Category: Place of worship

St Barnabus Jericho, Oxford OX2

Walking through Jericho on my way to the station, I glimpsed this church tower, and heard its bells. I wove through the small streets until I found it.

St Barnabus Jericho, OX2 6BG, sketched 26 April 2025 in Sketchbook 15.

This is St Barnabus Jericho. Its website says that it is also known as “Oxford Basilica”. It was built as the daughter church of St Paul’s, which is the Grecian-style building on Walton Street, now no longer a church1.

St Paul’s is not far away, just the other side of The Oxford University Press. It was opened in 1836, and became part of the “Oxford Movement”. The Oxford Movement was campaign within the Church of England, led by influential clergymen and theologians in the 1830s. They challenged the contemporary way of thinking in the Church, saying that services were too plain, and that much of value from the Catholic tradition had been left behind. They sought to re-instate some of the theology, pageantry and ritual from the Catholic tradition, and they put it into their services. They also had a social calling, drawn to help working people and the disadvantaged.2

As you can imagine, this was contentious: popular with some people, and regarded as suspicious and un-English by others. In the 1830s, the movement flourished in this part of Oxford. The services at St Paul’s became so crowded that another church was needed. In addition, Oxford University Press moved into its huge site on Walton Street in 1830, which brought many workers to the area. So an additional church was created, and this was St Barnabus.

“The land for St Barnabas was given by George Ward who was an Oxford ironmonger, and the benefactor for the Church building was the generous Thomas Combe, Printer to the University, along his wife Martha.” [https://www.sbarnabas.org.uk/history]

St Barnabus opened for worship in 1869, and is flourishing to this day. Inside it is awe-inspiring and uplifting, with its highly decorated walls and vast size.

I sketched St Barnabus from outside “The Old Bookbinders” pub, delighted and frustrated in equal measure by the extraordinary detail in that tower. And I was looking at its clock, which informed me of the passing minutes until my train.

I finished the pen-and-ink drawing. Then I walked on, past Worcester College, to the railway station.

Sketchbook spread, St Barnabus Jericho. Sketchbook 15.

Footnotes

  1. St Paul’s: the impressive Grecian temple building on Walton St is no longer a church, but the “St Paul’s” name lives on. I’ve done an earlier sketch which shows St Paul’s Nursery, still very much in operation and part of Somerville College.
    ↩︎
  2. Oxford Movement: This is my non-specialist summary of a significant and complex theological and social movement. For a proper description see, for example the Wikipedia Article, or this glossary article. ↩︎

Pelham Mission Hall, Lambeth SE11

This ornate building stands out amongst the plain and functional housing along Lambeth Walk. I walked past it on my way to the Vauxhall Tea House.

Pelham Mission Hall, Lambeth Walk, Lambeth SE11. in Sketchbook 15, 26 Feb 2025
Canopy

Rain threatened, but I started the sketch anyway. I was sheltering underneath a sort of canopy on the opposite side of the road. This canopy had the significant disadvantage that it was perforated with a pattern of decorative holes.

I sketch using a pen which has waterproof ink. The ink is waterproof once it has dried. But if I try sketching when the paper is wet, the ink runs. I continued until the pen protested that it couldn’t make marks under these conditions.

The paper I use is Arches Aquarelle. It is “heavily sized”, which means it throws off the water, at least at first. But after sustained drizzle, it starts to become absorbent.

All these things started to happen. The paper became spongy. The pen spluttered. Rain sneaked through the perforated canopy and dripped down the inside of my coat. Water slid off the leaves into my bag. I tried to wrap the sketchbook up and I crammed it into my backpack. I have a waterproof backpack. It was already wet on the outside. Now it was becoming wet on the inside. I stood in the rain and considered. I breathed using a yoga technique. Yoga breathing techniques are quite effective in the rain. There was a rhythm to the drips.

Then the rhythm slowed. Perhaps I could just do a bit more drawing? Slowly, I extracted and unwrapped my book. I flicked the pen to get the ink to flow again. I made each pen stroke count.

The rain eased enough.

This was as far as I got.

Then I went to the Vauxhall Tea House to warm up.

I finished the drawing of Pelham Mission Hall later at my desk.

1.ink
2. Early wash
3. More washes
4. Final detail

Here are the colours I used:

Pelham Mission Hall was completed in 1910.
The text on the big stone slab under the window tells me this.

