Chapel Of St George (Ruin)

Chapel of St George (Ruin)

A roofless ruin of the garrison church built in 1863 for Woolwich Barracks, designed by architect Thomas Henry Wyatt. The building stands on Grand Depot Road, Woolwich, destroyed by a flying bomb in July 1944 but consolidated after the war.

The chapel was designed in the style of an Early Christian or Italian Romanesque basilica. It consists of a rectangular nave with an apsidal sanctuary at the east end, flanked by two half-apses. A western porch with flanking porticoes provides the entrance. The structure is built of blue engineering bricks, red brick and buff stock brick, with dressings of red and blue brick and stone.

Construction makes notable use of brick polychromy. The base course consists of blue engineering bricks, followed by red brick, with buff stock brick forming the main walling above. The eastern end presents a forceful composition, with the semi-circular apse rising dramatically from falling ground. The western entrance porch stands beneath a gabled head and features monolithic pink Aberdeen granite piers of quatrefoil section. These carry ornately carved capitals decorated with angel busts; the right-hand capital includes a gryphon. The arch above displays red and blue brick polychromy. Square porticoes flank the main entrance, each with detached columns framing the openings and similar carved capitals. These porticoes contain subsidiary entrances allowing rapid circulation of the large numbers of soldiers expected to use the chapel.

Despite destruction, something of the rich interior decoration survives in the eastern parts. The apse retains a mosaic representation of St George and the Dragon serving as a reredos, with a tiled inscription above. Marble or alabaster wall covering partially survives to the right of the reredos. The lower parts of large columns framing the sanctuary entrance remain, with mosaics beyond depicting a peacock (left) and a phoenix (right). Over the side arches are grape and vine leaf trails, also in mosaic. An altar with stone trefoiled arches stands in the apse.

The chapel was built as part of the Royal Artillery barracks, themselves constructed between 1776 and 1802. It appears to have been planned during the tenure of Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert, as Secretary of War (1859–61), whose influence likely determined the architectural style and choice of architect. Wyatt had previously employed the Early Christian or Lombardic Romanesque style for the substantial church of St Mary and St Nicholas adjacent to Wilton House, the Herbert family seat, which had cost £20,000. Wyatt (1807–80) was a prolific London-based architect and served as honorary architect to the Salisbury Diocesan Church Building Society.