Former Church of Holy Trinity

Former Church of Holy Trinity

This church, built between 1826 and 1829, was designed by Sir Charles Barry and stands on Cloudesley Square in Islington. It is constructed of grey brick in Flemish bond with stone dressings and a slate roof. The building exemplifies the Early 19th-century Tudor-Gothic style.

The church comprises a chancel and nave under a single roof, with north-east and south-east vestries, north and south aisles, and north and south porches.

Exterior

The gabled east end features a five-light window beneath a four-centred arch with one transom, rectilinear tracery and hoodmould. Above this sits a quatrefoil window within the gable. Clasping buttresses rise up the gable and are carried into ogee-topped pinnacles, with setback buttresses superimposed upon them. The parapeted vestries flank this end.

The four-bay aisles have pointed-arched windows of two lights with rectilinear tracery and hoodmoulds, set between buttresses. The third bay from the east contains a gabled porch with a multi-moulded pointed-arched entrance, the mouldings dying into the responds, and a parapet with pinnacles.

The clerestory features two-light windows beneath four-centred arches with hoodmoulds, positioned between pinnacled buttresses.

At the west end stands a gabled section flanked by octagonal stone turrets, whose upper stages were obscured by scaffolding at inspection. The west window is pointed-arched with one transom and cinqfoiled tracery. The central west entrance is pointed-arched and multi-moulded, with a large hollow chamfer and panelled doors of original design.

Interior

The shallow chancel is covered by a sexpartite vault and opens to the nave through a four-centred arch. The arcade comprises five bays with half a blank bay at the west end, formed by clustered columns with hollow chamfers supporting pointed arches. The vault-shaft of the nave column integrates with the arcade structure.

A gallery occupies the west end within the last bay of the arcade, with billet moulding and arcading to its balustrade. The gallery contains wooden pews arranged in steps. A late-20th-century partition separates ground-floor entrance rooms below, which feature part-glazed doors and gothic-detailed screens.

A stone spiral stair is located in the south turret. The aisles have lean-to roofs, while the nave roof is of shallow pitch with decorative trusses and ribs.

The east window dates to 1828 and was created by Thomas Willement. The organ case dates from the 1820s.

Alterations and later use

The side galleries were removed in 1900. The eastern two bays of the nave were refurbished by Ewan Christian in 1901. The pews were removed in the later 20th century. A brick and tile enclosed area of sand known as Mercy Land was installed in the north-east aisle in the late 20th century.

The church became redundant and was taken on by the Celestial Church of Christ in the 1970s, which occupied it until 2017.

Historical context

This was Sir Charles Barry's third Islington church, built under the auspices of the Church Building Act of 1818, which provided one million pounds for the construction of 214 churches, predominantly in the Gothic style. These became known as Commissioners' churches. Barry's three Islington churches—including St John's and St Paul's—are considered amongst the finest of this period, successfully realising the newly embraced Gothic architectural language. Sir Gilbert Scott later praised Barry's Islington churches as "really respectable and well-intentioned". This church is listed at Grade II* as a well-surviving early-19th-century Commissioners' church by the nationally important architect, notable for its strong Tudor-Gothic qualities and soaring interior, ranking amongst the best early Gothic churches of its type.