Details
TQ 2177 NE
1/240
CHURCH STREET, W4 (west side)
Church of St Nicholas and attached walls
(formerly listed as Church of St Nicholas)
11.7.51
GV
II*
Anglican parish church. West tower built for William Bordall, vicar from 1416 to 1435; rest of church rebuilt 1882-84 for John Loughborough Pearson. Squared and coursed Kentish Rag with ashlar dressings; stone-coped and gabled copper roof. Plan of chancel flanked by north vestry and south chapel, with aisled nave and west
tower. Perpendicular style.
Chancel: five-light Geometrical-style east window, above 1914-18 war memorial depicting a carving of the Crucifixion; two-light Geometrical-style window and two similar lights, to north; three-light Perpendicular-style windows to vestry. Four bay north and south aisle elevations have Perpendicular-style fenestration, canted stair turret to each side and string course with gargoyles beneath ashlar castellated parapet with trefoiled blind arches. Plain pointed-arched door next to Tudor-arched window to east end of north aisle, and Decorated-style doorway with flowing tracery to hood to east end of south aisle. Decorated-style doorway with engaged shafts to north porch, which has wrought-iron gates and panelled inner doors set in similar doorway with rosettes to architrave. 'Porte-cochère' to south has flaming-tracery hoods to three similar Decorated-style doorways and vaulted interior.
C15 west tower of three stages with angle buttresses and string courses; late C19 Perpendicular-style west doorway ; C15 hoodmould over late C19 three-light Perpendicular-style window above; lancet windows to second floor and label moulds over Tudor-arched belfry windows; castellated parapet and canted stair turret.
Interior: chancel has trefoiled rere-arches with engaged shafts; Minton tile floor; alabaster reredos by Pearson; brass Gothic-style communion rail; corbels with engaged shafts support ribbed barrel-vaulted ceiling; carved Gothic-style benches; chancel is flanked by finely carved Perpendicular-style screens with cusped open tracery and foliate friezes. Perpendicular-style arch with engaged shafts to organ chamber, which has fine organ case by Timothy Russell, 1826 (removed from Holy Trinity, Cloudesley Square, Islington).
Three-bay Perpendicular-style arcade to south chapel: this chapel has late C19 benches, Gothic-style communion rail and reredos depicting The Last Supper; two bay king-post roof with cusped tracery to spandrels and cusped windbraces; finely-carved Perpendicular-style screen with cusped open tracery and carved foliate friezes. Nave has four bay Perpendicular-style arcades, four bay king-post roofs in aisles (similar to south chapel roof) and four bay crown-post roof to central nave; carved wooden Perpendicular-style pulpit, fine brass eagle lectern dated 1881 and late C19 benches with carved ends. Tall C15 archway with engaged shafts to west tower.
Memorials: south chapel has wall tablet to Ralph Wenwood, d. 1799, in swag surround; urn set on simple wall tablet to Charlotte, Duchess of Somerset, d. 1773; very fine monument to Sir William Chaloner, d. 1615, and his two wives, d. 1603 and 1615, has heraldic achievement set over baldachino, its curtains held open by flanking figures, with kneeling figures of Sir William and wife at prayer. Chancel has brass to Mary Litcott, d.1599. South aisle has three early C19 tablets and sarcophagus-type memorial to Thomas Bentley, d. 1780, the partner to potter Josiah Wedgwood. North aisle has early/mid C19 wall tablets, including one with mourning angel leaning on urn. Early C19 wall tablets and early C18 architectural monument at west end of nave. West tower: C18-C19 wall tablets; memorial to Richard Taylor, d. 1698, with urn set on tassellated swag surround held by cherubs; memorial, to Richard Taylor, d. 1716, set in Corinthian aedicule with heraldic cartouche flanked by figures of Father Time and Angel of Death; memorial to Charles Holland the actor, d. 1769, with bust set on obelisk and epitaph by Daniel Garrick; memorial to James Howard, d. 1669, has flaming urn set on ionic aedicule with pulvinated inscription panel; memorial to Thomas Plucknett, d. 1721, has broken segmental pediment with Ionic aedicule; memorial to John Taylor, d. 1729, has open pediment with heraldic achievement in tympanum over Ionic aedicule; tablet with medallion portrait of Thomas Tomkins, d. 1816; pedimented wall tablet to Charles Barnevett, d. 1695; rectangular fluted tablet to John Beckwith, d. 1815.
Stained glass: is late C19 and by Clayton and Bell, and east window of south chapel has glass from clerestory of Cologne Cathedral.
Subsidiary features: C19 squared and coursed limestone walls attached to east end of church, with overthrow arches over two wrought-iron gates. Inscription panel records that wall was rebuilt in 1831 and rebuilt in 1884; reset C17 tablet records that first wall on site was built in 1623 at the charge of Lord Francis Russell, Earl of Bedford.
History: H S Goodhart-Rendel has described the church as 'one of the best churches imaginable of its type in rich refined Perpendicular.'
Listing NGR: TQ2156977784
This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 16 August 2017.
