Church Of St Mark, Noel Park

Church of St Mark, Noel Park

Built in 1889 and designed by Rowland Plumbe, this church was constructed to serve the developing Noel Park estate. The land was purchased by Richard Foster, a wealthy High Church layman involved in contemporary church building schemes in Shoreditch. The church was funded by the Incorporated Church Building Society, the Bishop of London's Fund, and the Shropshire Mission to East London. The mission hall of 1885 that it replaced, which had seated 350, had become too crowded for the growing congregation and was subsequently retained as a parish hall.

The church is built of dark red brick with lighter red terracotta detailing. Its layout is aligned southeast to northwest to accommodate its island site and the pre-existing parish hall to the south. The plan comprises an aisled nave with five bays, small transepts, and a chancel with liturgical north and south chapels, each opening to the chancel through a single arch. The eastern nave arcades are expressed as crossing arches for the transepts. The church is linked to the parish hall through a complex of vestries.

The exterior displays simple stepped arches in an early Gothic style. The west window contains five grouped lancets, and the east window has a similar three-light arrangement. An intended tower was never built. The church stands on an island site as part of a group that includes the adjacent parish hall of 1885 and a vicarage built in 1903 to designs by J S Alder.

The interior features red brick with plain Early English-style detailing to the arches and windows, including detached shafts with shaft rings and moulded capitals. A lofty arched tie-beam roof spans the nave. The principal fixtures include a stone pulpit with carved figures, notably depicting Bishop How (1823–97), suffragan bishop in the Bedford diocese with responsibility for East London from 1879 to 1888. His Shropshire origins likely account for the Shropshire Mission Society's role in helping to fund the church's construction. East end panelling and a reredos in marble and alabaster were added piecemeal from around 1890 to 1914, creating a good overall effect. The nave contains simple benches and there is a small group of choir stalls in the chancel.

The church provided 850 sittings and by the early 20th century was the best attended parish church in Wood Green. Rowland Plumbe, who also designed the Noel Park estate itself, was the church's architect.