Description

TQ 2178 NW BATH ROAD W4
Bedford Park
787/7/38 Church of St Michael and
11-JUL-1951 All Angels

GV II*

Anglican church. 1880 by Richard Norman Shaw. Later additions by Maurice Adams: north aisle 1882, public hall 1887, south-east chapel 1919. Built for Jonathan Carr and Hamilton Fulton as a central element in the Bedford Park suburb laid out 1875-1883. Red brick with stone dressings; machine tiled roofs.
PLAN: nave, aisles, chancel, south-east chapel, north-west public hall, south porch.
EXTERIOR: west end with 7-light window under a 4-centred arch flanked by flat stepped buttresses. Above is a rubbed brick element consisting of 4 panels variously treated over a moulded cornice. Clock face projects with the stem inscribed in memoriam Harold Wilson'. To the south is west return of 2-storey south porch fitted with one twin 2-light transomed window with cusped lights and 2 similar 2-light windows. String courses above and below, and inscription plaque below swept parapet. North aisle west end with flat parapet and one twin 2-light transomed window.
South porch with swept parapets to 3 sides. Segmental south opening under moulded timber hood on scrolled braces dropping to wall posts. Inscription plaques to south and east sides. East return with 2 2-light cusped windows. Interior of porch with single transverse arch with sunk quadrant mouldings. Statuary niche over inner doorway and double-leaf 3-panel inner doors.
North and south aisles with 3 twin 2-light transomed windows with cusped heads separated by stepped buttresses. Coved cornices, that to south with timber balustrade. 3 clerestory dormers north and south, each with shaped gables and twin 2-light windows. Open lantern on ridge with balustrade and glazed cupola.
South chapel lit through 2 2-light transomed windows to south and one similar window to east, each window under a gable. Stepped side buttresses. Monument on south side to Jonathan Carr (1845-1915); foundation plaque to east dated 12 June 1919. East end with segmental-headed 7-light window with cusped lights.
Public hall to north-west consists of a tall Dutch gable with a segmental pediment and scrolled lugs above a twin 2-light transomed west window. Set forward is a single-storey parapeted entrance, the entrance with a central entactic drum column with moulded capital and base supporting 2 brick arches with keyblocks, in the tympana of which are wrought-iron screens with cherubs. Double panelled timber inner doors. North flank with 3 through-eaves dormers with segmental pedimented tops containing 2-light transomed windows. East end with vestry at right angles with a pedimented gable. One 2-light window below and a pedimented entrance in east return. Further single-storey room with swept parapet and 2-light cusped windows to east.
INTERIOR: 5-bay arcade of octagonal piers, the lower parts clad with panelled timber skirts. Moulded capitals. Arches with double sunk quadrant mouldings. Continuous roof of 10 combined king post and queen post trusses. Clerestory windows with internal timber balustrades. Aisles with moulded dado panelling. Open pedimented doorway to south-west and 2 pedimented doorways to north aisle. Aisle roofs in form of boarded quadrants with tie beams and radial balusters.
Timber chancel screen with 3 bays of segmental arches on square piers supporting open balustrade with 3 rood figures (added 1919).
Chancel with panelled dado. Organ within raised chamber on north side. Moulded arch on south looking into south-east chapel with iron grille, and pedestrian entrance immediately east, under a depressed arch with carved St Michael above cornice. Recessed sedilia in dado panelling, with 3 stall seats, set below swan-necked pediment.
South-east chapel in form of a crossing, consisting of 4 arches with double wave mouldings dying into 4 free-standing piers. Smaller subsidiary arches from piers to north and south walls. Barrel-vaulted roof cells.
Heavily carved octagonal font with central drum and 4 outer marble columns. 3-stepped plinth. Timber font cover. Clock mechanism in glazed timber case against west wall by Connell of Cheapside, commemorating Lieutenant Harold Wilson, killed in Boer War.
Public hall with 4 king and queen post roof trusses. Raised stage at east end with a segmental proscenium arch. Elevated balcony at west end.

Listing NGR: TQ2124578906

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Michael and All Angels at Wikipedia
• Church of St Michael and All Angels official website
• Wikidata Q17551891

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

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)