St Dionis' Mission Hall

18a Parsons Green, London, SW6 4UH

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Former mission chapel, now hall, 1876 by Arthur Billing. Interior subdivided in 2003 by Nick Shipp Architects. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1412874
Date first listed:: 06-Jun-2013
List Entry Name:: St Dionis' Mission Hall
Statutory Address:: 18a Parsons Green, London, SW6 4UH

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1412874
Date first listed:: 06-Jun-2013
List Entry Name:: St Dionis' Mission Hall
Statutory Address 1:: 18a Parsons Green, London, SW6 4UH

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:: 18a Parsons Green, London, SW6 4UH

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

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Hammersmith and Fulham (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ2505176515

Summary

Former mission chapel, now hall, 1876 by Arthur Billing. Interior subdivided in 2003 by Nick Shipp Architects.

Reasons for Designation

St Dionis' mission hall, of 1876 by Arthur Billing, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural interest: a typically forceful and muscular design by this respected Victorian church architect, unusually well detailed both inside and out, and well-preserved despite horizontal subdivision in 2003; * Group value: part of a strong visual and functional group with the Grade II listed St Dionis' church and vicarage, the three buildings forming a particularly prominent and attractive ensemble within this leafy suburban townscape.

History

The present St Dionis' Church at Parsons Green was preceded by a mission chapel and hall of 1876, designed by the prolific church architect Arthur Billing (1824-96) of the firm of Newman and Billing, also responsible for the nearby churches of St Peter, Varna Road and St Andrew, Greyhound Road. After Ewan Christian's new church was opened in 1886, the old chapel ceased to be used for services and became in effect the parish hall. A first floor was inserted in 2003 by Nick Shipp Architects.

Details

MATERIALS: red brick with stone bands and dressings beneath a clay tile roof.

PLAN: originally a single tall space with a small narthex to the west and further entrances to the south. Now subdivided horizontally to form upper and lower halls with toilets, kitchen etc.

EXTERIOR: the style is early French Gothic, typifying the 'muscular' variety of High Victorian ecclesiastical design. The south front to St Dionis Road is nearly symmetrical, with two bays of paired lancets on either side of the main door, the latter very grandly treated with stiff-leaf pilasters supporting a pointed arch surmounted by a crocketed gable and panels of incised ornament. Above, a tall two-light window with a ringed central shaft and a pierced quatrefoil head breaks through the eaves into a steep gabled half-dormer. To the left is a smaller door, also set beneath a crocketed gable. The gabled west front to Parsons Green has three stepped lancets with pierced quatrefoil heads linked by a hood-mould and a flush stone band. The lean-to narthex below is a miniature version of the south front, with a central two-light window and gabled half-dormer.

INTERIOR: a five-bay open hall (now subdivided horizontally) with wall-shafts attached to internal buttresses, rising to stiff-leaf capitals which support the principal members of a scissor-truss roof. The external stone banding runs right through the walls and is visible within as well as without, although the interior brickwork has been painted. At the wall-head is a frieze of pierced quatrefoils containing stencil decoration. At the east end, a broad stone arch encloses the sanctuary recess; its flanking colonettes have capitals linked to those of the wall-shafts by a continuous band of stiff-leaf carving.

Sources

Books and journals
British Architectural Library, RIBA, Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, (2001)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: London 3 North West, (1991), 232

Legal

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