Church Of St George

Church of St George

Parish church built in 1910-11 to designs by architect JS Alder. The church is constructed of red brick with limestone bands and dressings, and has a tiled roof.

The church is aligned north-south with an aisled nave of five bays, a western narthex, and an eastern two-bay chancel. Twin gabled transepts project to the east from the aisle bays. A Lady Chapel extends to the south of the chancel, with an organ loft and vestry complex to the north.

The exterior is designed in the Late Decorated Gothic style. Windows feature flowing tracery: the east window has five lights with a cinquefoil above; transept windows have four lights; aisle windows have two lights; clerestorey windows comprise two lights in the chancel and single lights in the nave. The east end is finished with angle buttresses terminating in gabled niches, while stepped buttresses support the aisles. The south doorway is gabled and flanked by diagonal buttresses, with a traceried overlight and doors bearing elaborate strapwork hinges. A red sandstone foundation plaque sits beneath the east window. The west end, completed in 1961 to a simpler Tudor-Gothic design by Arthur Betts, features a kneelered gable with a three-light mullioned window with cusped heads below, and a four-centred doorway set within glazed panel tracery.

The interior is lofty, finished in pale limestone and rendered brick. The nave arcades comprise five bays, with the westernmost bay (added in 1961) being half the width of the others. The arches are two-centred with multiple mouldings, resting on four-shafted piers of quatrefoil section with plain bell capitals. The chancel arch follows similar design, as does the two-bay arcade separating the chancel from the south chapel. The organ case projects through a large arched opening to the north of the chancel, with two smaller arches beneath. Close-boarded wagon roofs cover the nave and chancel, with arch braces resting on slender vaulting shafts that spring from corbels in the nave but rise from ground level in the chancel. Transverse arches in the eastern aisle bays support the gabled roofs of the transepts. Cinquefoil-headed niches with nodding ogee gables flank the east window. The nave floor is terrazzo with herringbone blocks in pewed areas; the choir and sanctuary floors are white marble and grey-green granite laid in squares. Clergy and choir vestries to the north contain fireplaces with simple Arts and Crafts surrounds.

The church contains a rich scheme of fixtures and fittings. Original fittings, including seating, high altar and font, are in a late Gothic manner; later additions by Martin Travers and others employ a mid-17th-century classicising style. All are oak except the stone font. Nave pews have shaped ends. Choir and clergy stalls feature simple fleur-de-lys finials and open traceried frontals. The high altar faces eastward with a blind-traceried front. The font has a carved octagonal stone bowl resting on eight engaged marble shafts, with a two-tier canopied cover made in 2004 to a 1948 design by John Crawford, Travers' assistant. An organ of 1915 by Frederick Rothwell sits in an oak case with a bowed central section and four flanking bays with traceried heads. An octagonal pulpit designed in 1942 by Martin Travers features a wine-glass stem with scrolled brackets and a tester board above with a soffit design representing the Holy Spirit. A reredos of 1949 designed by John Crawford and made by Faith Craft takes the form of a triptych with painted reliefs representing the Annunciation and the arrival of the Magi. Screens enclosing the Lady Chapel were also designed by Crawford and made by Faith Craft, with solid panels below and slender uprights with arcading above. A Lady Chapel reredos of 1940 by Travers, brought from St Stephen's Battersea, sits above an Arts and Crafts-style altar from St Alban's Acton Green.

The original stained glass windows feature translucent tinted glass with abstract knot designs in the aisles and emblems of saints and the Passion in the nave and chancel clerestorey. The Lady Chapel east window of 1921 by William Aikman depicts the Holy Women at the Sepulchre. A window in the north aisle of 1934 by Maile and Son represents Faith, Hope and Christ as Love. The great east window of 1937 by Travers shows Christ in Majesty. Two quatrefoil windows at the west end of the nave, made in 1964 by E Liddell Armitage, represent the Ascension and the descent of the Holy Dove. A Good Shepherd window in the south aisle, dating from 1965 by Alfred Fisher, has additional glass installed in 2002.

Headstone was a rural Middlesex hamlet until the early 20th century, when suburban growth from Harrow led to its designation as a Church of England Mission District. A temporary iron chapel was erected on Pinner View in 1907, and in 1909 architect JS Alder was appointed to design a permanent church, which was built in 1910-11 by the firm of J Bentley & Son. A church hall was constructed on the opposite side of Pinner View in 1928-9 to designs by architect and draughtsman Cyril Farey. The west end of the church's nave remained unfinished and was eventually completed in 1961 to a reduced design by Arthur Betts, comprising a narthex and meeting rooms but omitting Alder's projected south-west tower.

JS Alder (1847-1919) was the son of a West Midlands builder and trained with his father's firm and later with GC Haddon in Great Malvern and Frederick Preedy in London. After studying at the Architectural Association, he established independent practice at Old Broad Street in the City around 1887 before entering partnership with John Turrill in 1898. Best known for his church architecture, his works include two other Grade II designated churches nearby: St John the Baptist in central Harrow (1904-5) and St Michael's in Wembley (1908). He was made FRIBA in 1916.