Churches in London

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because starting threads is beneath tim h...

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 19 May 2003 09:52 (twenty years ago) link

The thing I like about churches in London is how ludicrously incongruous they all look. Especially the one in Wardour Street surrounded by brothels.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 19 May 2003 10:09 (twenty years ago) link

I went on a course last Monday at the King's Fund in Cavendish Square, not far from All Souls Langham Place. I thought the design of that church was particularly odd. You've just reminded me to find out abt who designed it...

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 May 2003 10:13 (twenty years ago) link

That was John Nash wasn't it?

Five favourite London churches from the top of my head:

1. St George's in the East (gutted Hawksmoor with moderately anonymous 50s/60s innards enlivened by stories of the Ritual Riots: trombones! rotten veg! howling drugged dogs! apparently)
2. Notre Dame Leicester Sq: (bizarrely tranquil spot in the middle of so much mayhem, plus I used to like the sadly departed ballroom dancing venue underneath, and the Jean Cocteau chapel is good... do we like Jean Cocteau at the moment? I can never remember)
3. Templar Church, The Temple (round and medieval and obv an inspiration for the Langham St. All Souls. Is it spooky in here or did The Holy Blood & The Holy Grail stick in my mind more than I thought?)
4. St Bartholomew the Great (yeah I know but imagining the vastness of the church of which this is a fragment is worth it)
5. St Mary Woolnoth (Hawksmoor's intersecting cubes thing made obvious even for dullards like me).

Oh dear it seems I maybe a church rockist.

I wish Jon RCHME was here.

― Tim (Tim), Monday, 19 May 2003 10:26 (twenty years ago) link

WHERE THE FUCK IS SAINT PAULS?!

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 19 May 2003 10:29 (twenty years ago) link

It's just up the top of Ludgate Hill, Matt.

Also search: theat really papery Butterworth early gothic revival thing in West London somewhere (where?); the spire in Rotherhithe which looks just like a firestation tower (there's another one in Whitechapel almost as good); Grinling Gibbons carving wherever you can find it; the brickwork in that place at the Dockhead end of Jamaica Road; seeing Mark Wallinger's "Angel" in a catholic church in Islington.

I wasn't going to contribute to this thread and now look what's happened.

― Tim (Tim), Monday, 19 May 2003 10:31 (twenty years ago) link

there is a lovely one down the block from harrods, a moderny well lit anglican one.
i went their for ephiany or assumption or one of those days i try to go to.

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 19 May 2003 10:33 (twenty years ago) link

I think we need more examples from the suburbs. There must be *some* outer London C of E's which deviate from the production-line neo Gothic with second rate stonemasonry (shapes rather than carved animals/people) and identical spires with weathervanes (e.g. St. Michael's at the junction of Green Lanes and Bounds Green Road).

One modern example that I can think of is on the Westway (actually not sure if its called the Westway at that point, but somewhere between the Hoover Building Tescos and the elevated section that goes over Westbourne Park). Don't know the name but it looks really odd....the actual building is boxy and brutalist, but it has these big exposed bells....does anyone know this one?

Shame that for the most part the non-conformist and RC churches were either built at the wrong time, or had budgets too small, to be of architectural merit. Exception: that ex-United Reformed church in Muswell Hill with the red brick and pebble dash. It's now a pub - was Fantail and Firkin with giant plastic pigeon, but is now something else (O'Neills possibly).

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 May 2003 11:14 (twenty years ago) link

Jamie Parker from Dream team was buried in Walthamstow village church last night. It's a church that seems to have been pebble-dashed.

― chris (chris), Monday, 19 May 2003 11:35 (twenty years ago) link

IU like churches with vinyl stone cladding. There aren't many.

I used to like the deconsecrated Church on Offord Road Islington that is now a paint warehouse. Architecturally bog standard but now painted bright yellow. YAY!

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 19 May 2003 11:38 (twenty years ago) link

just up Bounds Green Road from St Michael's is the Greek Orthodox cathedral church of St. Barnabas which was formerly Trinity Methodist Church. A rather nice porch with columns has been addded to the front, improving the overall dull design no end. Further up in Bounds Green proper is St. Gabriel's - the old building had a design as uninspiring as that of St. Michael's (see my post above) and it was demolished in ultra-quick time in the early nineties - I'd always assumed that these churches were listed buildings and always had to be preserved.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 May 2003 11:51 (twenty years ago) link

three months pass...

I liked the Limehouse Hawksmoor -- looked like Disneyland.

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 11:08 (twenty years ago) link

Riding north up Green Lanes towards Manor House on a 141 bus tonight I listened in on a fascinating conversation between two men - late 50s perhaps, one posh, one a little less so; both evidently with a lot of connections with that swathe of North London; both brought up with High Church Anglicanism ('I went Roman in my late 20s' one said...'same here' replied the other). They were talking about Victorian Gothic churches in the area (Butterfield was mentioned and some reredos that had been restored to its original splendour). Another remark I heard was 'you know the Tractarians really had something'. Interesting it was. Then they got off at Manor House. I've no idea where they were going (they appeared not to have been in the area for some years). They weren't clergymen.

