Church of St Alphege

Church of St Alphege

This church was completed in 1959 to the design of Sir Edward Maufe, one of Britain's leading modern architects of the period, with sculpture by Estcourt J Clack. An attached hall was added in 1994.

The church is built of buff-coloured brick laid in English garden-wall bond, with concrete dressings and Portland stone sculpture. The roof is covered with Roman tiles, and the windows contain clear leaded textured glass, some with hopper sections.

The building is set on an east-west axis, with a broad aisled nave leading to a narrower sanctuary to the east. An ambulatory or passage runs beyond the sanctuary, providing access to the clergy vestry to the north and the choir vestry to the south. At the west end lies the former baptistery with a gallery above. Originally, a Lady chapel ran alongside the nave to the north, with a flower room and WCs at its eastern end, balanced to the south by a parish room with kitchen and WCs. This southern parish room has been replaced by the square-plan hall of 1994, which extends the church's footprint to the south. A south porch with belfry rising above it sits in the south-west corner between the baptistery and the hall, with a smaller porch on the north side of the baptistery.

The exterior displays Maufe's traditionalist sympathies expressed through a distinctly 1950s pared-down simplicity. The tall nave, with projecting eaves resting on elongated stepped brick corbels, rises above a flat-roofed podium surrounding it on three sides. The height is emphasised by tall narrow windows with slightly shouldered round-headed arches. A gabled belfry—narrow in plan—contributes an Italianate character, enhanced by wide eaves and Roman tiles. On the southern side of the belfry, protected by a small gabled hood, is a sculpted figure of St Alphege (circa 954-1012), Archbishop of Canterbury, positioned on a corbel wearing a bishop's mitre and holding a staff, with his hand raised in blessing.

The west elevation, aligned with Oaklands Avenue, features a single tall central window with three small windows beneath lighting the baptistery—the central one divided by two mullions and the outer square windows each divided by a single mullion. The southern porch doorway is angled, creating an offset brickwork detail at its corners. Timber double doors with geometric glazing, original to the building, shelter beneath flat canopies on piloti at both the south porch and the north-facing porch.

The east elevation facing Hertford Road displays a large circular window divided into four quarters. Below it is the figure of Christ crucified, together with a relief-sculpted plaque showing two kneeling angels bearing a chalice, with a triangle and circle representing Alpha and Omega, signed 'J E Clack '59'. This composition echoes the Calvary by Eric Gill in Maufe's St Thomas the Apostle, Ealing (1933-4, listed Grade II*). The south and north sides of the nave each have five tall round-headed shouldered-arched windows, with an additional window serving the sanctuary. The flat roofs of the podium to the east and north have wide eaves; the eastern ambulatory is lit by small square windows, while the Lady chapel, vestries and offices are lit by tripartite windows.

The interior features a spacious south-west porch opening into the west end of the south aisle. The tall nave is defined by concrete cruck trusses rising from the floor to the apex, narrowing towards their base and angling inward to the eaves before meeting at the apex. The roof is painted blue and decorated with applied gold stars. Between the nave trusses are the windows; the lower parts of the trusses function as piers, widening at their sides to form notional capitals and supporting a flat arcade. The choir and organ were originally positioned at the nave's east end before the chancel; these enclosed stalls and organ console have since been removed, replaced by plain pine chairs of the same original model. The chancel is now defined only by a slightly raised floor, its former timber screen having been lost. A plain, whitewashed built-in pulpit is set back to the north with polished stone steps and a moulded cornice; a dais originally for the lectern mirrors this arrangement to the south. The narrower sanctuary beyond has a roof with rafters painted with stars and doves. Three shallow steps of polished stone rise to support the altar, with sedilia to the south set within a flat-topped shouldered embrasure. To the east is the piscina within a double-shouldered arch, the stone basin featuring a scallop shell to its front and a moulded credence shelf above. Flat-topped shouldered openings to the rear of the sanctuary lead to the passage, fitted with blue gates enriched with a gold cross and stars. The oak altar table, brought forward to the chancel, features stepped ends with a stretcher between and appears to be original furnishing. The stone font at the church's west end, also by Clack, has a wavy moulding around its top and sits on a stone dais, though it has been moved forward from the former baptistery, now fronted by a glass screen beneath the gallery.

The Lady chapel, originally separated from the north aisle by sliding and folding doors, now has glass screens instead, except at its east end where a solid partition has been introduced. The raised east end of the chapel, originally with four painted stars to the roof, was formerly enclosed by an oak baluster rail and is now screened in glass. The gallery, accessed by stairs to the south of the baptistery, now houses the organ and features an oak bookrest along its front rail. The vestries and offices retain no features of particular note, though original timber doors with golden wheel crosses survive. Linoleum tiled flooring throughout the church is believed to be original.

A drawing of the projected church shows a low brick wall between the church and Hertford Road with an offset opening to the south. This wall was either never constructed or has been replaced by a timber fence. The existing opening is now positioned to the south in front of the hall and contains metal gates painted with the letters 'S' and 'A' in red.