Details
ENFIELD
790/22/81 CHASE SIDE N14
31-JAN-74 SOUTHGATE
(North side)
CHURCH OF ST ANDREW
(Formerly listed as:
CHASE SIDE N21
SOUTHGATE
CHURCH OF ST ANDREW)
(Formerly listed as:
CHASE SIDE N14
SOUTHGATE
CHURCH OF ST ANDREW)
(Formerly listed as:
CHASE SIDE N14
SOUTHGATE
CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS)
II
DATES OF MAIN PHASES, NAME OF ARCHITECT: Narthex and three W bays of nave 1903-4 by A R Barker and Son. 1915-16 remainder by Barker and Kirk.
MATERIALS: Red brick with limestone window tracery etc and minimal limestone dressings.
PLAN: Nave and choir in one, lower sanctuary, W narthex (as a baptistry) and S porch, N and S passage aisles, SE porch, double N and S transepts, base of SE tower, N chapel, S vestry.
EXTERIOR: The church is built of red brick with free-style Perpendicular details. Its main façade is to S which fronts on to Chase Side with just a small space for lawns and car parking. At the W end there is a lean-to narthex which projects beyond the S aisle as a porch: in its centre there is a canted bay. Above is a large, wide W window which has a 2-5-2 rhythm, the three components being separated by a pair of brick buttresses: the window has panel tracery. The nave and its flanking lean-to aisles have three bays. The aisle bays are divided by brick buttresses which then turn into flying buttresses to the clerestory. The nave has squat three-light clerestory windows. Further E is a double transept with gable over each part. On the S there is then the plain base for an uncompleted tower. The area over the sanctuary has a lower roof than the nave and choir. The E wall is blind and beneath the sanctuary, chapel and vestry the fall of the land allows for the presence of a series of rooms.
INTERIOR: The interior walls are of buff stock brick with details picked out in red brick and stone for the piers, window surrounds etc. The nave is of five bays - three bays to the passage aisles and two to the transepts. Unlike the exterior where the transepts are strongly expressed, there is no change in the design of the arcades. These have lozenge-shaped piers with the arches dying into them. The arches have a large hollow chamfer and a soffit of red brick. Red brick wall-shafts rise from the valleys to the stone corbels that carry the springing of the roof. This is of hammerbeam construction and has an arch-braced collar: it is reinforced by tie-rods between the hammer beams. At the W end of the nave there are three depressed arches which led to the baptistry which is up a couple of steps. At the E end there is a screen with four plain pointed arches behind the high altar and behind this, in turn, is an ambulatory. The N chapel is long and low and has a segmental ceiling divided into square panels by moulded ribs.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: As might be expected in an early 20th-century church the fittings are restrained. There is an interesting, very open screen at the entrance to the chancel with wide, plain divisions and attractive swirling wrought ironwork in the head of each of them. The nave is seated with chairs. The stalls have been removed.
HISTORY: An iron church was built about 1870 to provide an Anglican place of worship, but expansion of population, both actual and anticipated, led to plans for a permanent church in the opening years of the 20th century. In 1903 when application was made to the Incorporated Church Building Society (ICBS) for funding, it was said that 1,000 new homes were being planned for Palmers Green. The cost of the new building was estimated at £3,189 plus architects commission of £160; the site had been donated by a Mr V E Walker. The idea was to build the W parts first but this, according to the correspondence, ran counter to the ICBS rules which stated that the E end should come first. The promoters felt aggrieved since the Bishop of London's Fund, which also aided church-building, said the very opposite. At all events the W parts went ahead in 1903-4 first (seated 31; foundation stone 6 Oct. 1903, dedication 26 May 1904, consecration 6 Dec. 1905) with the E ones following in 1915-16. The projected tower, however, never got beyond the eaves level of the nave.
The architect, Arthur Rowland Barker (1842-1915) had his office at 11 Buckingham Street, Strand. He had been a pupil and then assistant to the well-known church architect, Ewan Christian. He became diocesan surveyor for Winchester. By 1903 he was in partnership with his son, Raymond Turner (b 1872). The younger Barker had been articled to the distinguished Chelmsford architect Frederic Chancellor until 1895 and then was an assistant to his father. Barker senior resigned from the RIBA in 1909 so the Barker in the partnership of Barker and Kirk (which was in existence by 1913) was no doubt his son. No information is available about Mr Kirk.
SOURCES:
Incorporated Church Building Society papers, Lambeth Palace Library, files 10452, 11244.
Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 4: North, 1999, p 455.
Antonia Brodie et al, Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, vol 1, p 111.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
The church of St Andrew, Southgate, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is of special interest as a red brick, free Perpendicular Gothic Revival church of the early 20th century, displaying inventiveness in massing and detail.
* The interior has the clean lines associated with churches of its time and which retains much of its original character, having escaped whitewashing.
