Highgate School Chapel

TQ 2887 NORTH ROAD, N6 (east side)

800-/40/10016 Highgate School Chapel

GV II

School chapel. 1865-6 by Frederick Pepys Cockerell. Red brick with some stone dressings and decorations, internally polychromatic use of different coloured bricks with stone and tiles. Slate roof Chapel partially raised over open undercroft to north and reached up steps to west under clock tower. Five-bay body with five-light apse set liturgically, central timber fleche. Round-arched lancets with central cusped light set between buttresses under parapet of open stone tracery. To south and apse a blind, round-arched arcade with brick moulding in tympanums and stone banding; to north the undercroft has a virtually round-arched arcade with octagonal columns under unusual Ionic capitals, and moulded brickwork in spandrels. Undercroft has within it a pump (moved there), wooden benches and a First World War Memorial. Steps lead thence past Boer War Memorial to entrance door set within ballflower moulding and pointed arch. Interior retains lavish polychromy to walls and floors. The body of the chapel is panelled to dado height, with many memorials. Open timber truss roof Pews probably early C20, choir stalls probably 1930s. Marble lining to dado height in apse, incorporating stoup; pulpit, lectern and altar rails. Two organs, that at the west end installed 1980s. Good collection of stained glass, including in the apse memorials to Henry Chester, died 1868; Robert Isherwood, 1837; Henry Leak 1863; Thomas Causton 1856; William Bloxan, 1814; all in similar style. Particularly fine are windows on the south side, which are good examples of1880s Aesthetic Movement style glass, and the west rose window of uncertain date. One window replaced 1953 after war damage. Highgate School chapel forms part of the major rebuilding of the school, founded in 1565, in the mid-nineteenth century. The ensemble of chapel and school hall is of great architectural and historical importance at the centre of Highgate village. Sources: C A Evans and A P White, 'The Story ofHighgate School, 1938-1949', c.1950 S W Kitchener, 'Old Highgate, the Story ofa London Village', n.d.

Listing NGR: TQ2834787469

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 16 February 2017.