Church of St George

Details

962/1/14 LANCASTER ROAD 19-JAN-81 CHURCH OF ST GEORGE (Formerly listed as: TUDOR ROAD CHURCH OF ST GEORGE)

II

Parish church, 1907-8. Architect, Arthur Conran Blomfield

MATERIALS: Stock brick with red brick and Bath stone dressings; clay tile roof with shingled belfry; interior of red brick and stone with open timber roofs.

PLAN: Broad aisled nave of five bays, with narthex (formerly a baptistery) to west and entrance porches to south-west, south-east and north-west, the latter now blocked; chancel with side chapel to south and organ chamber and vestry to north.

EXTERIOR: Arts and Crafts-influenced Gothic style, with paired cusped lancet windows in the aisles and clerestorey, and west and east windows consisting respectively of four and five stepped lancets with tracery heads set within a retaining arch; similar three-light east window in south chapel. Steeply-pitched roofs with sprocketed eaves. Shingled belfry with slender pyramidal spirelet above west gable. Lean-to narthex baptistery beneath west window with four single-light windows. Gabled porches with moulded barge-boards and segmental-arched doorways.

INTERIORS: Five-bay north and south nave arcades, the two end bays being slightly shorter, with arch mouldings dying into octagonal stone piers. Similar three-bay arcade to western narthex, now partitioned off to form a kitchen and servery. Tall segmental pointed chancel arch with hood-mould. Chancel has mosaic floor and a piscina and sedile in south wall; side chapel to south now partitioned to form a meeting room. Nave and chancel have arch-braced timber roofs of false-hammerbeam construction; aisles and narthex have lean-to roofs.

FIXTURES AND FITTINGS: Organ, to north of chancel, 1723 by Abraham Jordan Junior, originally built for St George's Botolph Lane in the City of London, rebuilt (retaining much of the old case and pipework) on its transfer to Southall in 1908, and restored again in 2009 with the removal of all post-1723 additions. Richly-carved Baroque case with three bowed projecting bays having corniced heads and putto corbels, connected by two ogee-curved inner bays.

Simple octagonal stone font, formerly in narthex, transferred to chancel in 2009.

Hanging rood and reredos, 1951 by Faith Works Ltd, the latter a triptych designed by Francis Stephens and depicting (from left to right) the martyrdom of St George, the Magi presenting gifts to the infant Christ, and the foundation of an abbey by St Botolph.

Stained glass in narthex, side chapel and east window, the latter given as a war memorial in 1922 and depicting the Crucifixion and Christ in Majesty, flanked by St Mary, St John, St George and St Nicholas, with flights of angels above.

HISTORY: St George's was built in 1907-8 to serve those living in the new streets then being built over the former brickfields to the west of Southall Broadway. The construction was financed in part from the sale by the Diocese of London of the site of St George Botolph Lane, a City church demolished in 1904, from which the new church took its dedication. The 1723 organ from Botolph Lane was transferred to the new church, where it was rebuilt by the firm of Bishop & Son. In 1922 the east window received new stained glass as a memorial to the fallen of WWI; in 1950-1 a new high altar, reredos and hanging rood were installed, again as a war memorial. In 2009 the organ was restored and the church reordered: a new floor was laid throughout the nave and aisles, and the narthex and side chapel were screened off by means of timber partitions.

Arthur Conran Blomfield (1863-1935) was the younger son of the famous Victorian church architect Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829-1899). With his older brother Charles he became a partner in the practice in 1890, and would have been involved in his father's late projects. The practice continued after Sir Arthur's death; later commissions included Hollington House at East Woodhay in Hampshire (1904) and St Mellitus Church at Hanwell, Greater London (1909) - both Grade II listed.

SOURCES: Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England - London 3: North West (1991). Paul Waterhouse, rev. John Elliott, entry on Sir Arthur William Blomfield in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). Joan Jeffery, entry on Abraham Jordan in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). Dominic Gwynn, Report on the Jordan Organ at St George's Church, Southall, Middlesex (2005). St George's Southall: The First 100 Years (2008). Make a Joyful Noise - booklet on the Abraham Jordan organ (2009).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: St George's Church, Southall, built in 1907-8 by Arthur Conran Blomfield, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural: it is an attractive and little-altered Edwardian church by a leading firm, in an Arts and Crafts Gothic style. * Organ: a rare early-C18 instrument by an important builder with an elaborate Baroque case, installed in the church at its foundation and illustrating its historic connection with the demolished City church of St George Botolph Lane.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

201048

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Gwynn, D, Report on the Jordan Organ at St George's Church, Southall, Middlesex, (2005)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: London 3 North West, (1991)

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