Church of St Anselm, Hayes

Summary

A church, completed in 1929 to the designs of Hubert Christian Corlette (1869-1956).

Reasons for Designation

The Church of St Anselm, Hayes, completed in 1929 to the designs of Hubert Christian Corlette,
is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* although built to a relatively low cost, the building has an inventive and impressive design which emphasises its sacramental importance;

*  the rich decoration of the panelled ceiling, designed and executed by MacDonald Gill;

* the church furnishings, the majority of which were designed by the architect.

Historic interest:

* the church exemplifies the gradual turn away from a segregated religious space to one which was unified and more inclusive.

History

The Church of St Anselm in Hayes was completed in 1929 at a cost of almost £15,000 to the designs of Hubert Christian Corlette. It was built in the expanding London suburb of Hayes and intended to seat about 550 people. The iconography and painting of the panelled ceiling was planned and executed by Macdonald Gill but otherwise Corlette was responsible for the design of many of the fittings and details of the interior, including the font, lectern and altars. The high altar has now been removed to the western end of the interior and the chancel was re-ordered in 1987 with a new altar and a new terrazzo floor, with a central inlaid star, but otherwise the majority of the interior remains as originally executed.

Corlette, who was Australian by birth, moved to England and was trained at the Royal Academy and Slade schools. He was in practice with Sir Charles Nicholson from 1897 to 1916. The practice is credited with a number of listed buildings, including the Church of St Paul, Buckland Monachorum (List entry 1105436, 1910-12) and Church of St Alban the Martyr in Lewisham (List entry 1268403, 1897-1904) both listed at Grade II.

Details

A church, completed in 1929 to the designs of Hubert Christian Corlette (1869-1956).

MATERIALS & PLAN: London stock brick laid in English bond with red, Binfield brick detailing and Clipsham and Weldon stone dressings with a roof to the nave of tiered, Old Delabole slates with flat roofs to the side aisles and the vestries. The church is entered from the road at its eastern end and the normal, ritual compass points are consequently reversed. Liturgical directions are used throughout this description.

The nave and choir are placed under one roof and divided from the side aisles by arcades of three wide bays with two half-bays at either end. The short chancel projects at the eastern end and there are two porches at either side of the western end. A choir vestry is attached to the southern side and a clergy vestry is placed underneath the organ loft at the south-eastern corner and the combined bellcote and boiler chimney are also placed at this corner.

EXTERIOR: the nave aisles have tall walls which extend almost to the full height of the nave. There are three traceried windows to each side and the brick walling in which these are set projects in front of the wall surface, forming a leitmotif of the design. Walls are of yellow stock London bricks with flush bands of red brick. Windows to the flanks each have two lights with traceried heads. Similar, blind projections, forming buttresses at either end of the flanks, correspond to the half bays of the internal arcades and that at the south-eastern corner rises higher to form the bellcote. Small, square lights are placed in the upper wall and there are similar windows in the upper walling of the nave forming a clerestory. Burnt brick headers and stretchers placed on end are used to create cross patterns in the panels between the window bays. The tops of the aisle walls have a parapet which is crowned by pantiles, giving the impression of subsidiary, pitched roofing. The western, street front has a central, three-light window with traceried head, flanked by lancets to the ends of the aisles. The porches are placed in front of these, with Basket arched heads and tumbled brickwork to the offsets of the buttresses at either side. The eastern window is also of three lights and both of these end windows project upwards into the shallow-pitched gables which have cross finials. Below the eastern window is a foundation stone, which is inscribed ‘AM + DG / THIS STONE WAS LAID BY THE / RT HON LORD JUSTICE BANKES / CHAIRMAN OF / THE LONDON DIOCESAN FUND / MAY 13 1927’. The choir vestry on the southern side has a porch on its western side and two, two-light casements on its southern flank.

INTERIOR: the side walls and arcade are of exposed brick, with red brick to the lower wall and stock brick above. The octagonal piers of the arcades are of Clipsham stone with moulded caps and bases. The panelled and painted roof, designed and executed by MacDonald Gill, is supported by braces which spring from stone brackets set in the side walls. The panels are painted with stars and show the signs of the Zodiac surrounding the sun, symbols from the Book of Revelation over the altar and symbols of the Passion over the font. Braces and ribs are painted with a chequered pattern.

Furnishings designed by Corlette include the font, which has a square bowl, and the pulpit and communion rails, the altar and carved screen to the Lady Chapel, as well as the carved high altar, now placed at the west end. The lower walling in the chancel at the east end has been panelled and the carved screen forming the original surround and reredos to the high altar has been removed, as have the original, low choir stalls. Flooring is of green and cream coloured terrazzo and wood blocks.

The east window is by Powell of Whitefriars of 1952.

Sources

Books and journals
Cherry, Bridget, Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Buildings of England London 3: North West, (1991), 327
St Anselm's Church, Hayes, Middlesex in The Architects' Journal, (December 4 1929), 864-871

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