Church Of St Paul

Overview and History

The Church of St Paul is one of the outstanding achievements of English Baroque architecture, built between 1713 and 1730 to designs by Thomas Archer. It was one of the churches commissioned under the Act of Parliament of 1711, which established the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches. This initiative was funded by a tax on coal entering London and aimed to provide church accommodation in areas experiencing rapid urban growth, such as Deptford, home to one of the Royal Navy's most important dockyards.

Thomas Archer, who was himself one of the Commissioners, had travelled extensively between 1686 and 1689, almost certainly visiting Germany, Austria, and Italy. This exposure to Continental architecture gave him knowledge of Roman and Viennese Imperial Baroque that distinguished his work from his contemporaries. However, like Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh, his buildings display a characteristically English preference for simple yet expansive and rich classical effects. St Paul's Deptford forms part of the wider International Late Baroque movement, alongside works by Fontana and Juvarra in Italy, Fischer von Erlach and Hildebrandt in Vienna, and Hardouin-Mansart in France. The church shares the interest in suppressed central planning and cross-axes evident in Hawksmoor's churches for the Commission.

Archer also designed St Philip Birmingham (now Birmingham Cathedral, 1710-15, with its tower added in 1725) and St John's Smith Square in Westminster (1713-28) for the Commission. The plans for St Paul's Deptford were drawn up in 1712, construction began in 1713, and the building was largely complete by 1720, though some work continued until 1730. The church was restored in 1856 by J Whichcord and again in 1883 by T Dinwiddy, with further restorations in the 20th and early 21st centuries. Despite these interventions, and excepting remodelling of the furnishings in the 19th century, the church retains much of its original appearance.

The Commission churches were notably more expensive than their predecessors: the major ones cost as much as ten times the average cost of a Wren City church built forty years earlier, reflecting their greater richness and ambition. Archer also designed an inventive triangular parsonage for the site, but this was demolished around 1885.

Exterior

St Paul's is a large and magnificent church built in a strongly modelled Classical style characteristic of English Baroque, with heavy use of Doric elements throughout. The building is constructed of brick faced in Portland stone ashlar, with exposed brick visible in the crypt, and lead roofs. The church is raised on a wide, integral stone terrace that extends all the way around, with staircases to the north, south, and west. A crypt runs beneath the entire church.

The plan is cruciform externally but suppressed to appear as a rectangular block. It features an eastern apse, a western semi-circular Doric portico with round tower, and wide three-bay pedimented north and south projections. The exterior displays rusticated pilasters and recessed round-arched windows with triple keystones throughout, with lunette windows positioned over the doors and lighting the staircases at the west end.

The western apse rises above a half-round staircase and is encircled by a monumental semi-circular Doric portico. This portico derives from the semi-circular porches of the north and south transepts of St Paul's Cathedral, but ultimately from the half-oval porch Pietro da Cortona designed for the façade of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome (1656-57), which Archer, unlike Wren, may have seen in person. The portico supports a tall, slender round tower of two stages topped by a two-stage polygonal spire. The eastern apse features a Venetian window that follows the curve and is crowned by a pediment.

The north and south transeptal projections have pediments with lunettes and central doorways leading to balustraded symmetrical staircases. These staircases provide access to the crypt located below the central terrace. The exterior has been very little altered and displays powerful, sophisticated architectural conception throughout.

Interior

The power evident in the exterior extends to the fine and dignified classical interior, which is typical of English Baroque in its sophisticated yet restrained central plan, rich architecture, and luxuriant plasterwork. The interior plan is also cruciform but suppressed, particularly by the heavy cornice surrounding the central space, creating the clear impression of a central rectangle with subsidiary side spaces. The church retains its original galleries and exceptionally rich plasterwork mouldings in relatively unaltered condition, though floor levels at the east end were raised in 1895.

The entrance features a round vestibule with curved staircases leading to the galleries. Giant Corinthian columns support a richly moulded entablature around the nave and apse. Panelled oak galleries on the north and south sides are suspended behind these columns. The corners are cut off diagonally and glazed internally to create vestries in the eastern angles and space for gallery staircases in the western angles. Projecting inwards from each canted angle at gallery level is a box gallery supported on oak Corinthian columns. The west organ gallery stands higher than the side galleries on paired fluted Corinthian columns.

The brick-vaulted crypt is very similar to that in Archer's St John's Smith Square.

Decorative Scheme and Fixtures

The church possesses outstanding plasterwork ceilings by James Hands. An 18th-century painted decorative scheme in the apse was excellently restored in the early 21st century following fire damage.

An unusual painted window of 1813 by William Collins has been reset from the east end into the internal window of the northwest gallery box pew. The bombé-shaped pulpit was cut down from its original three-decker arrangement in 1873, when the tester was also removed, but it retains part of its 18th-century wrought-iron stairs. Similar 18th-century railings and gates, probably part of the former communion rails, are stored in the south gallery. Some box pews survive at the west end beneath the organ gallery. The nave and gallery benches were cut down in the 19th century from 18th-century box pews. A 19th-century neo-Romanesque font was brought from Rochester Cathedral.

The church contains several good 18th-century and early 19th-century monuments, including memorials to Matthew Ffinch (died 1745), Vice-Admiral James Sayer (died 1776, by Nollekens), and Dr Charles Burney (died 1817).

Setting

The freestanding building stands within a large graveyard. The churchyard boundary wall on the south side contains significant amounts of 18th-century and early 19th-century brick, especially at its eastern end.

Significance

St Paul's Deptford represents one of the finest achievements of Thomas Archer and stands as an emblematic work of the English Baroque movement. Its style draws on English Baroque traditions while incorporating memories of Roman and Imperial Baroque architecture characteristic of its well-travelled architect. The modified centrally-planned interior, a feature shared with Archer's St John's Smith Square and Hawksmoor's churches for the Commission, demonstrates great spatial sophistication. The arrangement of raising the body of the church over the crypt, accentuated by elaborate flanking stairs, is unusual and emphasises the importance given to burial provision. The building is powerfully designed on each elevation, displaying both great strength and architectural erudition. The interior remains well preserved and well restored, retaining its excellent plasterwork and 18th-century painted decoration.