Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury
Encyclopedia
The Church of Christ the King is a church belonging to the Catholic Apostolic Church
which is situated in Gordon Square
, Bloomsbury
, London
, beside Dr Williams's Library
and near University College London
. The church is currently used by the Anglican organisation Forward in Faith
. It has been a Grade I listed building since 10 June 1954.
Early English Neo-Gothic
in style and cruciform
in plan, the church was built from 1850 to 1854 (with its interior designed by Raphael Brandon in 1853) for the Victorian church movement the Catholic Apostolic Church
(also known as "Irvingites"). It is built of Bath stone
, with a tiled roof. The structure is incomplete, lacking two bays on its liturgical west side (which prevented the construction of a planned façade - the west end remains unfinished, in brick apart from entrance in stone) and (like the abbey) a crossing tower (including a 150 ft spire - the tower base that was built has mostly blind arcading). Its cruciform plan (Westminster Abbey
in miniature) is made up of a nave with full triforium
and clerestory
, side aisles, sanctuary and Lady Chapel. All of the church's exterior corners have octagonal corner turrets with gabled niches and terminating in spires with gablets. The facade has pinnacled buttress
es and corbel
led parapets.
The main entrance is at the east end, from Gordon Street, through a gabled porch with angle buttresses (with mouldings, a pointed-arch door and a two-light and oculus
plate tracery window above the door) which links onto the Lady Chapel via an octagonal turret and two-light room. (There is also a north side entrance approached by a cloister walk from the porch.)
The five-bay nave (only 13 feet lower than that of Westminster Abbey) has a gabled east facade with three large lancets
below five smaller ones - on the inside, it has a timber hammer beam roof with angels and central bosses of snowflake design, as well as a double-arcaded
triforium. It also contains a cathedra
for its Angel (roughly equivalent to Bishop) of the Catholic Apostolic Church.
The crossing
is made up of roll-moulded arches on clustered columns. The transept
s are gabled, with two layers of three lancets below a rose window. The south transept's windows (the originals) are the most notable - the lancets have Christ in Majesty with ranks of saints, apostles and angels and earth below, whilst its rose window is by Archibald Nicholson
and has a dove in the centre surrounded by musician angels and cherubim and seraphim.
The church's three-bay sanctuary has a roof with stone rib-vaulting and foliated bosses
, along with a sanctuary lamp by Augustus Pugin
. The three-bay Lady Chapel
(formerly the English Chapel) is beyond this sanctuary, separated from it by a screen behind the high altar with open traceried window to the chapel. The chapel itself has a richly painted timber roof and stone angel along with an east facade with arcaded lancet windows below a small rose window
and gable, along with gabled and pinnacled buttresses.
Annette Peach, in her entry for Brandon in the Dictionary of National Biography
, writes:
"The Catholic Apostolic Church in Gordon Square, London, was built between 1850 and 1854 and, though reproducing features recorded by the Brandon brothers in their scholarly works, this extremely large church was criticized by a contemporary for its lack of originality of design . Recent scholars, however, have drawn attention to the combination of thirteenth- and fifteenth-century Gothic precedents in its design, which offer a tangible record of the Brandon brothers' study of ecclesiastical architecture."
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 10 June 1954.
and Simon Over
). The last chaplaincy Sunday service was held on 28 June 1992 but a weekday service continued until Ash Wednesday (16 February) 1994. The chaplaincy returned the lease on the church to the Catholic Apostolic Trustees on 30 June 1994. There was a popular student café in the crypt for several years until the church closed.
This new role was begun with a morning Eucharist at which the Bishop of London
, the Right ReverendRobert Stopford
, celebrated and an Evensong with the former Bishop of London, J. W. C. Wand, preaching), both on 6 October 1963. During this period, a Thanksgiving Eucharist was celebrated on 27 November 1988 for the 25th anniversary of this role, with the Right Reverend Michael Marshall preaching and, on 6 December 1983, the memorial service for Nikolaus Pevsner
was held here. In July 1992, the chaplaincy decided to stop holding weekly services there.