Foundation stone: This stone was laid by Randall Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, on July 18th 1910. G.H.S. Walpole D. D. Rector. “To make ready a people for the Lord” Luke 1.17
Waring and Nicholson architects. William Smith and Son Builders.

Buildings often have a foundation stone. Usually they just say who, and when. This one also says why. Its mission, as stated on the stone, was “To make ready a people for the Lord”. This is a line from a verse in St Luke’s gospel in the Christian Bible. The context is this:

And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Luke 1.17. King James version1

This building was created as an urban missionary post. There was a street market along Lambeth Walk at the time, and up to the 1960s. 2 I imagine the missionaries preaching from their outdoor pulpit to the street traders and their customers. It must have been hard for the preacher to make themselves heard.

View of the Pelham Mission Hall showing the covered outdoor pulpit. Photo (c) JaneSketching, February 2025
Picture taken in Lambeth Walk in the 1938, entitled ‘A Crowd Looks on as Miss Dipper Does the Lambeth Walk with Billy Pease the Peanut and Toffee King’. 3

The Hall is named for Francis G. Pelham 1844-1905, 5th Earl of Chichester, educated Eton and Cambridge, who was rector of Lambeth 1884-1894. 4

The building is now the “Henry Moore Sculpture Studio at Pelham Hall” part of Morley College. The sculptor Henry Moore donated a small sculpture to Morley College in 1977, which was sold at auction and helped to raise money for the lease of Pelham Hall. In return, the College named the sculpture studio after him, as written on the front of the building5.

Pelham Mission Hall, now The Henry Moore Sculpture Studio. The outdoor pulpit is on the left.

A ventilation pipe from the sculpture studio now exhausts through the outdoor pulpit.

While I was in the Vauxhall Tea House, the sun came out. It was calm in there. A few moments of paradise.

  1. I find the King James’ version here a little ambiguous here in the pronouns. Who is the “he”, who is the “him”? A modern translation: ‘John will prepare the people for the Lord to come to them. The Holy Spirit will lead John as he led Elijah. John will do powerful things as Elijah did. He will help fathers to love their children. He will teach people who do not obey God. Then they will know what things are right. And they will do them. Then they will be ready when the Lord comes.’.
    Translation: “The Easy Bible”. Thank you to http://www.biblegateway.com for sorting that out. ↩︎
  2. https://vauxhallhistory.org/lambeth-walk-street-market/ ↩︎
  3. This wonderful photo is from the local history site : http://partletontree.com/LambethWalk.htm ↩︎
  4. The link to Francis G. Pelham is given in the caption to a London Picture Archive photo. See this link: https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=92169&WINID=1742396935298
    ↩︎
  5. The information about the Henry Moore donation is from the Morley College website on this link: https://www.morleygallery.com/sculpture ↩︎

Bedford House, Quaker Street, London E1

This magnificent building is on the corner of Quaker Street and Wheler Street, in east London, near Liverpool Street Station.

Bedford House, Quaker Street. Sketched 12 February 2025 in Sketchbook 15

It is intriguing: grand but dilapidated. Grass grows from the ledges, windows are broken and patched. The front door is blocked with a waste bin. But it has style.

At one time it was bright, new, clean and purposeful. This was the headquarters of a Quaker mission in east London: the Bedford Institute Association. It was built in 1894 replacing a previous building.

The lofty, picturesque, red-brick building, with its gables and tall roof, is constructed and equipped with solidity, and liberality and far-sightedness which distinguish all the admirable buildings erected by the trustees.”

“Sunday at Home” published by the Religious Tract Society, 1895, Volume 42, page 92

This issue of “Sunday at Home” published in 1895, goes on to describe the work which was undertaken in the building, which was less than a year old at the time of writing. Its purpose was to provide hospitality and education for the destitute of the locality.

“The Sunday begins with a well-planned hospitality to the destitute of the district – a free and substantial breakfast to the poor whose poverty is nowhere seen in a more aggravated form than in Spitalfields.

Provision is made for two hundred, who are supplied with tickets of admission by those who well know the district […] The large lower room in which they are received and comfortably seated is built for purpose, and is itself a lesson in cleanly living as well as of hospitality. The needful ventilation of a room crowded by two hundred guests, entirely devoid of any resources for personal cleanliness, is supplied by rapidly revolving steam fans placed over the doorways…

The article contains a picture, drawn from almost exactly the same spot where I was standing:

At that time there were tall chimneys on the front corners of the building, now reduced to stumps, as you see in my picture. Otherwise the building looks unchanged, on the outside at least. Even the cast-iron railings, centre left, are still there. The adjacent buildings on the right, with the ecclesiastical pointed windows, have been replaced by modern buildings, taller and boxier, with rectangular windows.

