Golders Green Unitarian Church

The Golders Green Unitarian Church, opened in 1925, was designed by George Reginald Farrow and Sydney R Turner. It is constructed of red brick with Portland stone dressings, and exhibits a Byzantine revival style. The main facade features a pedimented entrance bay with an inscribed frieze reading “RELIGION: TRUTH: LIBERTY,” an arched doorway flanked by inset columns with cushion capitals, and a thermal window above.

The interior is distinguished by a plaster groin-vaulted ceiling and large arched windows. A wooden lobby screen incorporates a carved oak memorial to Rev. Joyce Daplyn, the first Unitarian woman minister in London. Above the door is an Art Deco stained glass window depicting a celestial city above a forest setting, the work of Joan Fullerlove, surrounded by a tempera mural in a Florentine Revival style by Margaret Warren. This mural features full-length figures flanking the entrance, with an angel hovering over a golden chalice. The semi-circular apse, with its half-dome, contains a notable tempera mural on canvas by Ivon Hitchens RA (1892-1979), dating from 1920-21, representing the River of the Waters of Life. Inscriptions in Gothic lettering read "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace" and "the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” The church also includes a pulpit constructed by Belgian refugees during the First World War.

The Golders Green Unitarian congregation originated from a secession from the Rosslyn Hill Chapel in Hampstead in 1903. The building, costing £7,500 to erect, was designed by a member of the congregation. While architecturally somewhat dated for its time, it is a significant interwar place of worship notable for its remarkable decoration. Hitchens’ mural draws inspiration from Florentine Renaissance sources, as well as tapestry designs by Morris & Co., and represents a larger version of a work previously created for St Luke's Church in Maidstone.