Christ Church

Christ Church was built as a mission church in 1867-9, designed by John Norton in the Gothic style. It served the navvies constructing the London, Highgate and Edgware Railway and was built in stages as funds became available: the nave in 1869, the aisles in 1874, and the chancel, side chapel, and vestry in 1891. A planned south-west tower with a spire was never completed. The church is constructed of coursed Kentish ragstone with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The west front features a large central gable with a rose window set within a round-headed arch supported by granite columns. The aisles have single lancet windows, while the narthex has five pointed arched windows with an oculus above, and two lancets on either side. Pointed arch entrances are located on the sides, featuring two tiers of colonnettes under a triangular dripmould. The aisles, comprising five bays, have gables with tall arched windows featuring double lancets, colonnettes, and oculi, and are divided by buttresses. The chancel has a large gable with a tall arched window featuring an octagonal oculus and three lancets below, embellished with cinquefoils and double trefoliated lancets. The south-east chapel, of two bays, has two lancets with trefoils and trefoliated heads. The north-east vestry, of two storeys, has arched windows with two trefoil heads.

The interior has red brick walls with black lozenge patterns. The five-bay nave features pointed arched arcading supported on clustered columns with foliate capitals. The roof is boarded with metal tierods, and bays are defined by wooden ribs with trefoil decoration. A stained-glass window in the West rose window, dating from circa 1870 and created by Bell and Co., features abstract patterns. A First World War memorial is incorporated into the West wall as an arched tympanum over the door, depicting the Risen Christ and six pointed arches with marble colonnettes bearing the names of the fallen. A stained-glass window in the south aisle, the first from the east, was created by W.H. Constable in 1868. A square stone font sits on an octagonal base with corner columns, and it is covered by a wooden pyramidal cover made in 1921. A hexagonal wooden pulpit is also present. Original wooden pews remain throughout the church, except for a few removed from the south aisle. Original tiled floors are retained. The large chancel arch is adorned with a cross, Alpha and Omega signs, and double stone colonnettes. The chancel consists of three bays and has a trefoil-shaped boarded roof with ribs supported on stone corbels. A low pink marble chancel screen features quatrefoil cutouts. A wooden and metal communion rail and a tessellated pavement mark the Sanctuary, bearing the initials JHS. Double sedilia, possessing trefoil heads, are situated to the south-east, with a niche to the north-east. The east window, a six-light stained-glass window created by James Powell circa 1911, depicts the Te Deum. Stained glass in the south-east chapel dates from circa 1891-2 and is the work of A.L. Moore.