Gates, Gate Piers, Boundary Railings and Walls to Church of St Peter

Gates, Gate Piers, Boundary Railings and Walls to Church of St Peter

The principal west entrance to the churchyard of the Church of St Peter, with associated boundary railings and walls, erected around 1825 under the direction of Sir John Soane.

The west entrance comprises a pair of Portland stone gate piers with inner cast iron piers and gates. Each stone pier has a four-sided tapered plinth, moulded at the bottom where it stands on a square base. The top of each pier features a square capstone in the shape of a cinerarium lid—a variant on the Neo-classical urn popular in Greek Revival design—decorated with a five-pointed star motif. The inner cast iron piers have a square section with each face comprising an upturned torch (symbolising eternal life) rising the full height, flanked by square bars. This five-pointed star design is repeated on these inner piers.

The gates themselves consist of a pair of carriage gates between the inner piers and a pedestrian gate on either side. All have spiked finials and a frieze with a circle pattern at the top, with a row of arrowhead finials and a diamond-pattern frieze to the dog bars. The central gates feature two large wheel motifs to the top corners and a central finial resembling an anthemion. The gates show extensive repair with visible fractures between elements, some appearing to have been welded together. Metal straps with Allen bolts reinforce the inner gate piers. Empty sockets below the upper hinges of the central gates may originally have held additional hinges not depicted in a measured drawing published in the Survey of London in 1955. Some individual elements may have been replaced with new castings.

The iron boundary railings to the west and east sides echo the gate design with spiked finials and circle-pattern frieze, set in a brick plinth. The section running across the garden of the Old Rectory has lost some circular components from the upper frieze and has two small sections removed—one for a modern gate and another for a metal staircase providing access between house and garden.

The north boundary wall has full-height sections at the west and east ends built off a brick plinth, constructed from stock brick laid in English garden wall bond with over-sailing stone copings. Some sections have been rebuilt in Flemish bond. Two brick piers with cinerarium lid capstones similar to the stone gate piers mark the north-west corner and the centre of the wall. On the south face of the wall facing the churchyard is an embedded stone plaque inscribed: "THE GROUND THREE FEET / NORTH OF THIS WALL / IS THE PROPERTY OF THE / TRUSTEES FOR BUILDING / TWO NEW CHURCHES IN / THIS PARISH."