― David (David), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 21:22 (twenty years ago) link

my father lived on The Ladder (in Burgoyne Road) until he was thirteen, when the family moved to Tintern Road, Wood Green. Until he was abt twelve, he was a choirboy at a church on one of the other roads on The Ladder. I think it might have been called St Johns, tho I'm not sure. I do know that it burnt down in the eighties. I remember seeing it when I was a small child. It was at the top of the hill, at or near the junction with Wightman Road and I remember being fascinated by the bell tower as it was one of those where you can actually see the bells and daylight from the other side.

The modern w. London church I mentioned upthread is St Katherine's, which has exposed bells, not even in a tower.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 09:10 (twenty years ago) link

fourteen years pass...

Does anyone rate Simon Jenkins' England's Thousand Best Churches?

(And, geekily, does anyone have any opinion on the 2012 version versus the original 2000 version?)

― djh, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 21:13 (six years ago) link

I think it's alright, yes. I got a copy for free and it stays in our car - occasionally we find ourselves in an area we don't know well and it's often worth a look to see if there's something he likes nearby.

My taste in churches runs a bit more modern(ist) these days which isn't really his game.

― Tim, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 21:49 (six years ago) link

Thanks Tim.

Strangely, I'm really enjoying churches at the moment despite no religious inclinations.

― djh, Thursday, 21 September 2017 22:34 (six years ago) link

Likewise! Off to Coventry for the football on Saturday but I'm just as excited to revisit the Cathedral.

― Tim, Thursday, 21 September 2017 22:39 (six years ago) link

We went here as part of Open House on Sunday and it's a modernist beaut: http://stpaulslorrimoresquare.org

― Tim, Thursday, 21 September 2017 22:43 (six years ago) link

four years pass...

Visited a beautiful church yesterday - St Michael at Cornhill. I had seen the outside of this one before but didn’t go in previously because a City gentleman approached me outside and I didn’t want to go in when he was hanging around.

https://i.postimg.cc/zBQbVjF2/0-DF42-D55-A3-C7-4-BAD-9-C59-EAE92381-D905.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/XJtfT3mv/3-F1676-E0-AB68-488-D-8-E91-CA4-DBF7194-EB.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/7LYnzKSq/439438-AD-7-CAE-427-B-A5-AE-97-C6-A4-FE4-A9-F.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/LsNZMRYp/58742-C10-FE13-4-DB3-A632-5-A476075735-A.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/dQ7nnNp1/6-F9-C7431-4346-4-AD7-97-A0-44-BDF696732-D.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/V6J9G57T/90-ED98-FF-73-F4-4647-A558-1130-FD56364-F.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/mZ0jnNWS/F80-A521-C-7075-4-BCA-A2-FC-B962-D1-CB18-A0.jpg

― mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 1 April 2022 12:35 (two years ago) link

Nice - that one has a pleasingly erratic mix of styles IMO. Sorry to hear about yr previous bullshit experience there.

― Tim, Friday, 1 April 2022 13:52 (two years ago) link

Oh it’s fine, was just a bit weird. Had the whole place to myself yesterday. I also went to St Dunstans in the east but that doesn’t really count for this thread, does it.

― mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 1 April 2022 13:54 (two years ago) link

I have a St Dunstans coat badge!

― imago, Friday, 1 April 2022 14:06 (two years ago) link

xp I think it counts.

Nearly 19 years ago I made reference to a church in Whitechapel with a tower that looked like it belongs to a fire station; I've only recently bothered to find anything out about the church and it looks like a beaut (which I'll visit sometime if I ever have a free Sunday): https://wharferj.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/st-bonifaces-german-church/

― Tim, Friday, 1 April 2022 14:10 (two years ago) link

Gwan so, have the St Dunstans pictures as well:

https://i.postimg.cc/HxTGWpX6/7838-D711-8496-41-F3-849-B-15-CD8-B9-A402-F.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/GpFw1B8B/96-BBCF72-A87-E-4-C2-C-B3-AD-4076136-A0-FE1.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/7Pm46TB0/9-F4612-E6-9932-4-C61-A514-B44-A522-A7-D92.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/TYsXjvvP/3-E9-FD17-B-959-D-4-C16-ACD0-618-A0-D38-ED70.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/R05581F5/4917-DB95-E755-4587-AC48-318896-C3-C4-AD.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/ydjMkwTs/D83-CF71-B-F34-D-40-F6-8329-349-E6-B291242.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/YCmBbDtz/FDD72562-2-BCF-45-C8-B4-F1-05-DDC65-BDA2-A.jpg

I knew about this place but I found it accidentally and I got what Grant Morrison saw in it immediately. Will go back.

― mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 1 April 2022 14:39 (two years ago) link

Oh I meant the one in Stepney, lol (which is also worth a visit!)

― imago, Friday, 1 April 2022 14:43 (two years ago) link

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