Catholic Apostolic Church
The Catholic Apostolic Church was a religious movement which originated in England around 1831 and later spread to Germany and the United States. While often referred to as Irvingism, it was neither actually founded nor anticipated by Edward Irving. The Catholic Apostolic Church was organised in...
which is situated in Gordon Square
Gordon Square
Gordon Square is in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, London, England . It was developed by Thomas Cubitt in the 1820s, as one of a pair with Tavistock Square, which is a block away and has the same dimensions...
, Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, beside Dr Williams's Library
Dr Williams's Library
Dr Williams's Library is a small research library located in Gordon Square in Bloomsbury, London.-History:It was founded using the estate of Dr Daniel Williams as a theological library, intended for the use of ministers of religion, students and others studying theology, religion and...
and near University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
. The church is currently used by the Anglican organisation Forward in Faith
Forward in Faith
Forward in Faith is a movement operating in a number of provinces of the Anglican Communion. It represents a traditionalist strand of Anglo-Catholicism and is characterised by its opposition to the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate and, more recently, to more liberal Anglican...
. It has been a Grade I listed building since 10 June 1954.
Construction and design
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
in style and cruciform
Cruciform
Cruciform means having the shape of a cross or Christian cross.- Cruciform architectural plan :This is a common description of Christian churches. In Early Christian, Byzantine and other Eastern Orthodox forms of church architecture this is more likely to mean a tetraconch plan, a Greek cross,...
in plan, the church was built from 1850 to 1854 (with its interior designed by Raphael Brandon in 1853) for the Victorian church movement the Catholic Apostolic Church
Catholic Apostolic Church
The Catholic Apostolic Church was a religious movement which originated in England around 1831 and later spread to Germany and the United States. While often referred to as Irvingism, it was neither actually founded nor anticipated by Edward Irving. The Catholic Apostolic Church was organised in...
(also known as "Irvingites"). It is built of Bath stone
Bath Stone
Bath Stone is an Oolitic Limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England, its warm, honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance...
, with a tiled roof. The structure is incomplete, lacking two bays on its liturgical west side (which prevented the construction of a planned façade - the west end remains unfinished, in brick apart from entrance in stone) and (like the abbey) a crossing tower (including a 150 ft spire - the tower base that was built has mostly blind arcading). Its cruciform plan (Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
in miniature) is made up of a nave with full triforium
Triforium
A triforium is a shallow arched gallery within the thickness of inner wall, which stands above the nave of a church or cathedral. It may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be located as a separate level below the clerestory. It may itself have an outer wall of glass rather than...
and clerestory
Clerestory
Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...
, side aisles, sanctuary and Lady Chapel. All of the church's exterior corners have octagonal corner turrets with gabled niches and terminating in spires with gablets. The facade has pinnacled buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es and corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
led parapets.
Oculus
An Oculus, circular window, or rain-hole is a feature of Classical architecture since the 16th century. They are often denoted by their French name, oeil de boeuf, or "bull's-eye". Such circular or oval windows express the presence of a mezzanine on a building's façade without competing for...
plate tracery window above the door) which links onto the Lady Chapel via an octagonal turret and two-light room. (There is also a north side entrance approached by a cloister walk from the porch.)
The five-bay nave (only 13 feet lower than that of Westminster Abbey) has a gabled east facade with three large lancets
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
below five smaller ones - on the inside, it has a timber hammer beam roof with angels and central bosses of snowflake design, as well as a double-arcaded
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
triforium. It also contains a cathedra
Cathedra
A cathedra or bishop's throne is the chair or throne of a bishop. It is a symbol of the bishop's teaching authority in the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, and has in some sense remained such in the Anglican Communion and in Lutheran churches...
for its Angel (roughly equivalent to Bishop) of the Catholic Apostolic Church.
The crossing
Crossing (architecture)
A crossing, in ecclesiastical architecture, is the junction of the four arms of a cruciform church.In a typically oriented church , the crossing gives access to the nave on the west, the transept arms on the north and south, and the choir on the east.The crossing is sometimes surmounted by a tower...
is made up of roll-moulded arches on clustered columns. The transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
s are gabled, with two layers of three lancets below a rose window. The south transept's windows (the originals) are the most notable - the lancets have Christ in Majesty with ranks of saints, apostles and angels and earth below, whilst its rose window is by Archibald Nicholson
Archibald Keightley Nicholson
Archibald Keightley Nicholson was an English 20th century ecclesiastical stained-glass maker. His father was Charles Nicholson and his two brothers, Charles and Sydney, were a church architect and church musician respectively....
and has a dove in the centre surrounded by musician angels and cherubim and seraphim.
