Church of St Mary and St Joseph

Church of St Mary and St Joseph, Upper North Street, E14

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Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1376749
Date first listed:: 05-Mar-1998
List Entry Name:: Church of St Mary and St Joseph
Statutory Address:: Church of St Mary and St Joseph, Upper North Street, E14

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Date:: 2002-06-19
Reference:: IOE01/06825/24
Rights:: © Mr Colin Carron. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1376749
Date first listed:: 05-Mar-1998
List Entry Name:: Church of St Mary and St Joseph
Statutory Address 1:: Church of St Mary and St Joseph, Upper North Street, E14

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Church of St Mary and St Joseph, Upper North Street, E14

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Tower Hamlets (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 37452 81090

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 15 June 2021 to amend the description and to reformat the text to current standards

TQ 3781 788/18/10088

UPPER NORTH STREET, E14 (South West side) Church of St Mary and St Joseph

GV II

Roman Catholic Church. 1951-1954 by Adrian Gilbert Scott as part of the 'Live' architecture exhibition of the Festival of Britain. 2" Leicestershire brick construction with concrete vaulting, while short concrete spire is carried on steel plate girders over 18m long. This has a copper roof, the lower roofs with Lombardic tiles. Greek cross plan with central lantern, and liturgical east end with forward baldacchino faces west. Liturgical west gallery. The style of the church is inspired by its camel vaulted arches, a motif inspired by older brother Giles's unbuilt designs for Coventry Cathedral made in 1945 and derived from ancient Persia via buildings like Clemens Holzmeister's Vienna Crematorium of 1922. It has also been described as `Jazz Moderne Byzantine'. Stepped profile, with moulded brick banding to cornices at each of the three main levels, and strong eaves or parapet mouldings. Tall aluminium windows, most distinctive of which are those placed in the splays of the composition. Projecting porch to Upper North Street with camel arch opening, behind it a bellcote over narthex within.

INTERIOR: narthex/nave, transepts and sanctuary of equal length with splayed sides to high central crossing. Sanctuary paved in marble and with baldacchino, sacristies to either side - the priest's sacristry converted to weekday chapel in memory of Canon John Wright, parish priest 1946-1970, in 1979. Pulpit of Hornton stone placed across one of the splayed angles of the central space and raised about 3.7m above floor level. Altar to Our Lady is a memorial to Canon Bartholomew O'Doherty, parish priest 1920-1946 with life-size statue of the Madonna and timber reredos. Octagonal font also in Hornton stone at liturgical west end. Above is choir gallery, originally also containing the organ but this has been brought down to the nave. Pews have been reorganised to reflect liturgical changes, though the lack of alteration required shows how liturgically advanced was Scott's Greek cross plan. Around the inside walls is a dado of Blue Hornton stone, which incorporates stone reliefs of the Stations of the Cross by Peter Watts. Stained glass by William Wilson of Edinburgh. Scott himself donated the light pendants, which were to the same pattern as those he designed for the rebuilding of the House of Commons. Regarded as old fashioned when it was built, SS Mary and Joseph can now be appreciated for the handsome quality of its workmanship, materials and design. Its massing is among the most ambitious and satisfying of any post-war church, and it is now recognised as Adrian Scott's finest church designed independently of his brother. The Survey of London (1994) points to the special care with which every element was designed. In addition, as one of the very first Roman Catholic churches designed after the Second World War it is remarkable for a plan-form which from the first was designed to allow all the congregation to be close to the altar, and which anticipated many of the ideas of De Sacra Liturgica in 1963.

The Festival of Britain (May-September 1951) was a nationwide celebration of United Kingdom arts, industry and technology. It marked the centenary of the Great Exhibition and aimed to encourage a sense of national pride and optimism for the country’s post-War recovery. The main Festival site on London’s South Bank, visited by some 8.5 million people, included the Royal Festival Hall (Grade I) and a suite of pavilions, cafés and sculptures and the Festival Gardens in Battersea Park (Grade II*). Festival events were organised by communities across the country, whilst Royal Navy vessel Campania was converted into the Festival ‘Sea Travelling Exhibition.’ The ‘Live Architecture’ Exhibition was intended to illustrate reconstruction and redevelopment through neighbourhood planning. Co-ordinated by Frederick Gibberd, the new Lansbury estate comprised a range of housing and building types including the Susan Lawrence and Elizabeth Lansbury Schools, Crisp Street Market Clock Tower and Festival Inn and Trinity Methodist Church (all Grade II-listed).

In 1981 Lord Esher confessed that `the fortress like Catholic church that once seemed so old-fashioned is now so functional' and recognised the building as an important local landmark (A Broken Wave, 1981, p.120).

(Sources: Architects' Journal: 15 June 1950-:749; Architect and Building News: 24 December 1953-:774; Architecture and Building: September 1954-: 330-5; Architectural Review: October 1954-: 263-4; Lionel Esher: A Broken Wave: 1981-: 120; Survey of London; vol. XLIII: Poplar Part One: 1994-: 236-9)

Listing NGR: TQ3745281090

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 469122
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Esher, L, A Broken Wave The Rebuilding of England 1940-1980, (1981), 120
'Architecture and Building' in September, (1954), 330-5
'Architectural Review' in October, (1954), 263-4
'Architect and Building News' in 24 December, (1953), 774
'Architects Journal' in 15 June, (1950), 749
'Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England' in Survey of London, (), 236-9

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.