The
Church of Christ the KingThe Feast of Christ the King is a last holy Sunday in the western liturgical calendar, celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church and by many Protestants....
is an Anglican Church situated on
Gordon SquareGordon Square is in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, London, England . It was developed by Thomas Cubitt in the 1820s, as one of a pair with Tavistock Square, which is a block away and has the same dimensions...
,
Bloomsbury-Places:*Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Virginia-Other:...
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, beside the
Dr Williams's LibraryDr Williams's Library is a small research library located in Gordon Square in Bloomsbury, London.-History:It was founded using the estate of Dr Daniel Williams as a theological library, intended for the use of ministers of religion, students and others studying theology, religion and...
and near
University College LondonUniversity College London is a British university institution and a constituent college of the University of London, based primarily in Bloomsbury, London...
(whose university
Christian UnionChristian Unions are evangelical protestant Christian student groups. They exist in many countries and are often affiliated with either International Fellowship of Evangelical Students or Campus Crusade for Christ....
until recently used it for their annual carol service, though not for regular worship), and opposite the
University of London UnionThe University of London Union is the university-wide students' union for the University of London. It is the largest students' union in Europe, with over 120,000 students....
. Since June 10 1954 it has been a Grade I
listed building.
Early English
Neo-GothicThe Gothic Revival is an architectural movement which began in the 1740s in England. Its popularity grew rapidly in the early nineteenth century, when increasingly serious and learned admirers of neo-Gothic styles sought to revive medieval forms in contrast to the classical styles prevalent at the...
in style and
cruciformCruciform means having the shape of a cross.- Cruciform Plan :This is a common description of Christian churches. In Early Christian, Byzantine and other Eastern Orthodox forms of church architecture this is more likely to mean a tetraconch plan, a Greek cross, with arms of equal length or, later,...
in plan, the church was built from 1850 to 1854 (with its interior designed by Raphael Brandon in 1853) for the Victorian sect of the
Catholic Apostolic ChurchThe term Catholic Apostolic Church belongs to the entire community of Christians , quoting the last sentence of the Nicene Creed...
(known as the Irvingites).
The
Church of Christ the KingThe Feast of Christ the King is a last holy Sunday in the western liturgical calendar, celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church and by many Protestants....
is an Anglican Church situated on
Gordon SquareGordon Square is in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, London, England . It was developed by Thomas Cubitt in the 1820s, as one of a pair with Tavistock Square, which is a block away and has the same dimensions...
,
Bloomsbury-Places:*Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Virginia-Other:...
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, beside the
Dr Williams's LibraryDr Williams's Library is a small research library located in Gordon Square in Bloomsbury, London.-History:It was founded using the estate of Dr Daniel Williams as a theological library, intended for the use of ministers of religion, students and others studying theology, religion and...
and near
University College LondonUniversity College London is a British university institution and a constituent college of the University of London, based primarily in Bloomsbury, London...
(whose university
Christian UnionChristian Unions are evangelical protestant Christian student groups. They exist in many countries and are often affiliated with either International Fellowship of Evangelical Students or Campus Crusade for Christ....
until recently used it for their annual carol service, though not for regular worship), and opposite the
University of London UnionThe University of London Union is the university-wide students' union for the University of London. It is the largest students' union in Europe, with over 120,000 students....
. Since June 10 1954 it has been a Grade I
listed building.
Construction and design
Early English
Neo-GothicThe Gothic Revival is an architectural movement which began in the 1740s in England. Its popularity grew rapidly in the early nineteenth century, when increasingly serious and learned admirers of neo-Gothic styles sought to revive medieval forms in contrast to the classical styles prevalent at the...
in style and
cruciformCruciform means having the shape of a cross.- Cruciform Plan :This is a common description of Christian churches. In Early Christian, Byzantine and other Eastern Orthodox forms of church architecture this is more likely to mean a tetraconch plan, a Greek cross, with arms of equal length or, later,...
in plan, the church was built from 1850 to 1854 (with its interior designed by Raphael Brandon in 1853) for the Victorian sect of the
Catholic Apostolic ChurchThe term Catholic Apostolic Church belongs to the entire community of Christians , quoting the last sentence of the Nicene Creed...
(known as the Irvingites). It is built of
Bath stoneBath Stone is an Oolitic Limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England, its warm, honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance...
, with a tiled roof. The structure is incomplete, lacking two bays on its liturgical west side (which prevented the construction of a planned façade - the west end remains unfinished, in brick apart from entrance in stone) and (like the Abbey) a crossing tower (including a 150 ft spire - the tower base that was built has mostly blind arcading). Its cruciform plan (
Westminster AbbeyThe Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster...
in miniature) is made up of a nave with full
triforiumA triforium is a shallow gallery of arches within the thickness of inner wall, which stands above the nave in a church or cathedral. It may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be located as a separate level below the clerestory. It may itself have an outer wall of glass rather...
and
clerestoryClerestory is an architectural term denoting an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows...
, side aisles, and a sanctuary and Lady Chapel. All of the church's exterior corners have octagonal corner turrets with gabled niches and terminating in spires with
gablet*Gablet roof or Dutch gable, a roof with a small gable above a hipped roof*Gablet, a triangular termination to a buttress: see Glossary of architecture...
s. The facade has pinnacled
buttressA buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es and
corbelIn architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
led parapets.
