Church of St Matthew

TQ 2183 935-/12/10000

Willesden ST MARY'S ROAD Church of St Matthew

II Church. Designed 1898 by W.D Caröe; built 1900-06. Red brick with some stone dressings; tiled, pitched roof. Free Perpendicular style with Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts influence.

Four bay aisled nave with clerestory, narthex, small transepts; south aisle Lady Chapel, north aisle vestries; three bay chancel. North eastern bellcote. West facade with projecting two storey outer bays having entrances, deeply recessed first floor two-light windows, the recesses with cambered arch heads, splayed reveals and battered brick aprons; stone coped parapets and gables with shingled spirelets. Central bay single storey with penthouse roof and entrances flanking a three-light window; six-light eastern window set within a shallow, slightly pointed recess with three brick mullions. Large five-light clerestory windows set in similar arches which fade to sides of similarly profiled flanking buttresses extending to tiled gabled parapets over penthouse aisle roofs and into blind gables on the nave roof. Eastern window, seven lights set in slightly pointed arched recess with two brick mullions.

Interior of contrasting render and exposed brick. Polished red tile floor. Slightly pointed waggon roof. Western gallery. Nave arcading of shallow wide arches and oak panelled pillars, arches respond on aisle walls; narrow passage aisles with transverse arches and small windows of richly coloured stained glass.

Many fitments and fittings by Caröe including the carved stone font (1901), carved and lettered stone pulpit (1906), Lady Chapel and chancel, carved and polished wood altar fronts (latter painted at a later date) and probably the chancel gates being a First World War memorial. Organ designed by Noel Bonavia-Hunt, assistant priest from 1905-12. Two stained glass memorial windows at west end dated 1920.

Listing NGR: TQ2153483990