Nominal: 633.2 Hz Weight: 2219 lbs Diameter: 49" Bell 1 of 10
Founded by Charles & George Mears 1849
Dove Bell ID: 5315 Tower ID: 15224 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
St Barnabas Pimlico
Diocese of London
Church, 623059
http://www.stbarnabaspimlico.com/Overview
Grid reference: TQ 284 784
The church was designed by Thomas Cundy the younger (1790-1867) and was built in 1847-50. Cundy was responsible for several churches in London, and especially in this area since he succeeded his father as surveyor to the Duke of Westminster (to whom most of the land belonged) in 1825.
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Nave of five bays with aisles and clerestory; north-west tower and spire; south-west baptistery; chancel with organ chamber on the north side and Lady Chapel on the south, to the east of which lies the sacristy and various passages connecting the church with the clergy house. There is a crypt chapel beneath the chancel.
Footprint of Church buildings: 680 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
The church was designed by Thomas Cundy the younger (1790-1867) and was built in 1847-50. Cundy was responsible for several churches in London, and especially in this area since he succeeded his father as surveyor to the Duke of Westminster (to whom most of the land belonged) in 1825.
A baptistery was added at the south-west corner in 1902 to designs by Frederick Hunt, and the interior of the church was adorned by Bodley and Garner and John Ninian Comper between 1893 and 1906. The whole building, in particular the tower and spire, was restored in 1927-30 at a cost of £5,000.
Exterior Description
In contrast with its colourful furnishings, the church is a restrained essay in the Early English or First Pointed style, with lancet windows almost throughout. The west front faces the street and has three shafted lancets of equal height under moulded arches set above the west door. The doorway has receding orders of shafts at each side and a richly moulded arch, the oak door being of two leaves with good scrolling iron hinges. In the gable above there is a rose window of eight petals. To the south the aisle has a single shafted lancet in the west wall, with a four-lobed light in a roundel above and the later baptistery further south again has an identical lancet. The baptistery is covered with a flat roof.
To the north of the west front stands the tower, within the west bay of the aisle. It is divided externally by stringcourses into five stages and has slender set-back buttresses at each corner which die into the walls below the belfry. The lowest stage has one lancet to the west and is blind to the north, and the next stage appears to be blind altogether (at this level is a stone vault within). Then there is the ringing chamber with one lancet towards the west, followed by a silence chamber with roundels in each face, that to the west housing a clock face. Finally comes the bellchamber with triple louvred lancets in each direction of a pattern similar to those in the west wall of the nave. There is no parapet, but the severely plain and impressively substantial spire rises directly from a corbel table with four low broaches and two-light lucarnes set low in the principal faces. It has no other decoration, not even a roll moulding up the angles.
Each bay of the aisles and the clerestory has a single shafted lancet, with stops carved either as foliage or as human heads. The aisle bays are divided by buttresses. The second bay of the south aisle houses the door which is normally used, and this is protected by a porch with clustered shafts at each side with foliate capitals and a heavily moulded arch incorporating one order of dogtooth. Within the porch there are benches on each side, and the ironwork on the oak door is as good as that on the west door.
The chancel is in the same style, with three graded lancets in the east wall and a sexfoil high in the gable. On the north and south sides the organ chamber and Lady Chapel continue the roof line of the aisles, stopping short of the east wall, and the organ chamber has lancets like the rest of the church. The Lady Chapel has an eastern lancet but the south window, of three cinquefoiled lights under a straight head, may be an alteration by Comper. The sanctuary is lit by a lancet in the north and two lancets in the south wall. The sacristy lies on the south side of the sanctuary and is approached by a small passage paved with red and buff patterned tiles which formerly covered the whole chancel floor.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
1902
South aisle I : St. Augustine of Canterbury, Kempe.
Stained Glass
c.1905
South aisle II : St. Columba, Kempe
Stained Glass
1922
South aisle III: St. Margaret of Scotland, 1922, C.E. Kempe and Company.
Stained Glass
c.1945
Baptistery south: Baptism of Christ and The Presentation in the Temple, by Martin Travers.
Stained Glass
c.1945
Baptistery west: The Annunciation and The Expulsion from Eden, by Martin Travers, c.1945, given in thankfulnessfor the preservation of the church during the War.
