Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Chase Side, Southgate

This red brick church with limestone window tracery was built in two phases in the early 20th century. The narthex and three western bays of the nave were constructed in 1903–4 by the architectural partnership A R Barker and Son. The remainder of the building, including the eastern bays, transepts and choir, was completed in 1915–16 by Barker and Kirk.

The building displays free-style Perpendicular Gothic Revival characteristics. Its principal façade faces south onto Chase Side. At the western end stands a lean-to narthex serving as a baptistry, projecting as a porch with a canted bay at its centre. Above this rises a large, wide window with a 2-5-2 rhythm created by two pairs of brick buttresses separating three window components, filled with panel tracery. The nave and its flanking lean-to passage aisles comprise three bays, divided by brick buttresses which rise to become flying buttresses supporting the clerestory. The nave features squat three-light clerestory windows. Further east, a double transept with gables marks each division. On the south side stands the plain base of an uncompleted tower, rising only to eaves level. The sanctuary roof is lower than that of the nave and choir. The eastern wall is blank. Beneath the sanctuary, chapel and vestry, the sloping site accommodates a series of rooms.

Internally, the walls are of buff stock brick with details picked out in red brick and stone. The five-bay nave—three bays to the passage aisles and two to the transepts—features arcade piers of lozenge shape with arches dying into them. The arches carry a large hollow chamfer with a soffit of red brick. Red brick wall-shafts rise from the valleys to stone corbels supporting hammerbeam roof construction with arch-braced collars, reinforced by tie-rods between the hammer beams. Three depressed arches at the western nave end lead to the baptistry, accessed by steps. At the eastern end, a screen of four plain pointed arches precedes the high altar, behind which an ambulatory extends. The north chapel is long and low with a segmental ceiling divided into square panels by moulded ribs.

The chancel entrance features an open screen with wide plain divisions and attractive swirling wrought ironwork in the head of each division. The nave is seated with chairs; original stalls have been removed.

An iron church was erected about 1870 to serve the Anglican community, but anticipated population expansion prompted plans for a permanent building. In 1903, when the Incorporated Church Building Society was approached for funding, the promoters cited plans for 1,000 new homes in Palmers Green. The estimated cost was £3,189 plus architects' commission of £160; the site was donated by V E Walker. The unusual decision to build the western parts first (rather than the conventional eastern-first sequence) caused friction with the ICBS, though the Bishop of London's Fund supported the approach. The western parts proceeded in 1903–4 (seating 31; foundation stone laid 6 October 1903, dedication 26 May 1904, consecration 6 December 1905), with eastern construction following in 1915–16. The projected tower remained incomplete beyond eaves level.

Arthur Rowland Barker (1842–1915), the senior architect, maintained offices at 11 Buckingham Street, Strand. He had trained under the celebrated church architect Ewan Christian and later became diocesan surveyor for Winchester. By 1903 he was in partnership with his son, Raymond Turner (b 1872), who had been articled to the distinguished Chelmsford architect Frederic Chancellor until 1895 before becoming assistant to his father. Barker senior resigned from the RIBA in 1909; the Barker in the subsequent partnership Barker and Kirk (established by 1913) was evidently his son. No information survives regarding Mr Kirk.