Church of St Silas the Martyr
CHURCH OF ST SILAS THE MARTYR, ST SILAS PLACE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1245853
- Date first listed:
- 10-Jun-1954
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Silas the Martyr
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST SILAS THE MARTYR, ST SILAS PLACE
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Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2005-05-15
- Reference:
- IOE01/14402/14
- Rights:
- © Mr Steve Kirkland. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1245853
- Date first listed:
- 10-Jun-1954
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Silas the Martyr
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHURCH OF ST SILAS THE MARTYR, ST SILAS PLACE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST SILAS THE MARTYR, ST SILAS PLACE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- Camden (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 28210 84693
Details
CAMDEN
TQ2884NW ST SILAS PLACE
798-1/53/1525 Church of St Silas the Martyr
10/06/54
II*
Church. 1911-13. By Ernest Charles Shearman. Purple-brown
Fletton brick with stone dressings, tiled roof. 4-bay aisled
nave with clerestory, transepts and apsidal chancel in
stripped Gothic style.
EXTERIOR: west end mostly blind with bellcote and inset stone
cross flanked by narrow lancets flanked by small flying
buttresses. North and south facades, single and 3-light
trefoil-headed lancet clerestory windows. Each gabled transept
with 3 similar windows, the main entrance being in the south
transept. Chancel with brick pilaster strips and Lombard
frieze, alternate bays having pointed lancets linked by a
continuous stone string. South entrance porch with inscription
on parapet, flanking corbel figures of knights with armorial
shields, standing statue of St Silas to left, stone
crucifixion to right with inscribed plinth erected as war
memorial. Projecting chapel of St Francis on (liturgical)
south side added 1913.
INTERIOR: with passage aisles, a chapel on the south side, a
small chapel opening on the north from a narrow ambulatory.
Tall chancel with open timber roof above prominent
baldacchino, enriched with neo-Gothic carvings of Christ in
Majesty, designed by Shearman and executed by Messrs. Burns
and Oates. Crucifix of 1922 by the Art and Book Company within
baldacchino originally placed above canopy. Altar candlesticks
and sanctuary lamp also designed by Shearman. Sanctuary
flanked by wooden statues of SS Silas and Peter, 1917. Narrow
ambulatory arched over with lancets, leading to former mission
church of 1884 (altered). Lady Chapel in south-east angle of
church, St Thomas's Chapel to north of altar with painted
reredos by Victoria Somerville. Spacious nave with organ loft
at west end; organ by Bishop and Son, 1914.
HISTORICAL NOTE: a mission church was founded in this
heathenish patch of Kentish Town in 1884, capable of seating
150. An American, Howard Henry Paul, left »7,000 in 1902 for
the building of a proper church; delays over his will meant
that work could not begin until 1911, by which time his legacy
had shrunk to »4,000. The church has always been High Anglican
in tradition, following the ideals of its founder, the Revd G
Napier Whittingham. St Silas is Shearman's first and most
important church, where he established his characteristically
severe brand of brick Gothic and elegant sense of space.
(Survey of London: Vol. XXIV, King's Cross Neighbourhood:
London: -1952: 145).
Listing NGR: TQ2821084693
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 477957
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Survey of London in Survey of London - Kings Cross neighbourhood The Parish of St Pancras Part 4: Volume 24 , (1951), 145
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 09-Jun-2026 at 16:29:38.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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