Although I was able to read in detail about the use of the building in 1895, I have been unable to discover much of its more recent history. In 2011, for a few months, squatters lived there. “The Gentle Author” visited the house during their occupation1 A photographer, Raquel Riesgo, documented her life during the squat. The squatters were evicted on October 28th 2011.

But what happened next? This building was created to serve destitute people in Spitalfields. Does it continue its mission?

If anyone knows what’s happening there now, I’d be really interested. Please comment below or get in touch.

Sketching in Quaker Street, 12th February 2025
Adding the colour at my desk.

I found “Sunday at Home” thanks to a link in a comment by Deidre Murray on the listing in Historic England.
“Sunday at Home – a family magazine for Sabbath reading v.42” is available on the website of the Hathi Trust on this link:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015068375545&seq=108&view=1up
or if that doesn’t work try this link:
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068375545

The publication is “Public Domain, Google-digitized.“

The pages I have referenced start on this link: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068375545?urlappend=%3Bseq=108%3Bownerid=13510798887051007-112

The name of the author of the article and of the artist who drew the picture are not given.

Click below to read or download the pages relating to the Bedford Institute:

Sunday at Home 3 pages Bedford HouseDownload
  1. The Gentle Author describes his visit in a blog post: https://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/09/29/at-bedford-house/ Reading the comments on his post, there is a sense of the local mixed opinions surrounding this squat. ↩︎

Chichester Cathedral

Here is a view of the south transept of Chichester Cathedral.

Chichester Cathedral, South transept, sketched 5th December 2024 from Canon Lane, in Sketchbook 15.

The first spire was built around 1500. There are no bells in the spire: the medieval builders put the bells in a separate little building in the cathedral grounds. This was just as well. The spire collapsed in 18611. It was rebuilt to the designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and that’s the spire in my drawing.

From a beautiful framed plan in the Cathedral, which had no date or artist’s name.
Chichester: location
Sketchbook 15

George Gilbert Scott was a prolific 19th century architect. I have sketched his work before:

Chichester Cathedral

Here is a view of the south transept of Chichester Cathedral. The first spire was built around 1500. There are no bells in the spire: the medieval builders put the…

Waterpoint, St Pancras, London N1

This structure is visible from the North side of the Regents Canal at Coal Drops yard. It was a “water point” for replenishing the boilers of steam engines. The top…

St Mary Stoke Newington N16

“What is that spire?” It’s just visible, on the horizon between office blocks. Some work with the binoculars and the map established that it must be St Mary Stoke Newington,…

  1. This history of the cathedral is on their website:
    https://www.chichestercathedral.org.uk/about-us/little-history-cathedral
    ↩︎

Tower of St Anne’s Church Limehouse, E14

This is the tower of St Anne’s Church Limehouse, seen from the south.
St Anne’s is a church designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, consecrated in 1730.

St Anne’s Church Limehouse tower, sketched 28 August 2024 in sketchbook 15

This tower shows the marine connections of this church:

The prominent tower with its golden ball on the flagpole became a Trinity House “sea mark” on navigational charts and the Queens Regulations still permit St Anne’s Limehouse to display the White Ensign”.

Wikipedia (1 October 2024)
White ensign

The White Ensign is definitely flying. In my drawing the flag is blowing away from me, so you can’t see it well. It is the flag flown by British Navy ships and certain navy-related buildings on land, of which St Anne’s in one.

The golden ball is clearly visible on the flagpole, the “sea mark” mentioned in articles about the church. I had a look to see if I could find St Anne’s on a navigational chart. The Port of London Authority offers navigational maps of the Thames – but sadly St Anne’s is not shown as a “sea mark” on any of them.

Detail from Chart 319 from the Port of London Authority. The red circle where St Anne’s is, but it’s not shown as a “sea mark”.

The church has a lovely quiet garden. I sketched from the wooden seat, watched by a robin.

Sketchbook 15

Here are other sketches I’ve done around Limehouse and Wapping, near here:

Christ Church, Esher, KT10

Christ Church Esher stands on the top of a hill, near the intersection of roads that marks Esher town centre.

