Church of St Gabriel

Details

1690/0/10029 WALSTEAD STREET 22-MAY-03 (North side) Church of St Gabriel

II

Parish church. 1938-39 to the designs of Lavender & Twentyman, partner in charge Richard Twentyman. Reinforced concrete foundations and solid brick walls. Reinforced concrete roofs. All copings, window and door surrounds, and mullions are of Clipsham stone. Joinery is of oak, with some use of mahogany.

Five bay nave. South-west porch as main entrance. Choir and organ gallery situated in the west end, with a choir vestry adjoining on same level. Lady chapel on north side. Chancel within east end tower.

Exterior: south elevation of six bays (not including tower). Aisle projects proud of the nave at ground floor level, with main entrance at south-west end. This has a low-pitched gable and an arched door. Aisle has mullioned windows at bay intervals and at the east end is a canted chancel and ambulatory entrance. Ambulatory continues eastwards with mullioned windows for four bays. Nave, including choir and organ gallery, has six bays defined by tall, narrow windows, with stone architraves and splayed bases. Roof concealed behind parapet with stone coping, with brick modillions (in the manner of John Soane and also contemporary Scandinavian motifs) below coping. Detail is concentrated on the chancel tower, with its bell turret, which has slits for illumination and long vertical openings in the bell section, where the detail is at its most concentrated. Between the bell turret and a shallow, south-east buttress are four arched chancel lights. In contrast to the Modernistic ethos of much of the church are the vernacular-style aisle, Lady chapel and ambulatory ground floor mullioned windows, with leaded lights.

Interior: five bay nave with unmoulded, arched aisle arcade, with corresponding nave windows above aisle arches. Dominant feature is the huge chancel arch. Nave seating is by chairs alone and the church's capacity is for 510, including Lady chapel and choir. Much recent (typically 1984 in date) stained glass in aisle windows - originally all the glazing was plain. Font has been removed from underneath the organ gallery and repositioned in a southern aisle arch. It is a noteworthy design; almost neo-classical with a tapered, fluted profile and on a stone plinth with a tiled base - it is in effect an inverted Doric column. Nave has unusual projecting light fittings complete with their original glass covers. Originally very plain, the chancel has been filled over the years with furniture and fittings, including a reredos installed in 1964. The chancel was reordered in 1991. Original to the chancel is the streamlined, in profile, lectern and pulpit - one with an eagle motif, the other with a Lamb of God motif. The figures on the east-end wall (previously blank) were installed in 1981. The chancel ceiling is coffered. Integral original features include the Continental Modernist-style ambulatory and clergy vestry area cupboards; organ gallery seating; nave light fittings and incidental details such as a vestibule bookcase neatly fitted into a corner and emanating from the skirting board. The Lady chapel was also initially a very plain room with the bare minimum of decoration, except for a comparatively ornate east-end altar and reredos. The ceiling lights set into recessed roundels.

Subsidiary Features: A parish hall (not included in the listing) lies adjacent to the church to the north-west; it was built in 1971 (projected however as early as 1938-39) and is very much in keeping with the 1938-39 church.

History: St. Gabriel's is the first church by the distinguished Wolverhampton-based practice Lavender and Twentyman. Richard Twentyman (1903-79) studied at the Architectural Association, qualifying in 1931 before joining Ernest Charles Lavender (1890-1942) in partnership. The firm specialised in public houses earlier in the 1930s, but in the post-war period the firm - by then Lavender, Twentyman and Percy - established a reputation for good modern churches, mainly in the West Midlands. St. Gabriel's is important in establishing their reputation in this area.

Sources:

St Gabriel's 50 4 February 1939-89, St. Gabriel the Archangel PCC (1989 'St. Gabriel's Church, Walsall', The Architects' Journal, 9 March 1939 The Incorporated Church Building Society, Fifty Modern Churches (London, 1947), pp.46-8 RIBA Biography Files

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

493367

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Incorporated Church Building Society, , Fifty Modern Churches, (1947), 46-8
Architects Journal in 9 March, (1939)

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