Golders Green Unitarian Church

Golders Green Unitarian Church, 31½, Hoop Lane, London, NW11 8BS

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1390934
Date first listed:
23-Jul-2004
List Entry Name:
Golders Green Unitarian Church
Statutory Address:
Golders Green Unitarian Church, 31½, Hoop Lane, London, NW11 8BS
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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1390934
Date first listed:
23-Jul-2004
List Entry Name:
Golders Green Unitarian Church
Statutory Address 1:
Golders Green Unitarian Church, 31½, Hoop Lane, London, NW11 8BS

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
Golders Green Unitarian Church, 31½, Hoop Lane, London, NW11 8BS

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

County:
Greater London Authority
District:
Barnet (London Borough)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
TQ 24977 87809

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 19 October 2022 to amend the description, add a reference to the sources, update the name and to reformat the text to current standards

31/0/10456

Golders Green
HOOP LANE
No 31½ , Golders Green Unitarian Church

(Formerly listed as No 31½ , Unitarian Chapel)

23-JUL-04

II
Unitarian church. Opened 1925. George Reginald Farrow and Sydney R Turner architects. Red brick with Portland stone dressings. Exterior in the Byzantine revival style, with a pedimented entrance bay with inscribed frieze which reads RELIGION : TRUTH : LIBERTY; arched doorway flanked by inset columns with cushion capitals; thermal window above.

INTERIOR: plaster groin-vaulted ceiling, large arched windows to either side; wooden lobby screen incorporating a carved oak memorial to Rev. Joyce Daplyn (d.1931), first Unitarian woman minister in London. Over the door is an Art Deco stained glass window showing the celestial city above a forest setting, by Joan Fullerlove: it is surrounded by a tempera mural by Margaret Warren in a Florentine Revival style, with full-length figures flanking the entrance, with an angel hovering over a golden chalice above. The semi-circular apse with half-dome above sports a notable tempera mural on canvas by Ivon Hitchens RA (1892-1979), executed in 1920-21, depicting the River of the Waters of Life: the inscriptions (in Gothic letters) read 'The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace' and 'the leaves of the tree were for the healling of the nations'. Fittings include a pulpit made by Belgian refugees during the First World War.

HISTORY: the Golders Green Unitarian congregation seceded from the Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Hampstead in 1903. This building, erected at a cost of £7,500, was designed by a member of the congregation. Architecturally somewhat old-fashioned for its day, this is nonetheless a notable interwar place of worship which possesses some remarkable decoration. Hitchens, best known as an abstract painter, here executed a fine mural in tempera which drew on Florentine Renaissance sources as well as tapestry designs by Morris & Co. for inspiration. This is a larger version of his 'Forest Scene with Animals', a work executed in 1919-20 for St Luke's Church, Maidstone.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
490909
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Other
The Builder, February 18, 1927, pp 270 and 279.

Legal

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

Ordnance survey map of Golders Green Unitarian Church

Map

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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