Details
ISLINGTON
TQ3087SW ASHLEY ROAD
635-1/8/47 (North side)
06/10/88 Church of St Mary with St Stephen,
and attached hall, wall and
railings.
(Formerly Listed as:
ASHLEY ROAD
Church of St Mary and attached hall,
walls and railings)
II
Anglican church. 1860-1 by Alexander Dick Gough, the tower and
spire completed in 1868; eastern aisles to both transepts and
north, south and west porches added 1883; chancel floor raised
1911. Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings, roof of
Welsh slate. Chancel, transepts with east transept aisles,
aisled nave, south-west tower and spire, and north, south and
west porches.
Sill mouldings and hoodmoulds with label stops are general
throughout the church. Sanctuary of one bay, lower than the
choir, with a seven-light east window with geometrical
tracery; two-light window to north and south with colonettes
and mullions formed as circular shafts with foliage capitals
and trefoiled circle to head; offset angle buttresses.
Trefoiled spherical triangle to chancel gable. East aisle of
north transept has three-light east window and one-light
window to right, both with decorated tracery, and canted bay
window to far right, flat-arched with three lights and ogee
tracery. South transept aisle has a three-light east window
with decorated tracery, gabled porch to left with
Caernarvon-arched doorway, circular window to gable and
diagonal buttresses. South end of aisle has three lancets with
cusped heads to lights. Three-light window above with
decorated tracery. The transept aisles both have gabled roofs
with valley between aisle and transept. Transepts each have a
five-light window to gable ends with geometrical tracery,
trefoiled circular window to gable and three-light window to
west side with decorated tracery. The south transept has in
addition a shallow false south porch with ridged stone
blocking to doorway and spherical triangle to tympanum. Nave
and chancel are continuous and have one-light windows to the
clerestory with mouchettes to heads. Octagonal timber fleche
at crossing with pierced tracery, slate-hung spire and wrought
iron finial. Nave aisles have four-light windows with
alternating curvilinear and geometrical tracery between
buttresses. Tower of four stages with double-chamfered south
door and a pair of one-light windows to the west with cusped
heads. Cross loops to second stage and cast iron clock faces
to stage above with stone lozenge surrounds. Bell stage is set
back and has two-light louvred openings with cusped lights,
trefoils to heads and crocketed gable hoodmoulds. Offset angle
buttresses and corbel table. Broach spire with symbols of the
evangelists to base, shafted and gabled niches on top of
broaches and two tiers of lucarnes to the cardinal directions.
Narthex porch has central double-chamfered doorways north and
south flanked by one-light windows with cusped heads, and
embattled parapets. Aisles have offset buttresses between bays
and plain stone coped parapets. Similar parapet to transepts
and aisles.
The mission hall to the north, of 1878, has a passage between
hall and church with doors either end, and canted east end
with large four-light flat-arched east window with king
mullion, transom, and ogee-arched heads to lights. The roof
has hipped section to canted sides of east end; herringbone
stonework to top of east gable. On the south side of the hall
is the original porch with segmental-arched entrance under a
lean-to roof; two three-light windows with one transom and
ogee heads; a chimneystack rises from the south wall between
the windows, and is now truncated; a second stack to the west
end has been rebuilt; two-storey extensionto west end in
yellow brick and composition stone, of 1931.
INTERIOR: of the church. Sanctuary framed by pointed arch with
multiple corbel shafts, the corbels and capitals having
foliage carving; cusped blank arcading to three sides of
sanctuary with columns of different coloured marbles and
foliage in spandrels; communion rails also in marble and of a
similar design; gabled niches with crockets on north and south
walls, either side of sanctuary, filled with mosaic. Choir and
nave arcades are continuous with polygonal responds, coupled
pink polished granite columns to transepts and transept
aisles, and single columns to three bays of nave;
double-chamfered arches, hoodmoulds with crocketed niches as
stops to transepts and transept aisles, and foliage stops to
nave. The nave extends beyond the arcade by four of the roof
bays, and has pointed-arched openings to either side of the
gallery, which is carried on a five-bay arcade of slim pink
granite columns and pointed arches with blank trefoils
between; a band of delicate foliage carved in high relief
below arcaded balustrade to gallery. Nave and chancel have an
arch-braced collar-trussed roof with queen posts, and wall
shafts alternately long and short with foliage corbels.
Octagonal limestone pulpit on four columns with elaborate
panels carved with a mixture of geometrical and flowing
tracery; original or late C19 carved oak choir stalls partly
in situ; octagonal limestone font at west end carried on four
marble columns and decorated with crocketed gables in panels.
Excellent stained glass: east window of c.1861 by Lavers and
Barraud; west window with Tree of Jesse of c.1870 by Lavers,
Barraud and Westlake; south end of south transept aisle,
Dorcas window in the style of the Aesthetic Movement, c.1883.
Organ in north transept aisle with coved case in north
transept.
Low walls of Kentish ragstone in Ashley and Highcroft Roads,
surmounted by railings with spearhead finials.
(Eric Willatts: Streets with a story. The book of Islington:
London: 1986-; Historians' file, English Heritage London
Division).
Listing NGR: TQ3018487490
