St Andrew'S United Reformed Church

This List entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 23/01/2018

PLAN TQ2462 795/36/10011 31.05.01

CHEAM, NORTHEY AVENUE

St Andrew's United Reformed Church

(Formerly listed as: CHURCH OF ST ANDREW United Reformed Church)

II

Presbyterian Church. 1933. Maxwell Ayrton. Red brick exterior with red pantile roof. Birch plywood and plain walls to interior.

PLAN: Wide nave to 3-sided apse with narrow, low side aisles. Recessed entrance porch behind three arches to deep entrance hall with matching cloakrooms to each side. Staircase to each side up to gallery that extends over entrance and small narthex. Chapel to southeast. Corridor and church rooms off aisle to northeast connecting to 1927 church and 1950s and 1960s halls (not of interest). Drive-through porch behind east end.

EXTERIOR: Pitched roof to tall nave with slightly-stepped gabled parapet section to west (with single lancet) and to east (blank). West facade with large central lancet with stone hood and thin brick voussoirs. Flanking hipped-roof stair towers and cloakroom and three 4-sided arches to entrance arcade. Long elevation of eight 4-sided arch lancets each slightly recessed with stone hoods and thin brick voussoirs. String course of different brick extending from the base of the lancet hoods. Flat-roofed lower side aisles with fixed 6 and 8-light windows with brick lintels.

INTERIOR: A large open nave with raised gallery to west end, low side aisles through colonnade and raised 3-sided apse. Recessed porch to deep entrance hall with stepped ceiling beyond porch and cloakrooms and staircase to gallery at each side. Stone dedication plaque. Plain walls to nave with eight 4-sided arch lancets to each side. Lower side aisles of 4-sided arch section. 4-sided arch ceiling over nave and apse of birch plywood panels laid to alternating grain. Wooden floor with unfixed seating. Choir stalls, furniture (including raised pulpit with hood) and panelling to apse installed 1950 to original design and all with 4-sided arch motif. Three blind 4-sided arch openings to apse wall. Abstract jowled posts to nave aisle colonnade. Light bowls with 4-sides to upper wall between each lancet. Chapel with birchwood panel tray ceiling and 3-sided arch lancets.

SOURCE: St. Andrews, church history.

The first ecclesiastical building (1933) of Maxwell Ayrton, known mostly for his concrete bridges. Ayrton uses material (plywood birch panelling) and form (4-sided arch motif) within simple massing to create a striking interior space.