Church of St Mary, South Ruislip, with boundary walls and southern courtyard cloister, South Ruislip, Hillingdon

Summary

Church with north chapel and southern walled courtyard, built 1957-1959 to the designs of Laurence Edward King.

Description

Church with north chapel and southern walled courtyard with cloister, built 1957-59 to the designs of Laurence Edward King with structural engineering by Ove Arup and Partners.

MATERIALS AND STRUCTURE: the structure of the church is formed of an exposed, reinforced-concrete frame with brick infill panels supporting a folded-slab roof. There is a copper sheet roof to both the church and north chapel.

PLAN: the main body of the church consists of a nave with projecting side aisles and an apsidal east end with an ambulatory. The narthex gives access to a choir gallery at the west end. The side chapel is set to the north of the chancel and a walled courtyard with covered walkway is to the south, connecting with the south wing, containing parish rooms, the sacristy and vestry.

EXTERIOR: seen from The Fairway, the principal west elevation consists of a large west window with clear glazing set above a striking 24ft-high Portland stone crucifixion sculpture, carved in situ by Brian Asquith. Below this are panels of Westmoreland green slate and a set of central timber doors (pierced with Greek cross windows) sheltered by a projecting canopy. Owing to the proximity of Northolt Aerodrome, a tower was not allowed, so instead, a small latticed polygonal spire rises above the west end.

The south, north and east elevations are principally of brick divided into bays by concrete piers. A series of long narrow windows of clear glass pierce the nave from the level of the edge beams to the springing point of the roof vault, which has a folded form to create a shallow, ridged clerestory that continues through to the apsidal east end with stained glass featuring here (described below). Each section of the roof has a copper outlet discharging to a reinforced-concrete gutter around three sides. From here, four down pipes discharge onto the aisle roofs. The side chapel has an apsidal east end and external entrance of replacement uPVC doors to its south elevation.

To the south side of the nave and apse at the east end is a single-storey, flat-roofed block housing the vestry, utility rooms and WCs, built of brick with metal-framed windows.

INTERIOR: the main west entrance to the church leads to a porch and then a narthex with a central stone font designed by Brian Asquith. The narthex is separated from the church by a part-glazed screen which has inset, fretted wooden panels with the image of the Madonna and Child, by John Hayward. Two sets of stairs flank the entrance, giving access to the choir gallery, with a further cast-iron spiral stair on the north side rising through to the bellcote. The main body of the church is lofty and light, with tall concrete piers supporting a ridged vault incorporating the shallow clerestory. The portal frame is expressed internally, dividing the nave into seven bays of concrete panels with narrow vertical windows with clear glazing. The flooring is mostly of parquet blocks, except for the altar and entrance, which are tiled. There are fitted original pews in two sections to the nave and to the choir gallery. The side aisles to the north and south step-out beyond the portal frame, continuing through to the ambulatory, with exposed brick walls to these sections. At the east end there is a faceted apse with the altar placed centrally with a ciborium in place of a reredos. The ciborium is formed of four small hyperbolic parabolas and was made by Morgan & Partners Ltd of Cowley. Above the high altar is a hanging rood, designed and painted by John Hayward. On the north side of the nave is a painted and gilded Madonna and Child sculpture affixed to a pier, also by John Hayward. On the south side there are confessional booths; these are indicated on the original plans though not specified as confessionals, possibly owing to ecclesiastical sensitivities regarding the practice of formal confession at the time of constuction.

The north chapel has an engraved stone altar on a stone plinth to its apsidal east end. There are exposed timber joists and purlins to the shallow roof pitch to the chapel.

To the south side of the altar is the sacristy, vestry, parish rooms and WCs, which can be accessed directly from the church or via the covered cloister link. The room at the north-west end of the block is marked on the plan as a flower room and retains its original worktop and basin. The doors and fitted cupboards throughout this block are original.

FITTINGS: the carpentry and joinery, including the chancel rails, the ciborium and the fretted panels were executed by Morgan & Partners Ltd. The furnishings and the decoration of the ciborium were commissioned from Faith Craft. Most fittings, including the hanging pendant lights by F H Pride, together with doors, cupboards and internal screens survive largely as originally installed. The organ in the west choir gallery is by J W Walker & Sons, a two-manual instrument with a pedal keyboard and twenty-eight stops based on that in St Barnabas, Kentish Town, London.

STAINED GLASS: behind the high altar, in the polygonal east end, are five high-level stained-glass chancel windows by Royal College of Art student, Keith New. These were designed in 1958 while New was also working on the windows for Coventry Cathedral, and installed a year later. The glass is in deep reds, yellows, purples and oranges in an abstract design, graduating to pale yellow, blue and grey in the leaded glass of the clerestory windows above the nave. Reading from left to right, or north to south, the windows depict in abstract form the Nativity, the Crucifixion, the Coronation and Assumption (together in the centre), Pentecost, and the Annunciation; the symbolism derived from Rudolf Koch’s ‘Book of Signs’, which also inspired the nave window artists at Coventry Cathedral. In the side chapel, to the left of the chancel, there are small jewel-like glazed triangles of bright reds, greens, and blues, set in pierced concrete blocks, designed by RCA graduates, R D King and R A Sullock.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the church is connected on its south side to the vicarage (not forming part of this listing) by a covered walkway which returns to give access to the vestry block and create a small courtyard garden. The vicarage garden is screened by a wall of honeycomb brickwork. A freestanding sculpted crucifix (designer unknown), added after completion of the church, is positioned in the centre of the courtyard garden bounded by the covered walkway. There are low-set brick boundary walls to The Fairway.

