Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Simon Stock

This is a Roman Catholic shrine and collection of chapels built between 1958 and 1965 to designs by Adrian Gilbert Scott. The building contains extensive artworks and furnishings by the ceramic artist Adam Kossowski, sculptor Michael Clark, Dom Charles Norris who made stained glass, and other artists.

Materials and Construction

The walls are built of concrete faced with reclaimed Kentish ragstone rubble. Arches, window mullions, sills and surrounds, door surrounds, buttresses and parapet copings are all of pre-cast concrete. The roofs are covered in clay tiles with areas of flat roof finished in asphalt, in places overlaid with felt. Rainwater goods are of cast iron.

Plan

The building consists of four principal octagonal spaces, each connected by lower link buildings called tribunes. The elongated central octagon contains the Main Shrine, which is open to the west, addressing a large T-shaped sunken piazza. Tribunes lead to the Relic Chapel to the north-east, Choir Chapel to the south-west, and Chapel of St Joseph to the north-west. The tribune to the Relic Chapel is enclosed, while the other two are open to the piazza. A belfry tower and the small Chapel of St Anne both give off the Main Shrine, and further small chapels and ancillary spaces give off the other main chapels.

Exterior

The architectural style is a stripped, modern Gothic. The Main Shrine, Chapel of St Joseph and Choir Chapel, and their linking tribunes, form the backdrop to the piazza. The Main Shrine has a wide two-centred arch, with lower four-centred arches giving onto the tribunes and Chapel of St Anne. Above the main arch is a Jerusalem Cross. Alongside the entrance to the Chapel of St Anne, a foundation stone is set into the wall.

Viewed from the piazza, the external design of the two outer chapels is identical, with windows generally of a simple lancet type and blind concrete trefoil panels over the entrances. Above each of the entrances are the painted arms and motto of Bishop Cowderoy of Southwark (Chapel of St Joseph) and the Carmelite order (Choir Chapel). The walls have raised parapets. The open-fronted tribunes from the Main Shrine to the Chapel of St Joseph and the Choir Chapel are arcaded and have plain canted plaster ceilings. They retain their original simple oak seating and metal light fittings, and have a gated entrance into their respective chapels. The rear elevations are plain in character, with concrete trefoil-headed window openings set into the chapel walls and ancillary spaces, some of which are canted.

The Piazza

The piazza was designed to accommodate up to 2,000 pilgrims on wooden benches. It is paved with grey concrete flagstones, with lighter coloured flagstones used to mark out the site of the medieval foundations. The site of the De Grey family vault (the original thirteenth-century donors of the site to the Carmelites) is marked by a small white stone cross set into a flagstone before the steps which lead up to the Main Shrine. There is little intrinsic interest in the paving itself; the significance comes in its subtle expression of the site's continuity as a place of worship. Spatially, the size of the piazza and its relationship with the shrine and chapels give the ensemble a sense of scale and consequence. The original bench seating is not fixed and therefore does not form part of the listed building.

Interior Overview

The interiors are generally architecturally plain, with plastered walls and flat ceilings canted at the sides. They provide a self-effacing backdrop for the furnishings, which unless stated otherwise are by Adam Kossowski.

Main Shrine

The altar, crucifix and ceramic candlesticks date from 1959. The stone altar is faced in blue-green ceramic tiles and incorporates twelve yellow-glazed ceramic symbols. Behind the altar is a reredos panel with sgraffito decoration on the theme of the symbolic names of the Virgin Mary from the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Above this the apse is lined with glazed bright blue-green ceramic mosaics incorporating yellow daggers representing tears, to be read as emanating from the statue of the Virgin of the Glorious Assumption, by Michael Clark. This is nine feet high, carved from West African Agba wood and thumb gilded in gold leaf. Set high in the deep red-painted flanking walls are large ceramic hosts of angels in ochre shades. The whole is a striking composition of colour, pattern and form.

Chapel of St Anne

Metal gates made by John Emery from designs by Kossowski lead to the small Chapel of St Anne, dedicated in memory of Anne Marie Cowderoy, mother of the seventh Bishop of Southwark. This is a complete Kossowski interior; the walls are lined with sgraffito decoration incorporating glazed ceramic figures. The green and dark green sgraffito on the side walls provides a continuous semi-abstract landscape backdrop to ceramic reliefs in yellow, blue and purple glazes. These depict scenes from the life of St Anne. The ritual east window is blind and is the setting for a late fifteenth-century statue of St Anne, attributed to Tilman Riemenschneider. The splays of the east window are inset with abstract ceramic elements. The altar front is decorated with the monogram of Christ between the letters A (Anne) and M (Mary), and placed on the altar are a ceramic crucifix incorporating the figures of St John the Evangelist and St Mary (signed AD 1962) and two candlesticks. The windows have pale blue and green semi-abstract glass incorporating monograms, and the floor is of ceramic tiles in green, grey-blue and black, incorporating the motif of a tree.

Tribune to the Relic Chapel

Metal gates by Emery and Kossowski lead to the enclosed tribune to the Relic Chapel. A room housing confessionals gives off to the left. The tribune has a plain ceramic tile floor and original light fittings. Here, as elsewhere where stained glass or dalle de verre are not employed, the windows have diamond quarries, half antique glass in three shades of green and half plain, as specified by Scott. Mounted on the wall on the left-hand side are small oak kneeling figures of St Teresa of Avila and St Thérèse of Lisieux, by Philip Lindsey Clark. The seating consists of individual wooden chairs.