The main entrance is at the east end, from Gordon Street, through a gabled porch with angle buttresses (with mouldings, a pointed-arch door and a two-light and
oculusOculus is the Latin word for eye, and the word remains in use in certain contexts, as the name of the round opening in the top of the dome of the Pantheon in Rome, and in reference to other round windows and openings....
plate tracery window above the door) which links onto the Lady Chapel via an octagonal turret and two-light room. (There is also a north side entrance approached by a cloister walk from the porch.)
The five-bay nave (only 13 feet lower than that of Westminster Abbey) has a gabled east facade with three large
lancetsA lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singularly or in pairs.The motif...
below five smaller ones - on the inside, it has a timber hammer beam roof with angels and central bosses of snowflake design, as well as a
double-arcadedAn arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers, or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides....
triforium. It also contains a
cathedraA cathedra is the chair or throne of a bishop. It is a symbol of the bishop's teaching authority in the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, and has in some sense remained such in the Anglican Communion and in Lutheran churches...
for its Angel (roughly equivalent to Bishop) of the Catholic Apostolic Church.
The
crossingA crossing, in ecclesiastical architecture, is the junction of the four arms of a cruciform church.In a typically oriented church , the crossing gives access to the nave on the west, the transept arms on the north and south, and the choir on the east.The crossing is sometimes surmounted by a tower...
is made up of roll-moulded arches on clustered columns. The
transeptFull descriptions of the elements of a Gothic floorplan are found at the entry Cathedral diagram.
For the periodical go to The Transept....
s are gabled, with two layers of three lancets below a rose window. The south transept's windows (the originals) are the most notable - the lancets have Christ in Majesty with ranks of saints, apostles and angels and earth below, whilst its rose window is by
Archibald NicholsonArchibald Keightley Nicholson was an English 20th century ecclesiastical stained-glass maker. His father was Charles Nicholson and his two brothers, Charles and Sydney, were a church architect and church musician respectively....
and has a dove in the centre surrounded by musician angels and cherubim and seraphim.
The church's three-bay sanctuary has a roof with stone rib-vaulting and foliated
bossesIn architecture, a boss is a knob or protrusion of stone or wood.Bosses can often be found in the ceilings of buildings, particularly at the intersection of a vault. In Gothic architecture, such roof bosses are often intricately carved with foliage, heraldic devices or other decorations...
, along with a sanctuary lamp by
Augustus PuginAugustus Welby Northmore Pugin was an English architect, designer, and theorist of design, now best remembered for his work in the Gothic Revival style, particularly churches and the Palace of Westminster. Pugin was the father of E. W...
. The three-bay
Lady ChapelA Lady chapel is a traditional English term for a chapel inside a cathedral or large church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Most large medieval churches had such a chapel, as Roman Catholic ones still do, and middle-sized churches often had a side-altar dedicated to Mary.Traditionally, a Lady...
(formerly the English Chapel) is beyond this sanctuary, separated from it by a screen behind the high altar with open traceried window to the Chapel. The Chapel itself has a richly painted timber roof and stone angel along with an east facade with arcaded lancet windows below a small
rose windowA Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
and gable, along with gabled and pinnacled buttresses.
Annette Peach, in her entry for Brandon in the
Dictionary of National BiographyThe Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
, writes:
- "The Catholic Apostolic Church in Gordon Square, London, was built between 1850 and 1854 and, though reproducing features recorded by the Brandon brothers in their scholarly works, this extremely large church was criticized by a contemporary for its lack of originality of design . Recent scholars, however, have drawn attention to the combination of thirteenth- and fifteenth-century Gothic precedents in its design, which offer a tangible record of the Brandon brothers' study of ecclesiastical architecture."
The church was designated a
Grade I listed building on 10 June 1954.
University Church
From 1963 to 1994 it was known as the
University Church of Christ the King and served the Anglican Chaplaincy to the Universites and Colleges of the Diocese of London. In practice it was a worship centre for students living in the University halls nearby, but was also used occasionally for London-wide events. The last Chaplaincy Sunday service was held on 28 June 1992 but a weekday service continued until Ash Wednesday (16 February) 1994. The Chaplaincy returned the lease on the Church to the Catholic Apostolic Trustees on 30 June 1994. There was a popular student café in the Crypt for several years until the church closed.
This new role was begun with a morning Eucharist, at which the
Bishop of LondonThe Bishop of London is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
(the Right Reverend Robert Stopford) celebrated, and an Evensong (with the former Bishop of London and Canon of St. Paul's, Dr. J. W. C. Wand, preaching), both on October 6 1963. During this period, a Thanksgiving Eucharist was celebrated at 7pm on 27 November 1988 for the 25th anniversary of this role, with the Right Reverend Michael Marshall preaching and, on 6 December 1983, the Memorial Service for
Nikolaus PevsnerSir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture. He is best known for his 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England .-Life:The son of a Jewish merchant, Pevsner was born in Leipzig,...
was held here. In July 1992, the Chaplaincy decided to stop holding weekly services there.
Forward in Faith
The church's current user is the conservative
Forward in FaithForward in Faith is a movement operating in a number of provinces of the Anglican Communion. On the whole it represents a traditionalist strand of Anglo-Catholicism...
movement, presided over by the
Bishop of FulhamThe Bishop of Fulham is a suffragan bishop who fulfills the role of a provincial episcopal visitor for the Church of England Dioceses of London, Southwark, and Rochester, and visits parishes throughout these dioceses who cannot in good conscience accept the ministry of bishops who have participated...
, the Right Reverend John Broadhurst.
External links