Fulham: St James
Overview
Grid reference: TQ 257 771
The church was built to the designs of H.A. Darbishire, and the Foundation Stone was laid on 20th June 1867, the church being consecrated on 19th December the same year. The church cost £4,118 and the builders were Messrs Cubitt and Company. The site was provided by J. Percival Maxwell, and the funds for the building were the gift of the philanthropic Baroness Coutts. The apse was added to the designs of Ewan Christian in 1874, and the clerestory windows were enlarged in 1906.
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Five-bay aisled nave, the eastern bay twice the width of the others and opening into transepts. The chancel is apsidal with a vestry room on the south and organ chamber on the north. Smaller vestries fill in the angles of the east end.
Description of Archaeology and History
The church was built to the designs of H.A. Darbishire, and the Foundation Stone was laid on 20th June 1867, the church being consecrated on 19th December the same year. The church cost £4,118 and the builders were Messrs Cubitt and Company. The site was provided by J. Percival Maxwell, and the funds for the building were the gift of the philanthropic Baroness Coutts.
The apse was added to the designs of Ewan Christian in 1874, and the clerestory windows were enlarged in 1906.
Exterior Description
The church is built of brick with dressings of Bath stone. Much timber is used in the construction of the nave. The roofs are slated.
The nave and aisles are roofed in one, the difference being marked by a change of pitch. The larger expanse of slates which results is broken by tall gabled dormer windows which perform the function of a clerestory. The aisle walls are thus very low, and are pierced by pairs of lancets, the regularity only broken by the porch in the second bay from the west. This is minimally decorated with brick banding, and the door way has three orders of chamfered brickwork, the outer relieved by banding in black brick. The west wall has a big four-light window with wide quatrefoils in the tracery, and a row of small triple lights low down, almost as though a gallery had been intended. The apex of the gable is embellished with a stone Gothic canopy over nothing.
The gabled wall of the south transept is more forcefully Geometric, the doorway being flanked by two sharply pointed lancets and a round window above with four more of the quatrefoils which seem to be a peculiarity of this church. There are no buttresses to break the hard right angle corners to the transept.
The south-east vestry is now used as a chapel and choir vestry, but was formerly a parish room, and this is hinted at by the placing of a bell-cote on the low-pitched east gable. The apse of the chancel has none of the idiosyncrasies of the nave, being in Christians plainest Early English style, with small lancets in each face of the polygonal end. The north side of the church is not visible from the road, but corresponds with the south.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
West window: four lights with tracery, the main lights depicting, life size, St. James, The Virgin Mary, St. Mary Magdalene, and St. Peter.
Stained Glass
Baptistery windows: three groups of three. The six flanking windows have grisaille, the central window of each triplet with Christ healing and Christ with the Children. The windows are by W.M. Pepper of 381, Euston Road.
Stained Glass
c.1880
West windows of the aisles: two two-light windows, c.1880. The Annunciation on the south and The Adoration of the Shepherds on the north.
Stained Glass
The transept roundels each have four half-length figures, the south representing Abraham, Moses, Ezekiel and Isaiah and the north the Four Evangelists. By the same firm as the west window.
Stained Glass
The small apse windows have The Baptism of Christ, Gethsemane, The Crucifixion, The Resurrection and The Ascension.
Interior
Interior Description
The use of timber for much of the church, presumably to keep costs low, has resulted in an interior of marked character which is not easily forgotten. The nave has low walls to the aisles, in brick, and the piers of the arcade are of stone, but all the structure above the level of the capitals is of wood. The piers themselves are quatrefoil in plan, with tall bases (also quatrefoil) and bulbous capitals. The arches of the nave arcade are thin wooden trusses with big quatrefoils in circles (of the same as those in the window tracery) occupying the spandrels, and the design is repeated, writ considerably larger, in the arches which span the nave and support the roof. The smallness of the kingposts which stand on these arches in a waywardness comparable with the style of Teulon.
A feeling of space is achieved by thus thinning the nave arcade into a wooden skeleton, and this is emphasised by the placing of gabled windows amongst the timbers as a clerestory.
Stained glass is limited to the west wall and the transept roundels, the aisles being filled with opaque glass of 1906; the rectangular leading curves simuously towards the top, a nod at the Arts and Crafts movement. The transepts, which take up the equivalent of two bays of the nave are dark because of the smallness of the round windows and the stained glass with which they are filled. The lower parts of the transepts are divided from the nave by wooden screens so that functionally the vestry and storeroom thus formed obscure the fact that the transepts are any wider than the nave aisles.
The apsidal chancel is very dark indeed, and the walls have been painted white to overcome this. The windows are within reveals flanked by colonettes, and the roof has a simple arched vault panelled in wood.
Fixtures and fittings
Font (object)
The Font is octagonal, of a common design with moulded base and panelled bowl. The step has several tiles set in which are quite attractive.
Font (component)
The flat oak cover has a brass cross fleury and a ring handle.
Organ (object)
The Organ was originally built by J.W. Walker in 1868, but the instrument is now in character almost entirely the work of Forster and Andrews of Hull, who rebuilt it in 1909.
Churchyard
Grid reference: TQ 257 771
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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