Details
800/0/10094 DUKE'S AVENUE
11-SEP-03 Muswell Hill
Baptist Church
II
Baptist church, 1900-01 by G.& R. P. Baines. Free Perpendicular manner. Red brick, stone dressings, slate roofs with tile and terracotta dressings. Greek cross on plan, aligned northwest- southeast, with tower at the north -west angle, rear vestries, and basement meeting room. Entrance front to north in three bays, the central buttressed, gabled nave having a gabled canted porch with angle buttresses with shaped copings and enriched finials. Pair of vertically boarded doors under traceried fanlight. Facetted shafts flank five -flight window, with tall narrow single flanking light. Blind arcade to gable, surmounted by cross. To right, three stage buttressed tower surmounted by hexagonal bell chamber and small facetted spire. Lower stage entrance a reduced version of that to nave, under gabled hoodmould. Shallow four -light window with moulded cill and hoodmould , emphasizing horizontatlity, and repeated on return of tower. Above, tall slender light with flush stone cill and impost band, similarly repeated on return. On each face, gable dies away, between pyramidal heads of buttress shafts, to carry hexagonal bell chamber with foiled light to each face, an embattled parapet, with tall finial rising from shaft at each angle, and with prominent gargoyle, framing slender facetted spire. To left, single storey entrance to gallery treated as that to tower, similar horizontal range of lights to tower, under embattled parapet. Behind, shaped slate roof with elegant spirelet with iron finial linked to main roof by iron cresting. East and west elevations similarly treated. Three light traceried window flanked by single light each under hoodmould but with flush cill and impost bands, and over simple triple light at lower level, flanked by single light, all with flush dressings. Single gable light above cill band, tile ridge cresting with small cross at apex. Under pitched roof, traceried window beneath hoodmould, flanked by single cusped lights at lower level, the continuous flush cill and impost bands running across the elevation. Basement rectangular windows with flush and moulded dressings. Rear walls of red, buff and grey brick. At lower level under pitched and catslide roofs, vestries and offices with rectangular mullioned windows with flush and moulded dressings. Tall brick stacks.
Interior. Vestibule with panelled screen, the upper panels glazed, with rectangular leaded lights with coloured glass, paired doors having cusped panels also with leaded lights and coloured glass, and brass door handles on beaten copper plates. Tiled floor. Flanking doors lead to vestibules with stone stairs to gallery, with moulded oak rail on iron balusters, at upper level with similar doors, retaining door furniture. Church, a Greek cross on plan, the roof supported on broad four -centre moulded arches on slender quadrate shafts with foliate caps. Deeper mouldings to arch to organ loft, on short marble shafts with moulded bosses. Close boarded roof with octagonal dome with central pierced panel. Horseshoe gallery supported on similar slender shafts with blind cusped panelled balustrade, raked seating, retaining pews. Panelled dado; pair of single doors with cusped panels, door furniture as vestibule, flanking semicircular dais with turned newels and moulded rail. Central pulpit with double stair, also with cusped panels, above sunk baptistery with marble slips, the interior relined, and also with moulded rail. Central table and chair. Organ loft and balcony to left with similar balustrade to gallery. Curved pews with shaped ends. Some windows with coloured glass. Pair of vestries with folding timber partition, and panelled cupboards, each with small fireplace with metal surround, and retaining grate and hood. Basement hall or meeting room, now subdivided, ceiling supported on shafts similar to those in the church. Coloured glass to leaded window lights.
Pevsner & Cherry, Buildings of England, London 4; North, 1998, p.552
