Church Of St Laurence And Community Centre

Parish church built in 1967-8 by Covell Matthews Partnership, with an attached community centre. The building has undergone only minor later alterations.

The church comprises three interconnected main parts: an octagonal church with a corona, a pentagonal Lady Chapel with a tall open-work spire 56 metres high, and a community centre containing a hall, kitchens, coffee room and other spaces for social activities. The structure uses a reinforced concrete skeleton with red brick infilling. Concrete flying buttresses project from the octagonal body of the church, forming the ribs of the shallow domed roof beneath which segmental slips of clerestory are exposed to each of the eight sides. The corona is finished in aluminium, stainless steel and gold, as is the 56-metre spire to the Lady Chapel, which houses a bell salvaged from the Victorian church it replaced. The quality of materials is good, with the brick, concrete and metals enhancing the building's compositional strengths: the concrete emphasises the flying buttresses, while the different types of metal bring the spire and corona to life. The church is entered via a projecting porch with brick-clad walls, floor-to-ceiling glazing and a raised concrete parapet decorated with patterns in rough-cast concrete. The original double doors form a large cross when closed together.

The interior presents a dramatic octagonal auditorium with rich textures. The polygonal roof is coffered with triangular panels of fibreglass. The clerestory contains coloured glass in an abstract pattern of blocks of bold, dense colour designed by T Carter Shapland. The altar cross, also by Shapland, is made from fragments of coloured glass. The walls and floors are finished in light-grey brick. The stained glass window mullions extend across the concrete structural beam below, reflecting the holistic approach to design. The sense of geometry is conveyed through the triangular patterns of the ceiling, the circular altar dais and the curved pews, which radiate in a fan shape from three sides of the altar. This arrangement exploits the post-war fashion for worship in the round while avoiding the problem of the celebrant turning his or her back on some members of the congregation. The altar, altar rails, choir stalls, clergy chairs and hymn boards are all original. The organ by JW Walker and Sons incorporates pipes from the old church organ. A single stained glass window commemorating the service of the local regiment in the First World War was also salvaged from the old church.

The Lady Chapel contains its original fittings, including pews and altar, as well as a later jacaranda carving of the martyrdom of St Laurence by the Kenyan artist Samuel Wanjau, dating to 1975.

The community centre uses the same materials as the church but is a straightforward box with a flat roof and an attic storey to accommodate the taller main hall. It is architecturally plainer than the church itself but contributes to the special character of the whole as an integral part of the church's mission. The hall is an attractive double-height space with large windows in two rows along one side, separated by concrete piers.

St Laurence Church replaced an 1887 church by HR Gough located nearby. The site of the old church was acquired by Lewisham Council for part of a new civic centre called Laurence House. The builders were FC Steele and Partners, and the church cost over £200,000, covered by compensation from Lewisham Council for the loss of the old church and site. Upon opening in 1968, St Laurence was known as the 'space-age' church, with its spire likened to a satellite. It was also called 'the mod church'. The church was intended as a community centre as well as a place of worship. The site on Bromley Road was large enough to accommodate a substantial social centre constructed at the same time as the church, vicarage and two houses. The Church Times called it 'a parish centre (of a type unheard of this side of the Atlantic)'.