History

The Church of St Mary, South Ruislip was designed by Laurence King and constructed between 1957 and 1959, with structural engineering by Ove Arup and Partners. The new church replaced a temporary, dual-purpose mission hut and hall of the late 1930s on the same site, which created a distinct parish in 1951-52 from St Paul, Ruislip Manor. Planning and fundraising for the new church and vicarage began in 1952, with the latter granted a license before the church and then completed in 1956 (not part of this listing). King prepared a report on the design of the new church in 1954, and in March 1956 exhibited a scale model at an exhibition of modern architecture in London. Building began in October 1957 and the church was dedicated and consecrated by the Bishop of London on 2 May 1959. The church was covered in an article in the Architect & Building News in July 1960. The original mission building remained on the north side of the new church until it was replaced with the present church hall in around 1974 (also not included in this listing). The church has been subject to very little alteration since completion, though repair work is required to the roof to treat water ingress and remove the original asbestos treatment of the roof.

Laurence Edward King (1907-1981) had, by the time of the St Mary commission, gained a considerable reputation for planning places of worship suited to Anglican-Catholic spirituality. He studied architecture at the Bartlett under A E Richardson and his career as an architect began in the 1930s. His first church, St George the Martyr, Brentwood, a Moderne brick basilica, was completed in 1934. The Second World War interrupted his career, though after military service he re-established himself as a practicing architect and continued his pre-war teaching at the Royal College of Art. In 1951 he served on the Archbishop’s Commission on the repair of churches, which led to his appointment as consulting architect to the Historic Churches Preservation Trust. His work from this time included Greycoat Hospital and subsequently new buildings for Eastbourne and Framlington Colleges and the United Westminster Schools. King had a prolific post-war career as a church builder and restorer, entrusted with much of his ecclesiastical work because he was himself a devout churchman and ultimately ‘knew what a church was for’ (Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, 1983, p151). Along with St Mary, King was responsible for designing numerous churches in pre-war suburbs and other new residential areas across the country, including the Ascension, Chelmsford in 1962, St Mary with St Nicholas, Perivale in 1963 (demolished), and St Michael the Archangel, Letchworth in 1966-68. He was consultant to Exeter Cathedral and to the Diocese of Gibraltar, and his major extension of Blackburn Cathedral was consecrated in 1978. Other notable new churches include St Peter, Hinkley, Leicestershire, 1960, St Mary, Little Walsingham, Norfolk, 1962-64 (rebuilding of a medieval church after fire damage); and All Saints, Leyton, 1973. In all, King is also known to have restored at least 100 churches, including several war-damaged Wren churches in the City of London, most notably St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside. King worked closely with his chief assistant, Ian Picken (1914-2015), who became King’s partner at his Gower Street practice in 1955; both men were named as partners in charge at St Mary, with John Money-Kyrle and Nigel Melhuish working as assistant architects on the project.

The church was fitted-out in collaboration with contemporary artist-designers, including Brian Asquith and Keith New, whose integral sculpture and glass remains intact. As students and tutors, Asquith, New and King were linked to the Royal College of Art (RCA), from where Basil Spence commissioned New to design a series of windows for Coventry Cathedral, which he undertook while working on those for St Mary. Also from the RCA were former students Ron King and Roger Sullock, who designed the glass and concrete blocks in the side chapel. The representation of the Madonna and Child in the fretted panels in the nave and the painted hanging rood above the high altar are by John Hayward, a prolific designer of church furnishings in the period. Candlesticks, sanctuary furniture and the decoration of the ciborium were commissioned from Faith Craft, designers of fittings for Anglican churches, with which both Laurence King and John Hayward were closely associated with at this time. The company was part of the Society of Faith, which was founded in 1905 to promote a Catholic, ecumenical, understanding within the Church of England.

Reasons for Listing

The Church of St Mary, South Ruislip, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an early and ambitious post-war church to adopt a consciously modern style, reflecting the influence of the Festival of Britain and prominent trends in ecclesiastical architecture and church furnishing brought to the fore by Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral;

* as a rich repository of 1950s church fittings, stained glass and sculptural work, the product of a successful collaboration between Laurence King and leading contemporary ecclesiastical artists and designers of the period, including John Hayward, Brian Asquith, Keith New and Faith Craft;

* for its bold structural form, designed in collaboration with engineers Ove Arup and Partners, this consisting of a reinforced portal frame with a folded-slab roof to integrate an unbroken clerestory, creating a light and airy interior without distracting from the focal point of the chancel at the east end;

Historic interest:

* as an exceptionally well-preserved and expressive example of modern church building in London’s expanding suburbs in the early post-war period.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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