Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury
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| Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury | |
|---|---|
 Contemporary photo of the church
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| Information | |
| Denomination | Catholic Apostolic Church, Anglican |
| Constructed | 1850-1854 |
| Contact particulars | |
| Address | London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
The Church of Christ the King is an Anglican Church situated on Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London, beside the Dr Williams's Library and near University College London (whose university Christian Union until recently used it for their annual carol service[1], though not for regular worship), and opposite the University of London Union. Since June 10th 1954 it has been a Grade I listed building.
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[edit] History
[edit] Construction and Design
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 sect of the Catholic Apostolic Church (known as the Irvingites). It is built of Bath stone, with a tiled roof. The structure is incomplete, lacking 2 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[citation needed]) is made up of a nave with full triforium and clerestory, side aisles, and a 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 buttresses and corbelled 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 2-light and oculus plate tracery window above the door) which links onto the Lady Chapel via an octagonal turret and 2-light room. (There is also a north side entrance approached by a cloister walk from the porch.)
The 5-bay nave (only 13 feet lower than that of Westminster Abbey) has a gabled east facade with 3 large lancets below 5 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 transepts 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 3-bay sanctuary has a roof with stone rib-vaulting and foliated bosses, along with a sanctuary lamp by Augustus Pugin. The 3-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[2]:
- "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 [3]. 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."[4]
[edit] University Church
From 1963 to 1992 it was the University Church of Christ the King for University of London, the main centre for the University of London Anglican Chaplaincy.[1]
This new role was begun with a morning Eucharist, at which the Bishop of London (Robert Stopford) celebrated, and an Evensong (with the former Bishop of London and Canon of St. Paul's, Dr. J. W. C. Wand, preaching), both on October 6, 1963. During this period, a Thanksgiving Eucharist was celebrated at 7pm on 27th November 1988 for the 25th anniversary of this role, with Rt Rev Michael Marshall preaching and, on 6 December 1983, the Memorial Service for Nikolaus Pevsner was held here.[5] In July 1992 the Chaplaincy decided to stop holding weekly services there.
[edit] Forward in Faith
The church's current user is the conservative Forward in Faith movement, presided over by the Bishop of Fulham.
[edit] References
- ^ This has since 2006 been held at St Pancras New Church
- ^ http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3264
- ^ RIBA Sessional Papers, 10
- ^ G. Stamp and C. Amery, Victorian buildings of London, 1837–1887: an illustrated guide (1980), 40–41
- ^ Pevsner service - JSTOR access required
