St Peter's Church, Ealing

St Peter's Ealing from the West Front

St Peter's Church, Ealing is an Anglican Parish Church in the Diocese of London. Regarded by Nikolaus Pevsner as the premier architectural work in Ealing, the Grade II Listed building is renowned for its combination of Arts & Crafts and late-Victorian Gothic, and for its majestic west front and great west window.^[1] In addition to a Sunday and weekday services, the church and adjacent hall host various activities and events.^[2]

History

“Notable for its unusual fusion of free Gothic style used in a highly original manner, St Peter’s occupies no small place in in the last great age of church building” – Sir Roy Strong.^[3]

Replacing an iron church which had stood on the site for 10 years, St Peter’s was built between 1892 and 1893 to accommodate the growing suburb of North Ealing. The church was designed by John Dando Sedding, the architect of Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, but following Sedding’s death, it was built under the direction of his pupil and successor in practice, the noted designer and architect Henry Wilson. The foundation stone was laid in 1893 by Princess Helena, Queen Victoria's third daughter, and the building was consecrated the same year by Frederick Temple, Bishop of London and later Archbishop of Canterbury.^[3]

Sedding’s plans for the church were complimented by ‘The Builder’ magazine as “a piece of real originality in design, which is refreshing to come across after seeing so many repetitions of old forms, Classic and Gothic”. Pevsner notes the “admirable use of Gothic forms – especially the curvaceous forms of late Gothic – to produce a building of great originality”.^[1]

The church was added to extensively throughout the first quarter of the 20th century. In 1911, two doorways were created at the west end of each aisle, and in 1913 the Lady Chapel was built on the south side of the chancel. The north transept tower intended by Sedding was never built.^[3]

The most notable feature of the building, the west front, has two small turrets on either side of large the recessed west window, which is unusually large with fine composite tracery. The exterior of the building is also notable on account of the long steep nave roof with shallow chains of arches connecting small turrets.^[1]

Inside, much of the intended ornamentation was never completed. However, the building’s substantial four-bay nave with Gothic triforium,^[4] allied with the with clear glass of the windows and the lack of ornamentation, make the church unusually light and spacious.^[3]

Notable features include the paintings of angels and the Virgin Mary over the reredos in the Lady Chapel, executed by Henry Charles Brewer in 1913. The inner west doors, with decorative Art Nouveau metalwork are believed to be by Henry Wilson.^[3]

Despite a scheme of stained glass being designed for the whole church, only the four lights in the Lady Chapel (showing scenes from the Nativity) and two windows in the north aisle were ever completed. The existing stained glass was designed by Walter Towers of Kempe and Co.^[3]

A campaign between 2011 and 2015 to restore the much-deteriorated high-level stonework on the north and south sides of the church raised over £550K to carry out the necessary repair. This work was enabled through the assistance of the English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Churches Trust and others.^[5]

St Peter's community

St Peter's holds Services on Sunday mornings and throughout the week, in addition to major Services at Easter and Christmas.^[2] It runs a local walking group, hosts the Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter^[6] and an organ recital series. St Peter’s also holds an Amnesty Writing Letter Group, book club and junior church, and has a Sunday choir.^[2] The church is also a venue for the Ealing Autumn Festival events^[7] and is used by local schools for concerts and Carol Services.^[2]

Notable former clergy

Maurice Maddocks was a curate of the Church in the 1950s and later Assistant Bishop of Bath and Wells. While at St Peter's he married Anne Maddocks, Assistant Organist of Chichester Cathedral.
Michael Tavinor, the current Dean of Hereford Cathedral, was a curate at St Peter's.^[8]
William Taylor, Vicar of St Peter's 1993-1998, was Dean of Portsmouth Cathedral, and is now Vicar of St John's Notting Hill.^[9]
Bertram Kite, former Vicar of St Peter's, was Dean of Hobart Cathedral in Tasmania from 1897 to 1916.^[10]
Henry Austin Thompson was Vicar of St Peter's 1909-1916 and later vicar of St Peter's, Eton Square where he was killed by enemy action in 1941.

Other connections

General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley (1924 – 2006), distinguished British soldier and military historian, was married in St Peter's on 07 July 1945.^[11]
Kenneth Allsop, British broadcaster, author and naturalist, was married in St Peter's in March 1942.^[12]
Emmanuel Phillips Fox, Australian artist, married Ethel Carrick at St Peter's on 09 May1905.
Australian aviation pioneer Harry George Hawker was married to Muriel Alice Peaty at St Peter's on 14 November 1917.

References

External links

• *St Peter's Church, Ealing