Christ Church, Church Street, Esher, Surrey, KT10 8 QS. Sketched 28 May 2024, in Sketchbook 14

The church has a “splayed foot” spire.

SPLAYED-FOOT: variation of the broach form, found in England principally in the south-east, in which the four cardinal faces are splayed out near their bases, to cover the corners, while oblique (or intermediate) faces taper away to a point.

BROACH: starting from a square base, then carried into an octagonal section by means of triangular faces.

– Pevsner’s Architectural Glossary, page 116, under “SPIRE”

This simple and elegant geometry turned out to be rather tricky to draw. I worked hard to get the shape of the spire correct.

Sketching the spire of Christ Church

The church was built in 1853-1854 to the design of Benjamin Ferrey (1810-1880) according to its Historic England listing entry. Ferrey studied under A.W.N. Pugin1, and like Pugin, designed in the style known as “Gothic Revival”. Christ Church was built because the growing congregation could no longer be housed in the smaller St George’s, a little way down the hill.

I sketched the church on location and added the colour later. The colours are:

  • Mars Yellow
  • Green Gold
  • Phthalo Blue Turquoise

I used just three colours, all Daniel Smith. I used gold paint for the clock. The clock is on the roof of the spire, which is remarkable. Usually the clock is on the tower, below the spire. So I wanted to put it in and show its unusual location.

Here is a sketch map of the area.

See this post for my sketch of St George’s, this post for the Tin Tabernacle in West End Esher, and this post for sketches of the council housing in Lower Green.

References

Historic England Listing Entry: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1188268?section=comments-and-photos downloaded 7th June 2024, contains also many photos of the interior of Christ Church.

Ferrey’s biography is on Wikipedia, and also on “The Victorian Web” at this link: https://victorianweb.org/art/architecture/ferrey/

1A.W.N. Pugin designed, amongst other things, the inside of the Houses of Parliament: https://heritagecollections.parliament.uk/stories/the-architects-barry-pugin-and-scott/. The Houses of Parliament are a classic example of Gothic Revival Style. The Houses of Parliament were designed by a team consisting of Charles Barry, A.W.N. Pugin and later Giles Gilbert Scott.

Crete sketches 2024

Here are a selection of sketches made in Crete. The sketchbook is Jackson’s Art Supplies’ own brand, 160gsm watercolour paper, cotton blend, about 8″ x 9″.

I used some of the local earth as pigment, to make a watercolour, using Schmincke watercolour binder.

Binder + earth = watercolour
Binder
Watercolour

I ground the earth using a stone, breaking it up to make a powder like talcum powder. It still had bits in, but I managed to separate it by shaking, and scooped most of the bits off the top with a teaspoon. Then add an equal quantity, by volume, of the binder, and scoop into a suitable receptacle. It can be used immediately: it has the consistency of paint from a tube. Or. leave it to dry, then it’s like a watercolour pan. The “suitable receptacle” here is an empty butter portion container.

Home-made watercolour pan.

The watercolour works amazing well. It is a rich red-brown colour. Ideal for painting the surrounding scenery.

Painting with home-made watercolour

You can see it, for example, in this picture:

Here is a flick through the sketchbook:

Crete sketchbook flick-through

Cambridge Hall, Kilburn NW6 5BA

I was reading about “tin tabernacles” having sketched the “Tin Tabernacle” in Esher. I discovered, via a Historic England blog article, that there is a Tin Tabernacle in Kilburn in London. So I went to have a look. It is an “iron church” built of galvanised corrugated iron in 1863. It used to have a steeple, but that has disappeared.

Here it is now:

Cambridge Hall, Cambridge Avenue, Kilburn NW6 5BA, sketched 28 February 2024 3pm in sketchbook 14

The building was built as a church, and more recently was a centre for Sea Cadets. Its future is under discussion, according to an article on the London Historic Buildings Trust site (LHBT).

The site is owned by Notting Hill Genesis Housing Association (NHG).  LHBT are currently working with NHG and the Sea Cadets, supported by Historic England and the Conservation Officer at Brent Council, to explore how the building can be stabilised and used in the future.

https://londonhistoricbuildings.org.uk/index.php/tin-tabernacle-kilburn/

The latest date mentioned in this article is 2021, so I guess the exploration is still going on. It’s listed as a “current project” on their website. The building was looking a little precarious when I visited this year (February 2024). An alarm was sounding inside.

