Church of St Mark, Noel Park

Details

800/15/152

LYMINGTON AVENUE N22
NOEL PARK (Northwest side)
CHURCH OF ST MARK, NOEL PARK

10-MAY-74

GV
II
Built 1889, designed by Rowland Plumbe.

MATERIALS: Dark red brick with lighter red terracotta detailing.

PLAN: The church is aligned southeast/northwest to accommodate its island site and the pre-existing parish hall. Aisled nave, small transepts, and chancel with liturgical north and south chapels, each opening to the chancel through a single arch. Nave arcades of five bays, with the eastern arches expressed as crossing arches for the transepts. The church is linked to the parish hall to the south through a complex of vestries.

EXTERIOR: Red brick, with lighter glazed terracotta detailing and simple stepped arches in a rather stark, early Gothic style. West window with five grouped lancets, east window with a similar three-light window. An intended tower was never built. Forms a group on an island site with the adjacent parish hall (1885, Q.V.) and vicarage (1903 to designs by J S Alder).

INTERIOR: Red brick with plain, Early English-style detailing to the arches and windows, including detached shafts with shaft rings and moulded capitals. Lofty, arched tie-beam roof.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: Stone pulpit with carved figures, including Bishop How (1823-97), suffragan bishop in Bedford diocese with responsibility for East London 1879-88, whose Shrewsbury origins are likely to account for the role Shropshire Mission Society in helping to fund the church's construction. East end panelling and reredos in marble and alabaster, added piecemeal c.1890-1914, but creating a good effect. Simple benches in the nave and a small group of choir stalls in the chancel.

HISTORY: Built in 1889 to serve the Noel Park estate, then under development by the Artizans', Labourers', and General Dwellings Co. The land had been bought by Richard Foster, a wealthy High Church layman also associated with contemporary church building schemes in Shoreditch. The church replaced an adjacent mission hall of 1885, after the mission hall, which seated 350, became too crowded for the growing congregation. The mission hall was retained after the church was built to serve as a parish hall. The church was designed by Rowland Plumbe (1837-1919), who also designed the Noel Park estate. It was funded by the Incorporated Church Building Society, the Bishop of London's Fund and the Shropshire Mission to East London. The church had 850 sittings, and in the early C20 was the best attended parish church in Wood Green. A vicarage was built in 1903 to designs by J S Alder.

SOURCES:
LPL, ICBS file 9171, includes plan.
Baker, T F T and Pugh, R B eds. Victoria County History: A History of the County of Middlesex, V (1976), 348-355.
Pevsner, N and Cherry, B. The Buildings of England, London 4: North (1999), 573.

Church website: http://www.achurchnearyou.com/st-mark-noel-park.html


REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
St Mark, Haringey should be designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* A significant survival of a church designed and planned to accompany a middle-class residential development, with the same architect (Rowland Plumbe) for both. It is set on a planned island site puchased for the purpose.
* An excellent example of the adaptation of French C13 Gothic forms by the C19 Gothic revival, and also of the use of durable materials (brick) to suit urban conditions.
* Group value with the separately listed parish hall.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

201425

Legacy System:

LBS

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