Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is an Anglican church built in 1913-14 to the designs of J.S. Alder. It is constructed of red brick with Weldon stone dressings and a red tiled roof, executed in a Late Decorated style. The church plan incorporates a five-bay nave with north and south aisles and clerestory, a small western apse for the baptistry, a cross-gabled bay on the south aisle simulating a transept, a chancel with a north chapel and a two-storey south organ chamber under a cross-gable, and vestries. A western elevation features a large traceried window above the baptistry, flanked by buttresses. The western bay of the south aisle was planned as a base for a tower, however, this was never realized. Single, wide windows are divided by buttresses along the north and south aisles, while the clerestory features grouped lights divided by buttresses.

The interior’s pillars, shafts, arches, and stonework are of grey limestone. Wide, moulded arches carried on quatrefoil pillars with fillets, moulded capitals and bases, define the nave arcades. The aisles and west wall of the nave have a high dado of exposed red brick above which the walls are plastered. The nave features a timber barrel vault with moulded principals, and the chancel roof is similar with mouldings on the braces and purlins. A rood beam spanning the chancel arch supports uncoloured figures, dating likely to the architect's designs and given in 1914. The chancel floor is raised behind a low stone wall and paved with square black and white marble paviours.

Furnishings include a high altar of oak with a carved oak panel depicting The Crucifixion, thought to be a 17th-century continental work. A pulpit, dating to around 1910, was salvaged from the bombed church of St Gabriel in Poplar. A stone font, likely from around 1920, is also present. The large west window has five lights with cusped flowing tracery arranged 2-1-2. It incorporates a large round-headed stained glass panel depicting The Good Shepherd by William Morris (from a design by Burne Jones, 1890), originally from the Haweis Chapel of St James's in Marylebone and reset in 1914. Other windows contain original opaque glass with sacred symbols within shield-shaped frames or patterns of stylised knots, designed by Alder. The church of All Saints represents Alder’s final major project. The foundation stone was laid by Princess Henry of Battenburg on 24 May 1913, and the church was consecrated on 9 May 1914.