Poplar: St Matthias
Overview
Grid reference: TQ 377 808
As far as can be deduced from an inspection of the building as it now stands, the proportions still obtain, and it is apparent that Teulon merely clothed the walls with Kentish ragstone and inserted curious tracery in an attempt, not exactly to Gothicise it (for its aspect can hardly be called that), but rather to impose upon it a respectably Victorian air at a time when neat little red-brick chapels were considered to be old fashioned.
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Rectangular nave arranged in five bays with the middle one wider and intersecting with the nave in a shallow groin vault. There are north and south porches towards the west end, and the chancel has a vestry to the south.
Description of Archaeology and History
A chapel on this site was first built in c.1650, after the inhabitants had in 1642 petitioned the East India Company for a piece of ground on which to erect a chapel and house for the Chaplain. (The district was at that time in the parish of Stepney). The company, while giving the area of ground behind their almshouses, contributed further in the shape of sixty loads of stone already on the site and at a later stage, after further petitioning from the populace, £250. The building was finished in 1654.
The present internal aspect of the building is now almost wholly of a thorough rebuilding in 1776, when R. Jupp was the Company's Surveyor; it was repaired and embellished in 1803. With the nationalisation of the East India Company in 1858, the church was conveyed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (in 1866) and a parish was formed. This alteration in its status engendered considerable alterations to the building. In 1868 W.M. Teulon faced the exterior with ragstone, put Geometrical tracery in the windows and replaced the neat eighteenth-century bell-cote with a turret which has since received nothing but scorn from critics and historians. Parish church status also demanded more of a chancel than the old chapel provided; seven years later one was provided in Teulon's style by E. Evans Cronk.
Exterior Description
As far as can be deduced from an inspection of the building as it now stands, those proportions still obtain, and it is apparent that Teulon merely clothed the walls with Kentish ragstone and inserted curious tracery in an attempt, not exactly to Gothicise it (for its aspect can hardly be called that), but rather to impose upon it a respectably Victorian air at a time when neat little red-brick chapels were considered to be old fashioned. The lower part is rectangular, with weather-boarded sides, and is covered by a tapuring room through which break small gablots cach housing a clock-face. Then comes a ring of small wooden colonettes carrying a conical spirelet capped with a ball which formerly supported a weathervane.
The three gables of the west wall are cach pierced by windows. That in the centre preserves the eighteenth-century size and shape, very large with a roundedhead. The flanking windows however have been replaced by circular openings, and all three have brashly simple tracery composed of uncusped circles. The bays are divided by square buttresses with pyramidal gablots at the top, the angles decorated with projecting carvings of beasts like small gargoyles. The north and south wells are symetrical, with a central gable projecting a little from the basic rectangular plan, under which is a window like that in the middle of the west wall. Each side of this is a smaller window of similar design, and the idiosyncratic buttresses appear at all corners. The north west and south-west doorways are protected by porches with round-headed doorways and round-headed windows in the side walls. A stringcourse encircles the building just below the caves, rising in semi-circles above the big windows and in rectangles above the smaller ones. All the gables are further decorated with stringcourses consisting of rows of billets bearing no particular relation to the building's form or proportion.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
c.1875
The east window dates from c.1875 and is by Westlake. Six roundels and a sexfoil show scenes from the Life of Christ, while four figures of the Evangelists in round-headed lights below are later and by a different hand.
Stained Glass
South nave I: The Annunciation, Visitation and Angels appear to the Shepherds, in the same style as the east window.
Stained Glass
South Nave II: Adoration of the Magi, Flight into Egypt and Baptism of Christ, re-set here from elsewhere.
Stained Glass
North Nave I: Mary Magdalene Washes the Feet of Christ, Christ with the Children and Palm Sunday: similar to South Nave I.
Stained Glass
c.1920
North Nave II: memorial window to Freemasons who died in the First World War: David and Solomon flank a victorious General welcomedby a High Priest; by Cakebread, Robey and Company of Stoke Newington, c.1920.
Interior
Interior Description
Although the forceful tracery of the windows is continually intrusive, the interior of the church retains on the whole its eighteenth contury aspect. The rectangle is made cruciform by the shape of the ceiling since the segmental vault of the nave is intersected by a similar segmental vault over the 'transept', and the central crossing is further accentuated by a large plaster boss in low relief representing the arms of the Honorable East India Company. The roof is supported by bright pillars of which one is carved from stone and the others from a close-grained wood, said to be teak (which is quite credible) or the masts of East Indiamen. They are quite plain, Tuscan columns with moulded bases and square abaci, carrying a heavily moulded cornice. There is no decoration on the ceiling other than the plaster boss.
Galleries were removed in 1868 but a west gallery was provided, with an inoffensive arcaded front which is not sympathetic to the general style of the interior. The font stands beneath this at the west end of the central alley. The floor is of wooden boards save for two rows of ledger slabs just to the north and south of the pillars. The pews have been removed from the aisles. Towards the east end, the pulpit and lectern stand unrelated to their surroundings, and behind the pulpit is an oak screen which forms the west end of a room contrived in the north chancel chapel and part of the north aisle. In the corresponding position on the south stands the organ.
The chancel arch is round, with an inner order carried on small attached colonettes whose foliated capitals introduce a Gothic element quite foreign to the classical aspect of the nave. The floor is tiled, and the ceiling is panelled and plastered, forming a barrel vault not of the same proportions as that in the nave yet not semi-circular in section either. On the north side an arch formerly opened into the chapel, and there is a small window, while on the south is a doorway to the vestry. The east window, which is similar to those in the other gabled walls, has six big circles in the tracery and below that two rows of rectangular panels of which the upper are round-headed and are glazed while the lower are square-hoaded and filled with simple mosaics to form a reredos.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
The communion table is made up of parts of an eighteenth-century table (or perhaps communion rails) of which the legs of four spiral twisted columns and some sections of moulded toprails survive.
Font (object)
The font has achieved a false air of respectable antiquity by having been painted and then partly scraped. The tapering circular pedestal is difficult to date accurately, but the cylindrical bowl is seemingley of the third quarter of the nineteenth century.
Pulpit
c.1920
The pulpit, in oak, is carved in a heavy style with neo-classical and naturalistic antecedents. It is octagonal, and dates from c.1920, no doubt designed by Wheeler who also provided the nearby screen.
Lectern
The lectern is a wooden eagle on an octagonal column, quite spirited and more accurately observed than usual; possibly by a ship's carpenter.
Reredos
c.1903
The reredos takes the form of mosaic panels in the lower blind lights of the east window showing the symbols of the four evangelists.
Stall
c.1920
The stalls are in a similar style to the pulpit, of oak and quite substantial.
Rail
The communion rails are of brass, quite striking in their simplicity with big scrolls as brackets.
Organ (object)
1862
The organ has two manuals and nineteen speaking stops; it was originally by Hill.
Screen
C.1925
A screen, c.1925, in the north-east corner of the church is in the same "unity by inclusion" style as the pulpit and choirstalls, with a four centred doorway, naturalistic bands of carving and Corinthian pilasters. at the corners. By W. Wheeler for Faithcraft.
Clock
19th Century
Nineteenth-century clock on the gallery front by C. Calipe of High Street Poplar.
Churchyard
Grid reference: TQ 377 808
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | N/A |
| Solar Thermal Panels | N/A |
| Biomass | N/A |
| Wind Turbine | N/A |
| Air Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ev Charging | N/A |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
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