Description

971/0/10023 LINTON ROAD
20-MAY-10 Barking Baptist Tabernacle

II
Baptist church, 1893, by Holliday and Greenwood, builders. Interior remodelled in 1905 and later. The two halls to the rear of 1898 and 1937 lack special interest.

MATERIALS: The church is built of stock brick, with red brick and stucco dressings and an asphalt-covered pitched roof.

EXTERIOR: It is free Renaissance in style with its façade to Linton Road. The facade is the form of a large segmental pediment with a tall central bay with triangular pediment. The base of the pediment is painted with the words '18 BAPTIST TABERNACLE 93'. The three-bay façade has full height stucco pilasters with incised triglyphs for capitals. There are four foundation stones, all dated 1893, at the bases of the pilasters. The centre bay has a large round-arched opening with alternating red brick and stone heads containing a tracery window. Below is the main entrance, two doors under a triangular pediment flanked by large consoles with palmettes. The doors have granite columns with stone capitals and are reached by a semi-circular flight of steps. The original timber six-panelled doors, with stained glass in the upper panels, and the stained glass fanlights survive. The two end bays are identical, each with single doors under segmental pediments with flanking windows to the ground floor and three-light mullion and transom windows with round heads above. The latter are set in relieving arches of alternating stone and red brick. Art-nouveau style iron gates and railings enclose the front area of the church.

The side elevations are plainer, with red brick and stone dressings to the round-arched windows. To the rear are two two-storey halls, both plainly built in stock brick with pitched roofs. These were added in 1898 (that immediately to the east of the church) and 1937 (to the south-east).

INTERIOR: a large auditorium with galleries on three sides. The ceiling is barrel-vaulted with a large open truss roof, dating to 1905. Each truss has curved braces with decorative spandrels, a large tie beam, and a crown post. Each rests on a slender iron colonnette with cluster shafts; these also support the galleries. The aisle roofs are similarly designed, on a smaller scale, with the trusses carried on the same iron colonettes and wall-mounted corbels. Longitudinal curved braces also have decorative spandrels. The galleries have panelled wood fronts, raked seating and retain the original pews. Elsewhere, the pews have been removed. The organ is placed at the east end, in a Gothic-style case of 1952, and a balcony for preaching in front. The platform floor in front of the organ can be removed to reveal the sunken baptistery below; this tile-lined with stone steps and is of 1937. There is also a complete scheme of Art-Nouveau-style stained glass windows, installed shortly after the church opened. There is a small number of memorial plaques to people associated with the church, two in marble and one in brass, and a WWI roll of honour. A vestibule was created by partitioning off an area to the back of the auditorium, under the gallery, after the Second World War. This has a parquet floor and timber glazed doors. The two staircases to the gallery, originally reached directly from the street using the side doors on the main façade, are now accessed via the vestibule. The concrete stairs retain their metal balustrades with decorative newel post and hardwood handrails. The vestries under the balcony, at the eastern end, were partitioned off in 1937.

HISTORY: Barking Baptist Church (originally Barking Baptist Tabernacle) replaced a modest chapel on Queen's Road, built by Barking's fledgling Baptist community in 1851. Although land for a new church was purchased in 1879, it was a decade before a building committee was formed (in 1890) and a further three years before the church was built. The church was paid for by congregational subscriptions and a grant from the Baptist Building Fund. Ups and downs in the congregation's fortunes meant that the ancillary accommodation to the rear was also constructed in stages, with two-storey school rooms added in 1898, and additional halls in 1937. The interior of the church was also adapted over time. The church was re-roofed and galleries added in 1905, an organ installed in 1911 (an older model of 1825 from Trinity Chapel, Mare Street), and a pulpit and choir platform with sunken baptistery beneath introduced in 1937. The organ was rebuilt in its current position in 1952.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Barking Baptist Church of 1893 is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architecture: a bold and eclectic late Victorian building with a stylistically diverse facade and a surviving 1905 interior with an impressive open truss roof, stained glass windows and a gallery
* Fittings: including pews in the gallery, organ, and an east end sunken baptistery dating to 1937 which indicates the distinctive traditions of Baptist worship

Reasons for Listing

Listable at Grade II

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672956

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

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)