It is Grade II listed, and on the Heritage at Risk Register. The listing is on this link. It is currently an events venue, the website is:
http://tintabernaclekilburn.org/

Here are some photos of the outside:

The building is about 150m north of Kilburn Park underground station on the Bakerloo Line.

The London Historic Buildings site has a “Virtual Visit” link, so you can see what it looks like inside, and there is a timeline of the building (click below to see it, 2 pages PDF):

tin-tab-timeline-v2Download

It’s a building with a varied history. I wonder what will happen to it?

Sketch and notes in sketchbook 14

St George’s Esher, Old Church, KT10 9PX

After sketching the Tin Tabernacle in Esher West End, I walked into the town centre to sketch another St George’s: St George’s Old Church.

St George’s, Esher, Old Church. Sketched February 2024 in Sketchbook 14

Here is the notice by the door:

ST GEORGE ESHER
This church is cared for by
The Churches
Conservation Trust.
Although no longer needed for regular worship, it remains a consecrated building, a part of England’s history, maintained for the benefit of this and future generations.

Here is the notice hanging from a post by the gate:

Welcome to ST. GEORGE’S CHURCH

Esher’s oldest public building and one of the earliest Anglican churches.
Most of the structure is 16th Century Tudor Two 18th Century features of te Church are a 3-decker pulpit and the Newcastle chamber pew designed by Sir John Vanburgh for Thomas Pelham., Duke of Newcastle and his brother Henry: both served as Prime Minister.
Princess Charlotte – heir to George IV – and Prince Leopold – who became the first King of the Belgians – worshipped here when they lived at Claremont after their marriage in 1816.
Queen Victoria, Leopold’s niece attended services when visiting her uncle and later came with Prince Albert.
When Christ Church was completed in 1854 St George’s ceased to be the Parish Church.
Restored by the community in 1965 it remains a consecrated building now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Several services are held each year. It is also a venue for music and the arts.

I sketched it from the graveyard, as the sun set. So many angles and views! It has been altered and added to and mended, yet is graceful and somehow perfect.

Behind the church there were crocuses.

A wonderful place! Tranquillity just off the main road.

Here’s a map. I walked here from the St Georges West End, along the route marked with a red line on the map: a half hour’s walk, just over a mile.

Here is work in progress on the drawing.

Tin Tabernacle, St George’s West End, Esher KT10 8LF

Beside the green on the West side of Esher stands this iron church, St George’s West End.

St George’s West End, Esher. Sketched on location February 2024, in Sketchbook 14

It has a single bell in its small bell tower, and a fence made in a particular way, which I tried hard to show. I wondered if it is intentionally in the shape of a line of crosses, appropriate for a Christian church.

This is one of dozens of “tin tabernacles” or iron churches across the UK. Wikipedia has a whole list. Some of them are strikingly similar to this one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_tabernacle

They were built in the late 19th century, in response to expanding demand, using the new technology of corrugated iron. Many of them, including this one, were pre-fabricated.

According to a 2004 article on this church by Angela Stockbridge the land was donated by Queen Victoria in 1878. “A need was felt to make provision for “the spiritual wants of the “Aged, Poor and Infirm of West End”” and to spare them from the steep and often muddy climb into Esher” she writes. It was intended to be a temporary church. 145 years later, here it is, still standing, and still hosting services.

The church is dedicated to St George. Above the porch is a stained glass window, evidently showing the Knight slaughtering the Dragon. I could just make him out standing on the stirrups of his white horse. The church was closed when I visited, but I hope to go inside on a future occasion. I am told that inside it is cladded with white-painted wood panelling.

I sketched the church from the village green opposite. It was damp and muddy. When I’d had enough, I retreated to the “Prince of Wales” for some lunch. Then I went on to sketch the church in Esher town centre: another St George’s.

Esher is to the West of London, with a main line railway station in to Waterloo.

“They do tend to heat up in summer and stay cold in winter, and the rain makes a noise on their roofs, but they have proved remarkably sturdy. As one commentator writes, “Tin Tabernacles are an important if brief and overlooked episode in the history of church architecture,” and have a claim to “be recognised as listed buildings, particularly as examples of prefabrication” (Dopson 204-05).”
Dopson, Laurence. “Tin Tabernacles.” Words from “The Countryman”. Ed. Valerie Porter. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 2007. 204-05.

https://victorianweb.org/art/architecture/churches/58.html
In the “Prince of Wales”