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.
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.
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Esher is an area of Greater London, half an hour’s train ride from Waterloo. It is a place of diverse architecture: magnificent Arts-and-Crafts villas, modernist mansions, and a row of “stockbroker Tudor” houses.
Stockbroker Tudor houses, Esher.
On the other side of the railway tracks, in the low ground near the industrial estate and the waterworks, there is a council estate. This is “Lower Green”. It was built towards the end of the 1940s. This was an era of visionary town planning and utopian ideals, eloquently described in the book “Municipal Dreams” by John Boughton, Chapter 3. On page 66 Boughton quotes the town planner Patrick Abercrombie who sought a plan for Plymouth
“which allows for a higher standard of living well within our grasp, with its call for space and beauty rather than for mere economy”
J. Paton Watson and P. Abercrombie “A Plan for Plymouth” 1943.
The new towns were built around this time, including Stevenage, Crawley, Hemel Hempstead, Harlow, Welwyn Garden City, and Hatfield. Lower Green has many characteristics of those new towns: two storey “cottage style” houses with a front garden and a back garden, arranged behind wide verges, with trees and plenty of green space. The houses were designed by the architect George Blair Imrie (1885–1952), for Esher Urban District Council.
Round symbol on the houses: E for Esher, “UDC” = Urban District Council. Esher is now under “Elmbridge Borough Council”. See the interesting texture of the bricks.
My watercolours show houses on Douglas Road, Lower Green. Here, the land was acquired by the council in 1949. It was a compulsory purchase under the 1936 Housing Act. The vendor was the farmer, Sydney Edward Parkes. I have this detailed information thanks to an owner and resident of one of the houses, who kindly showed me their title deeds.
Here is the basic design of the houses.
A house in Douglas Road, Lower Green, Esher, KT10. Watercolour and ink, Sketchbook 14
The geometry is perfect: the side edges of the upper windows are aligned with the centres of the lower windows. The upper edges of the lower windows, the door lintel and the passage are all in a neat line.
What you can’t see in my painting is that this house stands behind a wide verge and trees, which separate it from the road.
Painting location for the picture above.
There is a passage through the terrace of houses, on the right in my picture. This passage takes you through to “the back” where you can store your bicycle, and your dustbins.
Another feature of the estate is the arrangement of houses round a square.
Here is a painting of some of the houses round the corner of a square: numbers 69 to 77 (odd numbers) Douglas Road:
69-77 (odd numbers) Douglas Road, Esher. Watercolour and ink, in Sketchbook 14Painting of odd numbers 69-77 Douglas Road Esher, seen across the huge green public space.
There are three such squares, all large green spaces. It’s one of the “patterns” in this estate, to use the concept described by Christopher Alexander, in the 1977 book “A Pattern Language”.
“A Pattern Language” by Christopher Alexander and others (1977), page 304, Pattern number 60 “Accessible Green”
I didn’t see anyone using the green space. But this was a Tuesday afternoon, in term time, and it was raining. Perhaps they were enjoying looking out across it from their windows. If they were, they were probably wondering what the strange woman was doing, sitting there on a metal camping stool under the tree, staring at their house.
This estate was originally intended as rental accommodation. It was owned by Esher Urban District Council and residents paid rent to the council. Nowadays, some of these former council houses are in private freehold ownership, having been sold under the “right to buy” scheme. There are also a lot more cars. The estate was built at a time when most people did not not own cars. The houses do not have garages.
The architect, George Blair Imrie, designed many houses in the area. His wikipedia page lists the large houses he designed for the wealthy. His work on the council housing estate of Lower Green is also remarkable, and not mentioned. So I am glad of the opportunity to draw attention to it here.
I drew these pictures between rainstorms, finally completing them under a borrowed umbrella.
Rain on the watercoloursRain on the page: the Arches paper holds up well and doesn’t crinkleInteresting colour effects due to a fine rain showerSketchbook 14, page spreadSketchbook 14, page spread
Blair Imrie’s work, including his work on Lower Green, is mentioned the 100th newsletter of the The Esher Residents Association, January 2020. See pages 4 and 5:
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.
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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.
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.
Jane Sketching 