Church Of St James

Church of St James, Enfield Highway

Built in 1830-1 by architect William Lochner, this is a Commissioners' Gothic chapel of ease, constructed to serve the overcrowded parish church of St Andrew in Enfield Town. It became a perpetual curacy in 1834, serving a parish in the eastern part of Enfield. An Early English style chancel was added in 1864. Following a fire in 1967, the chancel was wholly remodelled in 1969 by J Barrington-Baker and Partners, with internal modifications also carried out at this time.

The nave and tower are constructed in stock brick, while the chancel and vestries are of roughly dressed coursed stone with stone dressings. All have slate roofs, and the interior is plastered and painted.

The plan comprises a chancel and nave of the same width, with the chancel having north and east vestries. The nave is un-aisled, with a west tower positioned over the west bay of the nave. The exterior displays typical Commissioners' Gothic characteristics. The tall, square nave has embattled walls with polygonal corner buttresses that rise above the parapet to become small turrets with pointed caps. The embattled west tower similarly has small polygonal corner buttresses rising to corner turrets with pointed caps. The west window has a rich ogee frame. Two-light aisle windows with transoms are executed in a vaguely Perpendicular style. The chancel features a large six-light south window in Tudor style. The original east window from 1864 was removed, presumably in 1969, and the upper part of the east gable wall is now rebuilt in brick. A small lean-to east vestry, possibly a relic of the older chancel, survives. The north vestry, now a parish room, is in Early English style and is a remnant of the 1864 work.

The interior is plain but spacious and light-filled with very large windows. The west bay of the nave is divided off to form an internal western narthex providing access to the west gallery. The wide nave is internally undivided, with a west gallery on cast iron columns. The gallery has a wooden front with trefoil arched panelling. Doors with four-centred heads lead to stairs, and an internal window features Y-tracery. The 1969 rebuilding removed the chancel arch and the flanking arches leading from the nave into north and south chancel chapels, leaving only small wall stubs. The arches from the chancel into the north and south chancel chapels were also removed, making the chancel the same width as the nave, with the sanctuary differentiated only by two shallow steps. The nave roof dates from the 19th century and features very shallow four-centred arched trusses with foiled spandrels and diamond panels along a ridge rib. However, only the beams are now painted; the decorative ceiling work shown in early photographs has been lost. The chancel ceiling has the same profile as that in the nave, though without the beams—a change of 1969, as the 1864 chancel had a more steeply pitched roof.

Principal fixtures include simple 19th-century benches and matching choir stalls in the nave. In the chancel stand a bust of a woman on a stiff-leaf corbelled bracket, with an angel holding a book above it. A very rich octagonal 19th-century font with quatrefoil panels and angels supporting the bowl is fitted with a very elaborate micro-architecture timber cover.

North and south galleries were removed in the mid-20th century (1952 according to the Buildings of England).