Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Garratt Lane, Earlsfield

Parish church built 1889–90, with the west end completed in 1902, designed by E.W. Mountford. The building is constructed of red brick and stock brick with brown tile roofs, limestone and red brick dressings.

The plan comprises a continuous nave and chancel with north and south aisles with porches, north and south transepts, a south chancel chapel, and north vestries.

The west end features buttressed angle turrets that are faceted above eaves level. The left turret carries an open belfry with tall gableted lights, whilst the right turret serves as a stair turret with a corresponding blind arcade. Each is surmounted by a faceted stone roof. Oak doors to each are accessible from a linking gallery behind a parapet. The main west entrance has a pair of oak doors beneath chamfered brick arches. Above this are three lancets set between stepped buttress shafts, all beneath a giant brick arch with a deep raked stone cill. A blue brick diaper pattern decorates the parapet, with a set-back gable containing a doorway flanked by leaded lights and a gable cross. A clock designed by Mountford, dated and inscribed Edward VII 1910, was installed in 1911 with an iron frame bearing filigree decoration.

The nave is in four bays, with the western two bays dating from 1902 and featuring simple two-light windows between buttresses. The aisles comprise three bays each with two lancets; to the central bay the lancets are paired with a single cill. The western bay serves as a porch with a pair of oak doors beneath an elliptical brick arch and a small foiled light beneath a gable cross, with the roof swept below eaves.

The south transept is buttressed with a shallow porch set tightly between buttresses and an entrance beneath a chamfered brick upper arch. Above are five-light foiled windows beneath a narrow vent, each with slender cill bands.

The chancel comprises three bays with triple lancets under hoodmoulds appearing as relieving arches between stone-dressed buttresses, and eastern angle buttresses. The south chapel has two bays with paired lancets to the south and a circular east window featuring an inset St. Andrew's cross.

The east end has a tall, slender profile articulated as three narrow buttressed bays with slender flat shafts superimposed at the outer bays rising from buttresses. Between these are two-light windows with slender tracery beneath a continuous hoodmould that carries across to the north and south elevations, with similarly treated cill bands. Above are two lancets with flush stone kneelers and a small gable cross.

The north elevation mirrors the south except for the absence of a transept doorway. Attached vestries to the north include a choir vestry aligned with the church, featuring three-light stone-dressed east and west windows, linked to the church by a single-storey vestry with a ridge stack and arched doorway to the west.

Interior

The western two bays of the nave, built in 1902, are treated identically to the earlier construction. Stock brick predominates with red brick and stone dressings. Red brick rises to aisle cill height, with the upper two courses also in red brick, and red brick diaper work decorates the upper tier of the nave and chancel above a red brick band. Red brick forms the window arches, reveals, cill bands, and arcades on stone piers.

The nave arcade comprises five bays with deep red brick arches on stone drum piers. The chancel arcade is of brick on square stone piers with shafts at the angles; that to the west is partly in red brick, with some piers featuring figure or grotesque stops, one reportedly representing the architect. The chancel is articulated by twin stone shafts carrying a pair of roof trusses.

The nave and chancel feature crown post roofs on slender stone shafts and corbels, cutting through the cill band. The aisles have monopitch roofs with exposed purlins and rafters.

At the west end, a simple blank wall contains lancets beneath slightly pointed rear arches, all in red brick, with angle shafts also in red brick. Central aisle paired lancets sit beneath a deep single rear arch with red brick hood mould, reveals and raking cill, whilst flanking bays are similarly detailed with each lancet beneath a single arch springing from a central red brick pier. Clerestorey windows are set back beneath red brick rear arches and linked by continuous slender red brick bands with diaper work above springing level.

The east end displays three cusped two-light windows beneath quatrefoils set in deep red brick rear arches, with a blind arcade in red brick with cusped heads in stone beneath, and two short lancets above whose reveals echo the west end. A reredos sits behind a curtain.

North and south windows are treated as the nave but with steep raking cills. Two-bay sedilia are positioned with an attached piscina and aumbry beneath cusped stone arches featuring dragon stops.

A chancel screen of slender wrought iron on a brick plinth was installed in the 1920s, having been transferred from the church of St. Mary, Trinity Road. A timber screen to the north was installed in 1935. The chapel screen is by Starke Gardner & Co.

The south chapel's east window takes the form of an St. Andrew's cross depicting the head of the saint, set within a stone rose with small circular lights beneath a cusped stone arch.

The altar front is oak with five painted panels depicting saints but with contemporary heads, said to be portraits of those associated with the church's construction. The reredos is a painted triptych of the Transfiguration with flanking angels.

A terracotta font with blue stone shafts by Doulton & Co., designed by G. Tinworth, was resited in the south transept. It is octagonal, depicting four scenes: the Finding of Moses, Hannah bringing Samuel to Eli, the Saviour in the Manger, and the Saviour blessing little children. The font features a counterbalanced oak lid.

The pulpit is a low octagonal stone drum with a pierced oak upper tier reached by stone steps. A freestanding brass lectern designed by Mountford was created by Starke Gardner & Co. Pews are moveable oak benches, with those from the western two bays removed.

Pendant light fittings remain, including the original fitting over the pulpit. Stained glass windows depict British saints, with the east window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne and a south aisle window by M. Travers.

The vestry retains a simple fireplace, whilst the choir vestry is lined with cupboards featuring doors and architraves with reeded detail.