Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew was built in 1903-4 to designs by Philip Appleby Robson as part of the South Germans Estate developed by Cameron Corbett. It was consecrated on 29 October 1904 by the Bishop of Rochester. The church is constructed of red brick with limestone dressings. The nave and chancel have ribbed clay tile roofs, while the north chapel, north porch and transepts are covered with slate.

The church has a substantial plan comprising nave, chancel, north and south aisles, north and south porches, north and south transepts, a north chapel, and south organ chamber and vestries. St Andrew's is built in a freely treated Gothic style that represents an eclectic approach to medieval precedent. The architect himself described the style as "an adaptation of fourteenth century English Gothic", but in reality there is a free mixing of styles—touches of thirteenth-century lancets, Perpendicular east and west windows, inventive touches such as the gargoyles, and hints of Art Nouveau in some of the window tracery and glass.

Exterior

The north and west facades are the most visible. The most striking feature on the north side is the treatment of the northeast chapel, where the buttresses rise to gables and flying buttresses from them span the gabled roof of the chapel. Gargoyles at the tops of the vertical buttresses discharge water that runs down the flying components. A similar arrangement appears on the south side. The north transept has three tall, graded windows with a hint of Art Nouveau in the tracery. Similar windows occur in three of the four bays of the nave. They are placed under segmental arches which span the bays between the buttresses. These buttresses penetrate the aisle roofs and become an integral part of the formation of the passage aisles inside.

The west bay of the nave is unaisled and unfenestrated on its north and south sides; its west elevation has a large four-light window. Small porches are tucked into the angles of the nave and aisles. At the east end the east wall of the chancel is canted and has a five-light window plus tall lancets set on the diagonal walling. The north chapel ends in a three-sided apse. On the south side of the chancel is a stone bell-turret with cusped louvred openings and battlements. There is no clerestory or tower.

Interior

The dominant architectural feature is the way brick arcades run the entire length of the church, apart from the west bay of the nave. The arches, whose mouldings die into the octagonal piers, continue at the same height, are not varied as they pass the transepts, and are continued by three bays to where the east wall of the chancel is canted in. There are three arches to the nave arcades plus two bays for the transepts. The chancel arch is set high and does not interfere with the rhythm of the east-west arches. This use of continuous arcading from the nave through to the east end is an original feature which adds much visual interest to the interior.

The aisles are narrow passages and have half arches across them corresponding to the external buttresses. They also have lintels with wavy tops spanning them. To the north side of the chancel the chapel has three low, plain segmental arches. The unity created by the arcading through nave and chancel is reinforced by the fact that both parts have tall, thin wall shafts that rise through the valleys of the arches to the springing of the roof.

The roof over the nave has canted sides and is divided into rectangular panels; the chancel roof has a low-pitched keel shape and is also divided into rectangular panels. Both roofs are reinforced with metal ties. A keeled roof also covers the north chapel. The chancel is floored with marble in subtle tones of beige, grey and cream. The nave and aisles are floored with wooden blocks.

Fittings

St Andrew's church has fittings of considerable quality. The chancel has a fine ensemble of stalls which form a group with the pulpit and reading desk. The stalls have traceried frontals and bold poppy-heads to the ends. At the entrance to the chancel is a low wooden screen with a traceried front and a pierced black letter inscription. At the east end of the chancel a delicate wrought-iron screen separates an ambulatory from the sanctuary. The font is of white marble with grey veining and has a circular, cup-shaped bowl with four corner shafts. The seating in the nave has conventional shaped ends. Around the bases of the piers there is plain but elegant panelling.

There is an exceptional collection of stained glass designed by Martin Travers and dating from 1921 to 1937. His is the kaleidoscopic east window with Christ in Majesty in the centre light surrounded by soldiers in medieval dress carrying banners and a bishop; it was installed as a First World War memorial. Other windows have plainer glass with the typical Art Nouveau detail of stylised trees and foliage.

Immediately to the west of the church is a war memorial cross flanked by tablets commemorating the fallen.

The Architect

Philip Appleby Robson (1871-1951) was born in Liverpool, the son of the well-known architect Edward Robert Robson who was famous for his designs for and writings about schools. Robson junior was articled to the great Gothic Revivalist John Loughborough Pearson. He passed the RIBA qualifying exam in 1896 and became an Associate of the RIBA the following year. He practised in Westminster, then East Grinstead and moved to Manchester in 1919. He retired in 1939. Other works by him include St Gabriel's College, Lambeth (1899-1903) and St James's church, Grove, Berkshire (1901).

Martin Travers

Martin Travers (1886-1948) was one of the most distinguished church furnishers and stained glass painters of the twentieth century. He was born in Margate and educated at Tonbridge School and the Royal College of Arts. He then worked for short periods with his teacher at the Royal College of Arts, Arthur Beresford Pite, and then with Ninian Comper, but by 1911 he had set up on his own account. Virtually all his work was for the Church of England. He was much in tune with contemporary Anglo-Catholicism but worked for a broad spectrum of churchmanship. In 1925 he was appointed Head of Stained Glass at the Royal College of Arts, leading to a profound influence on a generation of practitioners, particularly Lawrence Lee and John Hayward.

Significance

St Andrew's is an excellent example of the eclectic Gothic that was current at the end of the nineteenth century and in the Edwardian period. The exterior is rather disparate and not as satisfactory as the interior. The church is of very considerable interest as an early twentieth-century church with architecturally inventive features such as the use of flying buttresses at the east end, the treatment of the passage aisles and the use of a continuous stream of arcading from the nave through to the east end of the church. There are fixtures of considerable quality and interest in the chancel woodwork, iron screens at the east end, the font, and the use of Art Nouveau motifs in various windows. The church is particularly notable for its exceptional stained glass by the important designer Martin Travers installed during the interwar period.