The Dutch Church

Church, 1950-54, by Arthur Bailey

The Dutch Church is a post-war church built in reinforced concrete with a box frame structure, clad externally in Portland stone ashlar and internally in Doulting stone. The building has a hipped slate roof dropping to an eaves cornice, with some lower flat roofs, and a leaded fleche rising from the junction of the T-shaped plan.

The plan comprises a tall rectangular central space with a low north aisle. The stepped north elevation rises in three levels, with a projecting segmental-headed doorway to the right and a projecting two-storey wing behind bearing a relief cross. Square-headed two-light windows appear at all three levels, tallest at the middle tier, set within recessed and moulded surrounds and topped by relief crests. A rusticated half basement also features square-headed two-light windows. The distinctive tall fleche at the roof junction has delicate pilasters and an ogee dome topped by a spire, with a weathervane. The external stonework includes a memorial to the Duke of Arnold, beheaded in the 14th century, who was buried in the old church; this was carved by John Skeaping. The forecourt, situated above the columbarium, is edged with low stone walls and steps and incorporates a surviving pier fragment from the medieval church.

The interior is ashlar-lined with segmental-headed arcades. The south wall is articulated by fluted pilasters, while the aisle features groin vaulting. A coffered segmental barrel ceiling covers the main space. Pews were donated by the Protestant Nederduitsch Vervormde and Gereformeerde churches of South Africa. Numerous windows contain stained glass, including work by W Wilson dating to 1954-8 commemorating the church's associations with the Church of England and Church of Scotland, glass from the Worshipful Company of Carpenters (connected to the church since 1558), and glass from the Corporation of the City of London. A memorial window to Queen Wilhelmina was added in 1962 by Rev. Kok. Three western windows by Max Nauta record the church's history and the sixteen English towns that permitted the Dutch community to worship in the 16th century. The central timber pulpit sits on a stone dais over a floorstone from the medieval friary church that occupied the site until 1940, with a tall timber panel and tester behind. Decorative brass chandeliers of traditional type serve the main space and aisle, with matching wall lights. An organ built in 1954 by Willem van Leeuwen of Leiderdorp, Holland, is accessed by a spiral stair; its treads feature glass commemorating William and Mary. Stairs with this commemorative glazing lead down to a lower community hall, library, and columbarium containing remains found during late 1940s excavations.

The Dutch Church is the oldest foundation of any foreign denomination in England and the oldest of any Protestant denomination, whether English or foreign. It received its charter from Edward VI in 1550 and was granted the Augustinian Friary on this site. After the community took brief refuge in Emden, north Germany, during the reign of Mary I, Elizabeth I restored the friary to them in 1560. This unbroken continuity of worship and the early missionary work of the pioneering Presbyterian community have led to the church being regarded as a mother church by Dutch Protestants in the Netherlands. The medieval church was bombed on 15-16 October 1940. The foundation stone of the present building was laid on 23 July 1950 by the ten-year-old Princess Irene of the Netherlands, symbolically commemorating the original foundation by the boy king Edward VI.

Arthur Bailey was a leading exponent of the refined English classical tradition that developed through the 1930s and 1950s, and this is perhaps his finest work. The Dutch Church represents a good example of a London church built for an expatriate congregation, combining Dutch and English craftsmanship while commemorating their shared history in the City. The result of English, Dutch, and South African patronage created one of the most lavish non-conformist churches built in England during the austere post-war years.