Church Of St Paul Including Attached Bell Tower, Church Hall, Flat Raised Pavement And Steps

Church of St Paul including attached bell tower, church hall, flat, raised pavement and steps

Parish church built 1957–9 to the designs of Humphrys and Hurst as the main or 'mother church' for the new town of Harlow, with Charles H Hockley as structural engineer. The building is constructed of load-bearing brown stock brick with concrete mullions and pre-cast tracery to the large areas of glazing. The shallow-pitched roofs with lower flat roofs to the surrounding aisles were originally clad in copper, with a pre-cast and steel-tensioned fleche clad in copper over the crossing.

The church follows a short cruciform plan with a nave, sanctuary, choir gallery over the baptistry and organ loft over the popular entrance facing each other on either side. To the south-east is the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, balanced by vestries to the north-east, with a church hall and flat adjoining. To the south-west a covered way extends across a raised platform to a separate bell tower with ringing chamber and wayside pulpit.

All aisles have tripartite mullion glazing. The nave is set behind a low narthex that extends beyond the church to an open porch under a shallow pitched roof at one end, and on the other into an open covered way linking the church and bell tower. Double plank doors incorporating narrow bands of glazing and square jewels of glass flank a projecting west end porch with mosaic inserts, set on a raised platform with steps. Similar treatment appears at a projecting loggia at the north-west corner, which has a shallow gabled roof, and at the bell tower, where the projecting wayside pulpit is decorated with blue mosaic and has a concrete canopy. The ringing chamber has arrowslit windows. The peal of bells in the tower were brought from a bomb-damaged East London church, symbolic as many of Harlow's inhabitants had also come from East London. Similar doors appear on the south side of the church, again set behind a broad concrete porch. The church hall has clerestorey glazing in a set-back metal roof, while the adjoining flat has thick timber windows of full height to the principal rooms.

The interior of the church is painted in bright colours, with dark red ceilings for the aisles and blue ceilings with white beams for the nave and transepts. The nave is largely glazed with a net of plain and lemon yellow glass reminiscent of Perpendicular grisaille glass, enforcing the image presented by the form of the tracery. The furniture and fittings are mainly by Reginald W Hurst, forming a very complete and highly decorative 1950s ensemble. The Binns organ, brought from Monmouthshire, was rebuilt in 1967. The church contains 16th or 18th century sculpture of the Virgin, a Crucifixion by Ruszkowski, a processional cross by John Skelton, and a mural by John Piper representing the recognition of the Risen Christ in the house at Emmaus (Luke 24, v.31). This was Piper's first mosaic, with the theme chosen to convey the sense of Christ being always present in his House.

The choice of brick was intended to provide a contrast to the Portland stone and concrete used for the surrounding buildings. As there were to be tall tower blocks nearby, a fleche was preferred to a tower as a symbol for the church, and a low bell tower was placed separately to house the bells taken from a bomb-damaged London church. The cross in the fleche is modelled on that for St Paul's Cathedral, London. The total cost was £40,000, which was indicative of an elaborate church for the times.

Canon Knight, the first incumbent, was a major influence on the design, having weekly meetings with the architects and consulting regularly with John Piper. He intended to keep to the best of traditional cruciform design whilst making imaginative use of modern materials, particularly the yellow stock brick for its hardness and durability. An early sketch exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1956 shows a more traditional cruciform plan with more glazing than the more complex design that finally emerged. The quality of the internal fixtures and fittings, the completeness of the ensemble and their sympathetic composition with Piper's mural make this an exceptional church. Piper's work here antedates in execution his work at Coventry Cathedral, completed in 1962. St Paul's, Harlow, was among the very first buildings erected in the centre of Harlow and was the first church in any new town centre. It is the finest church by this specialist firm of church architects, who had previously worked with the leading ecclesiastical architect N F Cachemaille-Day before forming their own practice. It was also their last work, as Reginald Hurst died while the building was under construction. The building was completed by Derrick Humphrys.