Christ Church

Christ Church, Chiswick High Road, was built between 1841 and 1843 as one of the early works by the young George Gilbert Scott (1811-78) and his partner William Bonython Moffatt (1812-87). The church was constructed for the developing Victorian suburb of Turnham Green at a cost of £6,900, with the Church Building Commissioners contributing £500 towards the cost.

The building is constructed of knapped flint facing with strongly contrasted limestone ashlar quoins and other dressings. The spire is of red and black brick with ashlar dressings, and the roofs are covered in grey Welsh slate. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north chapel, south-east vestries, north and south aisles under separate gables, shallow north and south transepts, a west tower with broach spire, and a north porch.

The exterior displays Early English lancet style architecture. The four-stage west tower has angle buttresses and a west doorway with two lancets above. The belfry windows contain two-light plate tracery. The spire features shallow broaches and two tiers of lucarnes. Lancet windows are used elsewhere throughout the building, mostly shafted and in pairs. The transept walls are lit by triple graduated lancets, while the chancel east end has three lancets of equal height.

In 1887, the original short five-sided apsidal chancel was rebuilt under architect James Brooks (1825-1901) to greater length with a square east end. South-east vestries were added in 1895.

The interior surfaces are painted mostly off-white. The five-bay nave is unclerestoried with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. The high-pitched nave roof features single hammerbeam trusses alternating with arch-braced ones. In 2000, architect Ian Goldsmith converted the two western bays into two-storey community rooms, with ground-floor sliding glass screens bearing texts that separate the community area from the worship space, and a first-floor three-sided glazed projection.

Of Scott's original work, only the plain font survives. The reredos dates from 1894 by E.W. Alleyn and features paintings on copper in two tiers representing Types and Antitypes with appropriate texts. The chancel woodwork—including stalls, screen, panelling, and pulpit—dates from 1906 and was created by a group of local ladies trained by Arthur T. Heady at the local polytechnic. The carved flowers, foliage, and musical instruments are executed with meticulous realism.

Christ Church is considered a good and representative early work by Scott, who would become the most successful and prolific church architect of Victorian England. Eight of his churches were reviewed in the first volume of The Ecclesiologist, and Christ Church received particular praise, especially for its tower and spire, which were deemed "peculiarly excellent, and worthy of any ancient architect." The building is contemporary with Scott's celebrated St Giles, Camberwell, London, and shares his growing interest in architecture faithful to the spirit of medieval work. While executed on a smaller scale than Camberwell, similar principles are at work at Turnham Green.