Wanstead United Reformed Church

Wanstead United Reformed Church

This is a church built originally between 1856 and 1861 as an Anglican church in the parish of St Pancras, designed by John Johnson. It was dismantled and re-erected in its present location in Wanstead between 1866 and 1867, also to Johnson's design. Later 19th-century extensions to the east, including Grove Hall, are not of special interest.

The building is constructed in Kentish ragstone and grey brick with Bath stone dressings and a clay tile roof.

The plan comprises the base of an unfinished west tower containing a porch, a nave of four bays, north and south aisles, and a shallow chancel. A former schoolroom, known as Cromwell Hall, is attached to the northeast as a quasi-detached structure.

The exterior is designed in Decorated Gothic style. The west front is formed by the modified base of the intended tower, surmounted by a gable and framed with massive angle buttresses. A large window with geometric tracery occupies the front. The aisle corners have raking angle buttresses. The west ends of the aisles are topped by towers which originally had stone pinnacles, though these were removed in 1976. The north and south elevations are constructed in grey brick and feature windows with four-centred arches, dripmoulds, and elaborate geometric tracery. The east window has similar tracery to the west front but is partially obscured by the extension. The former schoolroom has simpler tracery. Iron railings with a flattened fleur-de-lys pattern, supported by stone piers with conical tops, enclose the area to the west end of the church.

The interior is accessed through the tower porch via a Gothic arch with corbel heads, opening into a broad nave furnished with simple oak benches and finished in painted plaster. The nave arcade features octagonal pillars with foliated capitals. The crown-post roof, which was restored after bomb damage during the Second World War, is carried on decorative corbels. An impressive chancel arch frames the shortened chancel, which contains the organ. A continuous gallery with wrought-iron balustrade runs across the west end of the nave and aisles, supported by an arcade. An octagonal stone pulpit with moulded chamfers stands in the interior. The windows contain plain glass with stained glass in the traceried heads, though the designer is unknown.

The church was originally constructed between 1856 and 1861 in Kings Cross as an Anglican church dedicated to St Luke. With seating for 1,200, it was one of several new churches built to serve the rapidly expanding population of poorer urban districts in St Pancras parish. It replaced a temporary iron church erected in 1850 on land destined for Kings Cross Station; this earlier church was dismantled and re-erected on Euston Road within 13 months. The new St Luke's Church was built on Euston Road at the corner of what is now Midland Road. Construction progressed slowly due to lack of funds, and only the lower part of the tower was completed, containing the gallery stairs. A tall spire had been planned but was never built. After only two years, the Midland Railway obtained an Act of Parliament in 1863 to extend its line to London and construct a new terminus, the future St Pancras Station, on land occupied by St Luke's and its parish. The Midland Railway compulsorily purchased the site for £12,500, allowing the parish to retain the fabric of the building in exchange for early surrender of the land. The money was used to fund a replacement church, St Luke's at Oseney Crescent, built between 1867 and 1869 to the design of Basil Champneys. The demolition of this virtually brand-new parish church to make way for St Pancras Station, one of London's greatest railway termini and Gothic Revival buildings, reflects the overriding power of railway companies during this era of intense competition to construct grand termini ever closer to central London.

The village of Wanstead in Essex and its surroundings had an expanding population of non-conformists without a purpose-built place of worship. The Congregationalist community resolved in 1863 to build a chapel on a site offered by Mr G.H. Wilkinson, using the Court Room of the Weavers' Almshouses as interim accommodation. The church was constituted on 29 May 1865, but initial plans by Mr Knightley were rejected as too expensive. When the fabric of St Luke's in Euston Road came up for sale, the chapel's building committee offered £526, which was accepted. John Johnson, the original architect, was commissioned to adapt the building for Congregational worship. The building was dismantled and transported to Wanstead at a cost of £2,000 and rebuilt between 1866 and 1867 to Johnson's modified design. Like the original, the west end incorporates the lower part of the tower, and it is presumed that completion was intended, as a spire was planned. For the adapted version, the chancel was shortened, the nave reduced by one bay, and the nave clerestory omitted to prevent the church appearing too lofty. The north entrance and porch were omitted, and the south entrance diminished. A schoolroom was added on the northeast side. The galleries and pulpit from the original church were reinstalled. In 1897, Grove Hall, designed by E.M. Whitaker, was added on the north side for use mainly as a Sunday school. At this point the former schoolroom became known as Cromwell Hall. The church was damaged by three incendiary bombs on 7 September 1940, which destroyed most of the roof.

The United Reformed Church was formed in 1972 through the union of the Presbyterian Church of England and the Congregational Church in England and Wales. Accordingly, Wanstead Congregational Church was renamed Wanstead United Reformed Church in 1972.