Art

The original approved architect's design drawings for this attractive Edwardian gothic revival church, which stands unaltered today. The Church of St. Andrew was built as a replacement for the small eighteenth-century chapel - Park, later Emmanuel, Chapel - on the east side of the road, originally called Twopenny Walk. The freehold of the site was given by Major R. C. H. Sloane Stanley, and the required funds offered by Charles A. Bannister, a London solicitor, the work being finished in 1913. Pevsner describes it thus: "Bldg of red brick with stone dressings by Sir A. Blomfield & Sons 1912-13 in Dec. style. Chancel, NE. vestry, aisled and clerestoreyed nave, SW. tower with pinnacles and stone spire; plain, spacious interior." The Blomfield partnership was founded by Sir Arthur William Blomfield who, after schooling at Rugby and taking an MA at Trinity College, Cambridge, was articled to Phillip Charles Hardwick, the architect to the Bank of England. He was the son of the Bishop of London and "His ecclesiastical connections made him especially knowledgeable about nineteenth-century Anglican liturgical needs, and he was active in reordering existing churches so that they could be made appropriate to modern worship. His ecclesiastical output was considerable, and it was in such buildings, and others with an ecclesiastical connection, that he produced his best work... His successful practice drew the attention of the young Thomas Hardy whose training as a Gothic The original approved architect's design drawings for this attractive Edwardian gothic revival church, which stands unaltered today. The Church of St. Andrew was built as a replacement for the small eighteenth-century chapel - Park, later Emmanuel, Chapel - on the east side of the road, originally called Twopenny Walk. The freehold of the site was given by Major R. C. H. Sloane Stanley, and the required funds offered by Charles A. Bannister, a London solicitor, the work being finished in 1913. Pevsner describes it thus: "Bldg of red brick with stone dressings by Sir A. Blomfield & Sons 1912-13 in Dec. style. Chancel, NE. vestry, aisled and clerestoreyed nave, SW. tower with pinnacles and stone spire; plain, spacious interior." The Blomfield partnership was founded by Sir Arthur William Blomfield who, after schooling at Rugby and taking an MA at Trinity College, Cambridge, was articled to Phillip Charles Hardwick, the architect to the Bank of England. He was the son of the Bishop of London and "His ecclesiastical connections made him especially knowledgeable about nineteenth-century Anglican liturgical needs, and he was active in reordering existing churches so that they could be made appropriate to modern worship. His ecclesiastical output was considerable, and it was in such buildings, and others with an ecclesiastical connection, that he produced his best work... His successful practice drew the attention of the young Thomas Hardy whose training as a Gothic draughtsman was a strong recommendation to Blomfield, in whose office he worked on his arrival in London in 1862" (ODNB). After his death in 1899 the practice was continued by his two sons who had joined him in 1890; Charles James Blomfield, who became architect to the Dean and Chapter of Southwark Cathedral and carried out sensitive restorations at St Cross, Winchester, and St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol; and Arthur Conran Blomfield, later architect to the Bank of England, and to Edward VII at Sandringham. READ MORE 7 large pen and ink drawings with watercolour, numbered 1 to 7, signed in the name of the architects and dated in April 1912, docketing and conditional approval stamps of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, and contractual certification stamps signed by Charles A. Bannister, one of the major patrons of the project, and dated 12 September 1912. A couple of pencilled sketches of stone-work details to no. 7. Some surface soiling, a few edge-splits, no. 7 with a closed tear, no loss, overall very good. Some surface soiling, a few edge-splits, no. 7 with a closed tear, no loss, overall very good.