Church Of St Peter In The Forest

Church of St Peter in the Forest, Woodford New Road

This church, originally built as a chapel of ease in 1840, was designed by architect John Shaw Junior (1776–1832). It was extended in 1887, repaired and extended in 1951 and 1958, and the interior renovated by Martin Travers in 1936–37.

The building is constructed of yellow stock brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings. The roof is pitched slate with a terracotta ridge piece. The tower roof and lantern are covered with hexagonal slate tiles. The 1951 additions and alterations are in pink brick.

The church has seven bays with a chancel apse and vestry to the east. A single-storey extension was added to the west.

Exterior

The south elevation features a central projecting tower with three bays to either side, divided by brick pilasters that break through the dentilled cornice. All windows have round arches. Each bay contains a pair of windows at clerestory level and a single taller window at ground floor level, except the westernmost bay where a smaller single window is set higher. Beneath this window is a memorial stone laid by Lady Leucha Warner on 4th March 1887. A drip mould runs under the upper windows across the elevation, interrupted by the pilasters, and wraps around the three-stage Italianate tower.

The square tower sits on a double brick plinth with corner columns on three sides topped with foliate capitals, and a small hexagonal shaft on the fourth corner with a stone spirelet. The tower roof is steeply concave and pyramidal in shape, created by the convergence of four ridge pieces and four applied central ridges, accentuated by small gargoyles at the terminals of each ridge projecting over the stepped, dentilled cornice. There are two windows on each side of the third stage (open to the belfry) and one on the south and west sides of the first stage. All have hood-moulds with decorated stops and are recessed within stepped openings; those on the south side have dentil decoration. The tall central stage has long thin indented strips in the brickwork on the south, east, and west sides. The central indents on the south contain long narrow slits and are overlain by a centrally placed diagonal plaque with gargoyles at the corners and a blind roundel in the centre. The west side of the lower stage contains the entrance with panelled double doors and a plain semicircular porch covering.

The east and west elevations have three windows beneath the apex of the roof with sill bands with decorated ends. Immediately below these at the west end is a wheel window, and those at the east end have hood-moulds with decorated stops. The chancel apse at the east end is a half octagon with columns and pilasters at the corners interrupting a sill band and dentilled cornice. The east end wall was rebuilt in the 1950s with a smaller window than the original. The chancel windows are recessed and have hood-moulds with decorated stops; the paired windows are blind with dentilled decoration. Attached to the north-east corner is a small hexagonal vestry in the same design but without dentilled window decoration.

The north elevation was completely rebuilt in 1951. It corresponds with the 1840s construction by using plain brick pilasters to divide the seven bays. The central three bays each have three tall, narrow windows on sill bands. The windows in the outer bays are in the same style but one-third height, set under the eaves. At the west end is a single-storey extension, also built in 1951, containing an entrance with a fanlight with squared lights above, set beneath a gabled porch supported on plain columns.

Interior

The entrance is through a small vestibule in the tower. The church has a nave with no side aisles, a small chancel, and a gallery at the west end. The nave has a queen-post roof with a boarded lantern in the centre featuring a central aperture and circular stained glass windows. A ramp leading from the entrance to the raised floor of the east end and chancel has been inserted against the south wall. The floor is original parquet.

Four of the lower windows in the south wall are stained glass. The original stained glass windows from the north side have been inserted into the tall narrow windows. All other windows are diamond or square leaded lights; the upper windows of the south wall have stained glass borders. The moulded chancel arch has dentil decoration and a hood-mould, similar to the exterior.

The central east window is flanked by painted scenes in imitation of stained glass windows with round arches, three on each side of the window. These are painted on canvas mounted directly on the wall and appear to have been remounted; in historic photographs they are shown with borders that imitate tracery. The slender window to the right of the chancel arch contains original stained glass. The three windows above the arch are colourful 1950s replacements. To the left of the chancel is the priest's vestry with stained glass in the central window.

The gallery at the west end is supported on three columns with foliate capitals also decorated with heads of worshippers. A small kitchen has been inserted beneath the balcony. Blind window openings flank large double doors that lead into the 1951 extension. This contains an entrance lobby with a vestry on either side; the stairs to the balcony are reached through these. Each vestry contains a blind arch with hood-mould and dentil decoration supported on columns with simple capitals; these appear to be part of the original west end exterior.

Memorials on the south and north walls of the west end include a marble plaque commemorating those who died in the Great War. The chancel screen referred to in the inscription no longer survives.

History

St Peter's-in-the-Forest was built in 1840 as a chapel of ease to St Mary's, Walthamstow, and was designed by John Shaw Junior, Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 1844 it became the church of a newly formed parish. Originally a smaller four or five bay building with a tower at its south-west end, it was extended to the west in 1887 to accommodate a growing population. This extension, designed by local architect and churchwarden J C Lewis, followed the style of the original design and enlarged the church to seven bays, creating an almost symmetrical south elevation with three bays either side of a central tower. The west gallery was also added at this time. The memorial stone at the west end of the south elevation, laid by Lady Leucha Warner on 4th March 1887, commemorates the event and records the names of the vicar, M Rees, and the architect.

Subsequent alterations and additions executed in 1901–05 include the paintings in the chancel, and the renovation of the interior by Martin Travers in 1936–37. This included the removal of the side sections of the gallery and the pews; the altar rails were removed later. In 1945 the north wall was damaged by a V2 rocket that landed nearby and was rebuilt in 1951; the entrance lobby and vestries at the west end were also added at this time. The chancel was altered in 1958 and a new stained glass window depicting Christ the King was inserted. A fire in 1975 resulted in the replacement of the remaining original fixtures and fittings.

John Shaw Junior (1803–1870) was the son of the successful architect John Shaw, whom he succeeded as architect to Christ's Hospital. He was also appointed surveyor to Eton College in about 1825, and with his father was a pioneer in the development of semi-detached housing. He has several listed buildings to his credit, mainly semi-detached houses and schools, including Wellington School, listed at Grade II*. He was also responsible for completing the Church of St Dunstan in the West in the City of London, listed at Grade I, begun by his father in the year of his death.

Martin Travers (1886–1948) was a distinguished designer of church interiors and stained glass in the 20th century, and his work, mainly for the Anglican Church, is cited several times in the statutory list. Although he was responsible for the present open plan of the nave, how much of his work was destroyed by the fire of 1975 is not known.