Church of St Thomas

Church of St Thomas

A parish church begun in 1774 by Joseph Devall as a proprietary chapel for his tenants, sited adjacent to Clapton Terrace. The building was consecrated as a chapel of ease for the parish of Hackney and dedicated to St. Thomas in October 1827, following its purchase by Reverend George Richards and subsequent enlargement. The east tower was added in 1828 by Joseph Gwilt. The church underwent significant reconstruction in 1873 under William Burges, who removed the galleries, reduced the fenestration, and installed a new wooden roof whilst reconfiguring the chancel. The interior was severely damaged by bombing in the Second World War, though the early 19th-century tower was spared. Rebuilding was undertaken in 1960 by N.F. Cachemaille-Day, the eminent church architect who served as Architect-Surveyor to the Archdeaconry of Hackney.

The tower at the east end is of stuccoed finish and rises in three stages. The base of the square tower features banded rustication, a tall blind opening with large voussoirs, and is flanked by one-storey wings in line with the aisles. The next stage has corner pilasters and a central blind oculus with voussoirs to each face, the east-facing oculus containing a clock. The top stage is open and carries pedimented orders with Ionic half-columns to east and west, and Doric pilasters to north and south, with a squat central pinnacle above. Behind the tower lies the flat-roofed body of the church, rebuilt in stock brick following bomb damage. The rebuilt church features square windows at clerestory level and rectangular windows in the lower aisles. At the west end stands a Lady Chapel with the present entrance, approached by steps within brick walls. The west front displays five rounded arched openings with fanlights, the southern opening forming the entrance doors.

The interior is accessed from the west into a lobby screened from the west chapel by a glazed screen, similarly divided from the main body. The Lady Chapel is lit by round-headed windows in the west wall and a pair of figurative coloured glass windows in the north wall where a small altar is situated. The church possesses an impressive basilican interior with tall square-plan piers, straight lintels, and square clerestory windows to north, south and west. A square vent sits above each pier. The tall ceiling displays an exposed concrete beamed roof structure with seven beams and joists running east-west. The east apse and shallow flat capitals of the piers are gilded. An altar rail with widely spaced vase balusters, some late 20th-century replicas, stands before the high altar and rood, which were created by Martin Travers in 1921. A painted reredos to the north altar from the early 20th century was brought from Lambeth Palace. The church contains a chamber organ dating to around 1800, brought from elsewhere, and pews of 19th-century date from another church. At the west end stands a font with a flat concrete canopy bearing a dove in sunburst detail underneath, the font itself of concrete. Glass includes heraldic work by the firm Goddard and Gibbs, added during the post-war reconstruction period. The basement below the tower retains evidence of 18th-century brickwork and relieving arches, with mid-20th-century concrete roof structure otherwise.