books

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  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
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  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
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  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
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  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)