Church Of St Barnabas

Church of St Barnabas, Homerton High Street, Hackney

Built between 1845 and 1847 by architect Arthur Ashpitel, with a north aisle added in 1851. The church was constructed to serve the rapidly expanding population of early Victorian Hackney. It was funded by a £3,000 grant, with the endowment and half the cost of the vicarage paid for by Joshua Watson (1771-1855), a prominent Evangelical churchman and leader of the influential Hackney Phalanx. The original building was designed to seat approximately 607 people, of which 570 seats were free. The north aisle was added a few years after completion to accommodate the continued growth of the area. The chancel was rearranged by R.T. Withers in 1874. The church suffered bomb damage in 1944 and underwent extensive restoration work between 1956 and 1958 under the direction of William C. Lock, with rededication in September 1958.

The church is built in a late medieval style incorporating architectural details from the 14th and 15th centuries, with a predominant Perpendicular character. The exterior is constructed of Kentish ragstone in squared blocks and level courses with Bath stone dressings, and slate roofs. The plan comprises a west tower, five-bay nave, north and south aisles, a low chancel, south porch, and north vestry.

The prominent four-stage tower features an embattled parapet and angle buttresses, with a higher polygonal south-east stair turret also embattled. The south face of the tower bears an unusual clock face with stone-carved numerals. There is no clerestory. A doorway with continuous moulding is located at the west end. The aisles have their own gabled roofs and are lit by two-light reticulated windows in the north and south elevations, separated by buttresses between each aisle bay, with angle buttresses at the corners. The chancel contains two-light reticulated windows (one on the north, two on the south) with more elaborate tracery than those in the aisles. The priest's door on the south side is blocked. A plain mullioned three-light east window, probably inserted during the 1950s refitting, lights the chancel.

The interior features a tall tower arch with filleted mouldings at the west end. The arcades to the wide aisles have alternate octagonal and round piers with foliage capitals and moulded bases on plinths. Large foliate corbels serve as bases for the nave wall-posts, though these sit somewhat awkwardly approximately 20 centimetres above the capitals. The south-west capital bears the names of those killed in the First World War. The repairs following the 1944 bomb damage significantly affected the building by closing off the former chancel with a plain wall. The arch-braced roofs date from the 1950s work.

The furnishings are a complete replacement, brought in from St Andrew, Bethnal Green, and comprise simple pine benches with angular-shaped ends and a conventional brass eagle lectern. The floor throughout is light-coloured composition small artificial rectangular tiles. The octagonal font beneath the tower is decorated with symbols of the Evangelists, IHS, and Dove. The octagonal pulpit, which appears reduced from its original height, features open tracery. The church contains a large painting of the Crucifixion (formerly part of a triptych) by Alfred Soord, dated 1906 and signed, along with a similarly large painting by Soord of the Lost Sheep, positioned under the tower. Late 20th-century stained glass depicting the Adoration with a bright blue ground is located at the east end of the south aisle. The organ is by Hill & Son of London.

Adjacent to the church to the west stands No. 109, St Barnabas Hall & Schools, dated 1884 and also constructed of ragstone in Tudor style, as indicated by an inscription on the building.

The architect, Arthur Ashpitel FSA (1807-1869), was a local man born in Hackney who commenced practice in 1842. He suffered ill-health after 1855 and travelled abroad, but continued his architectural practice. He is buried at St John's, Hackney.