Church of St Peter

A Commissioners' church built between 1823 and 1825 to designs by Sir John Soane, and restored by Thomas Ford between 1952 and 1955 following Second World War bomb damage.

Materials

The church is faced with yellow stock brick and has stone dressings. The columns to the front (west) elevation are of Portland stone, while the bulk of the tower is of Bath stone. The nave has a pitched slate roof, and the flat gallery roofs were re-laid with copper during the 1950s restoration.

Plan

The church is rectangular on plan and oriented on an east-west axis. The building comprises one main storey with internal galleries supported by columns, approached by small staircases either side of the entrance vestibule, and a vaulted undercroft below. A tower of two stages stands over the west end.

Exterior

The church has exterior walls of yellow brick laid in Flemish bond, rising from a stone plinth. The walls support a moulded entablature which obscures the flat gallery roofs behind. The nave roof has a shallow pitch and abuts the tower. The windows are generally tall, round-headed and latticed, set within recessed brick arches and resting on Bath stone sills.

The principal (west) elevation is five bays wide, with two such windows to the outer bays. The recessed central porch has four giant Ionic columns of Portland stone supporting a Bath stone entablature with a key pattern to the architrave, spanning the width of this elevation. Set within the porch between the columns are three fielded-panel doors with Portland stone architraves and entablature. The central doorway rises higher than its neighbours, meeting a moulded band of Portland stone, above which is a recessed panel of Bath stone. A flight of stone steps extends the width of the porch.

The tower over the west end is of two Corinthian orders and rests on a balustraded parapet with Soanean pinecone finials to the corners. The lower stage of the tower is square. Each of its four faces has a round-arched, louvred bell opening and a clock flanked by corner pilasters supporting the entablature above, which has a key pattern to the architrave. The upper stage is round with a cluster of eight Composite columns supporting a small dome surmounted by a weathervane.

The north and south side elevations are nine bays long. The outermost bays have windows slightly shorter in height below key-pattern architraves continuing from the west and east elevations. The inner windows have moulded panels of stone beneath them, and stone transoms indicating the presence of the galleries inside. The western part of the north elevation has been excavated to provide a ramp leading to a doorway which forms the main entrance to the undercroft. This has revealed the curved brick footings to the external walls with semi-circular, flat-topped buttresses corresponding with the church windows. These brick buttresses stop short of small, square-headed windows that light the undercroft.

The rear (east) elevation has projecting outer bays, each with a window slightly narrower than those to the other elevations. The key-patterned architrave wraps around from the side elevations and continues across these bays and along the returns to the deeply-recessed central three bays. Here there are three round-arched windows to the upper level, set above an arcaded open loggia of brick with a stone coping. A plain stone parapet stands above the cornice to the recessed section, and there are small, arched windows to the return walls of the projecting outer bays.

Interior

The nave is five bays long with aisles to the north and south beneath the balustraded galleries, which rest on Doric columns and have arcading carried on octagonal columns from the first floor to the ceiling. The aisles have an unusual, shallow, convex curve to their ceilings resting on tensely curved beams with pairs of scrolled consoles to the outer walls. The eastern ends of the north and south aisles in front of the original vestries were enclosed in the 1950s to form a choir vestry and a Lady Chapel, but the galleries above continue for an extra bay above these. A third, open gallery over the west end, which is also supported on Doric columns as well as turned columns of cast iron, now houses the organ, moved from Whitelands College, Putney and installed here in 2009. This incorporates parts of the original 1824 organ by Henry Cephas Lincoln previously in the sanctuary.

At the east end of the nave, the chancel is raised on a dais with the sanctuary raised on a further step up beyond. The chancel has Doric columns and pilasters to its north and south sides continuing from the aisles, with panelled doors leading to the adjacent vestries.

The roof is supported by shallow segmental arches spanning the whole width of the nave: one at the west end and two at the east above the sanctuary. These have circular cut-outs to the spandrels and are internally strengthened with wrought iron, an original feature. The flat ceiling is divided into a grid of rectangular panels, some of which have moulded rosettes, and has a moulded cornice and frieze with floral motifs.

Either side of the entrance vestibule there are square stair lobbies with rounded corners. At ground-floor level these lobbies are separated from the entrance vestibule by a succession of round arches. Each lobby contains a curved staircase of stone with a curved timber handrail supported by iron stick balusters, two to a tread. Alternating pairs of these balusters contain a vertical arrangement of three cast-iron rosettes framed by a diamond pattern. Both staircases extend down to the undercroft. The north staircase always did this, but in 2003 was modified using original stones to accommodate an accessible platform lift. As part of the same phase of works, the south staircase was extended down to the undercroft using reinforced concrete. The half-landing of each staircase cuts across the arched window and is supported on a pair of thin, turned columns of cast iron. The top landings at gallery level are divided from the bell-ringers' chamber by recesses containing pairs of Ionic columns and arched doorways leading to the chamber and galleries. The bell-ringers' chamber has walls of rendered brick and two curved staircases leading to the upper level.

The undercroft extends over the whole area of the church and has five groin-vaulted aisles formed from red and brown brick supporting the York stone church floor above. Most of the openings have round arches. The central hall space has steel I-beams inserted in 2003 to support the ceiling. The openings between the two outer aisles and the three central aisles are circular, their bases partly buried in the stone floor. Many of these circular openings had semi-glazed partitions inserted as part of the 2003 works. A similarly-shaped opening (but positioned above the floor level) at the centre of the west end of the undercroft had the bottom segment removed during the 2003 works to provide through access so that it now forms a rounded horseshoe arch. The other openings at the west end are oval-shaped with rounded heads and bases, while those at the east end are segmental arches.

Church Furniture and Fittings

Soane's original reredos stands against the east wall of the chancel. It has a pair of outer columns and pair of inner pilasters with Corinthian capitals, those to the pilasters flanking a flying dove and sunburst motif. Above this is a frieze with a key pattern in the centre and with scroll patterns either side, and a shallow, triangular pediment above. The entablature is surmounted by angels' heads.

Above the reredos are the 1950s stained glass east windows above the altar, designed by Clare Dawson, which depict from left to right: 'Christ Announced,' 'Christ Born,' and 'Christ Declared.' The other church windows have clear glass, but those to the staircases and vestries have a border of blue stained glass.

A white marble font made by Garland and Fieldwick was installed in 1839 and stands at the west end of the south aisle. The font has a decorated bowl on a fluted column, and stands on a square stone base bearing dedicatory inscriptions. There are stone memorial plaques in the galleries and north-east vestry to former parishioners and their families dating from the 1830s to the 1850s.