Former Congregational Church (Azhar Academy Girl'S School)

Former Congregational Church, now Azhar Academy Girl's School

This former Congregational Church on Romford Road was constructed in 1883 to designs by T Lewis Banks, with an earlier church hall of 1880 by the same architect and congregation abutting its rear. The foundation stone was laid by Henry Wright Esq JP and the builder was Charles Sharpe. The building later became known as the United Reformed Church in the second half of the 20th century. In 2002, having become redundant as a church, it was granted listed building consent for conversion to a school, and the Azhar Academy Girl's School opened in 2003.

The building is constructed in Early English Gothic style using knapped flint with red stone and red brick dressings and a tiled roof. The former church comprises a nave with lean-to aisles, a south-eastern vestry, and a distinctive 3-stage buttressed and pinnacled tower with short spire to the south-west. The tower features triple arcading to the top stage with a gabled centre panel of louvres and blind arcading below.

The west end facing Romford Road has two gabled, porched entrances with arcades between on the ground floor. Above these are three lancets with brick mullions flanked by trefoil arches and single lancets. The uppermost portion of the gable contains triple lancets flanked by blind single lancets, with a decorative cross set into a panel of red stone at the apex, though the pinnacle is missing. To the right of the entrance is a projecting vestry which resembles a short tower at lower levels, with arcading to the ground floor and buttresses to corners. The first floor features triple mullioned windows, and it is surmounted by a steeply pitched, curved-hipped, tiled structure, almost semi-circular in form, with continuous timber mullioned glazing with leaded lights. Twin gabled transepts project to either side of the nave with round-arched, stepped lancet windows with moulded brick mullions and stone pilasters.

The two-storey, gabled former church hall to the rear has gabled porches facing west. The lancet windows to the west and north have been infilled with breeze blocks. The single bay joining the former church to the hall has been converted into a stair and heightened with a glazed clerestory and modern roof. A two-storey former clergy house with gables to north and south abuts the rear of the hall to the east. It is constructed of flint with brick quoins, chimney stacks and window dressings, with the northern gable rendered. The ground floor window has been blocked, adjacent to a small brick porch with pitched roof.

The interior retains none of the original fixtures and fittings. The conversion to school use involved inserting classrooms and offices into the former nave, arranged across two mezzanines fronted with glass to the central hall areas. Upper floors are reached by a stair and lift in the tower and by the stair at the rear between the school and old hall. The nave arcading, formed of large sandstone pillars, and the aisle and clerestory window mouldings remain exposed. The windows retain red brick and red stone arched dressings with red stone pilasters and moulded motifs, some with stained glass in the upper sections. At first floor, the timber wall posts, hammer beams and arched braces on stone corbels are visible in the modern classrooms. A floor inserted at the impost level of the roof vault creates a large prayer hall in the roof space where the impressive original hammerbeam roof is visible. A second prayer hall is accommodated in the former church hall to the rear, where a suspended ceiling has been inserted but window openings and wall posts to the roof structure remain visible. The former clergy house is used for utilities.