Relic Chapel

The Relic Chapel has a tiled dais. Its forward altar of 1963 has a dark grey granite mensa and a brick and concrete base inlaid with ceramic relief decoration in red glaze on black. Flanking the altar are two lecterns, also red glaze on a black background, with ceramic reliefs of the four Evangelists. Around the walls are ceramic reliefs of the Stations of the Cross from 1963 to 1966. The chapel corners contain four pairs of semi-abstract dalle de verre windows made by Dom Charles Norris from Kossowski's designs. The windows in the exedra chapels also contain dalle de verre glass by Norris. The pendant iron light fittings are by John Emery. The seating consists mainly of simple open-backed benches.

The Reliquary of St Simon Stock is located in an exedra beyond the altar. This extraordinary and impressive piece is eleven feet (3.3 metres) high, clad with ceramic tiles on a concrete body. The white and gold glazed tiles represent Mount Carmel with its hermits' houses, and kneeling angels guard the central grille made by John Emery which contains the relic. Behind this, on a stone shelf and plinth against the wall, is an oak statue of St Simon Stock by Philip Lindsey Clark.

A sacristy wraps around the exedra of the Relic Chapel. The dalle de verre windows are protected internally by ironwork, the former communion rails to the Choir Chapel.

Chapel of Carmelite Saints

The Chapel of Carmelite Saints lies in the south-east exedra of the Relic Chapel. It was fitted out by Kossowski in 1964 to 1965. The altar incorporates a ceramic representation of the entrance to the Holy Sepulchre, and on it stands an oak crucifix with ceramic base and corpus. Behind, ceramic relief plaques depict Carmelite saints. The panels flank a central wooden carving of the Scapular Vision, a medieval work of unknown provenance acquired in 1951. Below is a horizontal ceramic plaque representing the landscape of Mount Carmel.

Chapel of the English and Welsh Martyrs (Blessed Sacrament Chapel)

The Chapel of the English and Welsh Martyrs, also called the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, lies in the north-west exedra of the Relic Chapel. It has inset ceramic panels, fitted out by Kossowski in 1965 to 1967. The reliefs are of red glaze (for martyrdom) on a bluish-black clay background. The altar front depicts the martyrdom of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury. Behind the altar are reliefs of St Thomas More and St John Fisher from 1965. Reliefs on the side walls date from 1967 and include the names of martyrs and related imagery and symbolism.

Chapel of St Joseph

The Chapel of St Joseph stands to the north-west of the Main Shrine. It was built in 1966 but fitting out, which involved reorientation, was not completed until 1971. It is the most richly decorated of the three main chapels, its plastered walls all inset with ceramic relief panels, and the main altar being a set-piece of Kossowski's work. The seating consists of plain open-backed oak benches, facing towards the altar and Statue of St Joseph. The pendant iron light fittings are by John Emery. There is no stained or dalle de verre glass, only tinted glass as specified by Scott.

The original Scott altar is placed in an exedra on the north-east side, and is a large monolith of Hornton stone. Behind it is a ceramic crucifix with figures of St Mary and St John. What is now the main altar, since 1971, is placed in front of the exedra on the north-west side. This has a marble mensa on ceramic-clad supports. The altar is raised on a dais floored with ceramic sgraffito on green tiles with inscriptions and symbols of the four Evangelists. Behind the altar exedra stands a giant, solid oak carving of St Joseph, by Michael Clark from around 1963. The walls are lined with sgraffito decoration on green tiles representing the idea of the Universal Church, with the Basilica of St Peter, Rome, at the centre.

The four walls of the chapel incorporate large ceramic reliefs as follows:

Over the main altar: the Nativity; to the left, the Dream of Joseph and the Marriage of Joseph and Mary; to the right, the Flight into Egypt and the Finding in the Temple.

On the north-east wall, over the original altar: Transfiguration, with Moses and Elijah; to the left St John the Baptist; to the right St John the Evangelist.

On the south-east wall, over the entrance from the tribune: Elisha called from a plough to follow Elijah; to the left, Sacrifice of Elijah; to the right, Chariot of Fire carrying Elijah to Heaven.

On the south-west wall, over the entrance from the piazza: Adoration of the Cross by two angels; to the left: inscription from the Book of Psalms (Psalm 90, 2); to the right: inscription from St Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians.

Choir Chapel

The Choir Chapel is the plainest of all the interiors, with little by way of sculptural or ceramic enrichment. The forward altar is of table form, of white marble. It dates from 1968 and was probably designed by Anthony Gilbert Scott. It is raised on a wooden platform, with an oak lectern and choir seating to either side. The main floor is tiled in a geometrical pattern of cream and brown, the Carmelite colours. The lighting is in the form of hanging iron pendants by John Emery, and the seating is of simple open-backed benches. Artworks include a crucifix by Kossowski over the exedra arch and a wooden carving of the Madonna and Child to its right by Philip Lindsey Clark.

An extension of the south cloister leads to the main sacristy, a single-storey flat-roofed building added to the side of the medieval structure. This has a woodblock floor and retains its original fitted cupboards, made on site.