Church Of St Jude

Church of St Jude is a church built in 1870, with a tower and spire added in 1879. It was designed by George and Henry Godwin and is constructed of Kentish ragstone jumper-work with stone dressings. The steeply pitched gabled roofs are covered with bands of pale and dark grey slates, with a lower chancel and sanctuary roof. A shingled spire tops the tower. The building is in the Gothic style.

The church has a 7-bay nave, measuring over 30 metres in length, as well as a chancel, sanctuary, double semi-transepts, and a southwest tower. Windows feature geometric tracery, with those at the east end and in the transepts holding six lights. Buttresses define most angles. The tower has paired, louvered belfry openings and a clock face on each facade.

Inside, the church has a scissor-braced king-post roof. Current whitewash obscures polychrome brickwork and sheet copper faced capitals. The nave arcade rests on thin iron columns with Transitional style iron capitals. For much of the nave's length, the aisles broaden into transepts, accommodating galleries at first floor level, supported by an outer row of iron columns. A gallery also spans the west end. The shallow chancel contains murals of fictive arcading with lilies and passion flowers flanking two harp-playing angels on a gold background on the northern wall; the organ is located here. The shallow sanctuary features a blue painted roof with gold stars; murals from 1879-80, by Edward Frampton, depict fictive arcading with angels, prophets, Apostles, and elders on a gold background, flanking a reredos of alabaster and marble, carved by Thomas Earp and inset with mosaics by Alviati and Burke. The reredos represents the Adoration of the Lamb. A coloured marble and alabaster pulpit, supported by short columns, features carved figures of St Jude, St Peter, St Paul and St Augustine, also by Frampton and Earp, dated 1881. The church retains original numbered pews. The chancel floor is laid with Minton tiles, while the nave has diagonally set quarry tiles.

St Jude's was built during a period of growth in church building in Kensington, coinciding with disputes over ritual. It was a “Low” church commissioned by the Revd J A Aston, anticipating development within the Gunter estates, and financed by the wealthy evangelical businessman John Derby Allcroft, a glove manufacturer. The design attempted to reconcile orthodox ecclesiological ideas with evangelical seating traditions, and provided seating for approximately 1,600 people.