The church's three-bay sanctuary has a roof with stone rib-vaulting and foliated bosses
Boss (architecture)
In architecture, a boss is a knob or protrusion of stone or wood.Bosses can often be found in the ceilings of buildings, particularly at the intersection of a vault. In Gothic architecture, such roof bosses are often intricately carved with foliage, heraldic devices or other decorations...
, along with a sanctuary lamp by Augustus Pugin
Augustus Pugin
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was an English architect, designer, and theorist of design, now best remembered for his work in the Gothic Revival style, particularly churches and the Palace of Westminster. Pugin was the father of E. W...
. The three-bay Lady Chapel
Lady chapel
A Lady chapel, also called Mary chapel or Marian chapel, is a traditional English term for a chapel inside a cathedral, basilica, or large church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary...
(formerly the English Chapel) is beyond this sanctuary, separated from it by a screen behind the high altar with open traceried window to the chapel. The chapel itself has a richly painted timber roof and stone angel along with an east facade with arcaded lancet windows below a small rose window
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
and gable, along with gabled and pinnacled buttresses.
Annette Peach, in her entry for Brandon in the Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
, writes:
"The Catholic Apostolic Church in Gordon Square, London, was built between 1850 and 1854 and, though reproducing features recorded by the Brandon brothers in their scholarly works, this extremely large church was criticized by a contemporary for its lack of originality of design . Recent scholars, however, have drawn attention to the combination of thirteenth- and fifteenth-century Gothic precedents in its design, which offer a tangible record of the Brandon brothers' study of ecclesiastical architecture."
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 10 June 1954.
University Church
From 1963 to 1994 it was known as the University Church of Christ the King and served the Anglican Chaplaincy to the Universites and Colleges of the Diocese of London. In practice it was a worship centre for students living in the university halls nearby, but was also used occasionally for London-wide events, with a very strong emphasis on music in worship (under the successive musical directorships of Ian Hall, Alan WilsonAlan Wilson (composer)
-Professional career:He was born in 1947, in Nottingham, UK, and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music at the age of 17. He attended composition classes with Nadia Boulanger and studied on a scholarship at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam early keyboard music with Gustav Leonhardt...
and Simon Over
Simon Over
Simon Over studied at the Amsterdam Conservatoire, The Royal Academy of Music and Oxford University.From 1992 to 2002 Simon was a member of the music staff of Westminster Abbey, and Director of Music at both St Margaret’s Church and the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster...
). The last chaplaincy Sunday service was held on 28 June 1992 but a weekday service continued until Ash Wednesday (16 February) 1994. The chaplaincy returned the lease on the church to the Catholic Apostolic Trustees on 30 June 1994. There was a popular student café in the crypt for several years until the church closed.
This new role was begun with a morning Eucharist at which the Bishop of London
Bishop of London
The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
, the Right ReverendRobert Stopford
Robert Stopford
Robert Wright Stopford KCVO CBE PC was a British clergyman.-Early life and career:He was born in Garston, Liverpool and educated at Coatham School in Redcar and Liverpool College, where he was Head of House . He continued his education at Hertford College, Oxford, where he graduated with a Master...
, celebrated and an Evensong with the former Bishop of London, J. W. C. Wand, preaching), both on 6 October 1963. During this period, a Thanksgiving Eucharist was celebrated on 27 November 1988 for the 25th anniversary of this role, with the Right Reverend Michael Marshall preaching and, on 6 December 1983, the memorial service for Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
was held here. In July 1992, the chaplaincy decided to stop holding weekly services there.
External links
- Site remembering the Anglican university chaplaincy formerly based at the church
- Mystery Worshipper report from Ship of FoolsShip of Fools (website)Ship of Fools is a UK-based Christian website. It was first launched as a magazine in 1977. The magazine folded in 1983 and was resurrected as a website on April Fool's Day, 1998. Subtitled "the magazine of Christian unrest", Ship of Fools pokes fun and asks critical questions about the Christian...
- http://www.christtheking-ulac.org.uk/betjeman.htmLetter of John BetjemanJohn BetjemanSir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
on the church] - Camden.gov.uk - Listing details