Stained Glass
1906
North aisle I : St. David, Kempe
Stained Glass
c.1910
North aisle II : St. Osmund, c.1910, Kempe.
Stained Glass
1905
North aisle III : St. George, Kempe
Stained Glass
North aisle IV: St. Edward The Confessor, C.E. Kempe and Company
Stained Glass
1907
West window of tower space: Christ in Gethsemane, C.E. Kempe and Company
Stained Glass
1900
South aisle west : Christ and the Children, in the style of Henry Holiday
Stained Glass
Above the altar in the crypt chapel: St. Mary Magdalene.
Stained Glass
1865
Crypt chapel east wall I : St. Mary Magdalene with the Box of Ointment and Christ with St. Mary Magdalene in the Garden
Stained Glass
c.1880
Crypt chapel east wall II : St. Matthew
Stained Glass
1956
The east window was damaged during the War, and the present window is a late work by Ninian Comper, 1956, with figures of Christ in Glory, St. Mary, St. John, St. Barnabas and St. Paul.
Stained Glass
South chancel I : two tiers of angels with plainsong on scrolls and The Virgin Annunciate, in memory of Julia Margaret Bereford Hope, d. 1916, by C.E. Kempe and Company.
Stained Glass
The upper east window still contains Wailes glass of the Chi-Rho monogram in gold on a blue ground.
Interior
Interior Description
The nave has walls of exposed stone, with arcades carried on alternately round and octagonal pillars with exuberant foliate capitals. As a result of the substructure of the tower in the west bay of the north aisle, the second arch is narrower than the others, and more acutely pointed. The tower space opens to the church and the aisle through tall arches with responds of several receding chamfered orders. The space is vaulted, with four ribs decorated with dog-tooth and heads carved on the corbels. The arches of the nave arcades are of two chamfered orders and are outlined by moulded hoods with heads of knots of foliage above each pillar. The clerestory is marked by a stringcourse, and at this level elaborately foliated corbels support wall-shafts which carry the principals of the roof structure. These support collars and are strengthened by arch-braces. A distinctive feature of the roof is the pairs of wind-braces in each bay. The windows of the aisles and the western triplet of lancets are all shafted within.
The chancel arch is tall and refined, with semi-octagonal responds with moulded bases and foliate capitals, the arch having two chamfers. The chancel floor was originally paved with tiles throughout and two arches on the north open into the organ chamber, one on the south into the Lady Chapel, both of which chambers also communicate with the aisles. The panelled chancel roof is of three bays and there are lancets in the north and south walls and three graded lancets in the east wall with a sexfoil in a roundel above. Below these windows, the east wall is provided with arcading.
The chancel had parclose screens in the north and south arches, and these still exist. The original chancel screen, however, was later replaced, although the painted decoration of tiers of niches each holding a figure of a saint show by their termination where the first screen stood. The brass gates of the old screen were re-used in the present one. The stalls, with their curved arm rests and misericords, are original. The tiles on the floor are original, of red and buff, as are the steps of Purbeck marble.
In the south wall of the sanctuary are three sedilia and a quatrefoil piscina under trefoiled arches which step up towards the east.
Beneath the chancel is a crypt, square in plan with four bays arranged round a central pillar. The pillar is cylindrical, supporting a ribbed vault, and there are windows in the east and north walls. In the north wall also a door communicates with a store room beyond. The crypt is approached by a flight of sixteen steps from the south side, the direction of the clergy house, and there is a short passage connecting the head of the stairs with the hall in the clergy house and the south aisle of the nave.
Between about 1890 and 1905 the interior of the church was transformed, chiefly by G.F. Bodley and J.N. Comper. The reredos was erected in 1893, and is typical of Bodley's style, being richly carved with several tiers of scenes and figures of saints and angels. The sanctuary floor was repaved with black and white marble and the walls were covered with stencilled brocade patterns. These are of two principal colours and types. Below the stringcourse is a large repeating pattern of swirling forms executed in dark green on pale green, while above is a more static pattern of pineapples, flowers and leaves in dark red and crimson. The panels of the three-bay roof were stencilled with the sacred monogram IHS and roses alternately, and the big foliated bosses were also coloured. The credence shelf on the north side was converted into an aumbry for the holy oils, a richly canopied niche with a semi-hexagonal pillar below the shelf.
The furnishings of the Lady Chapel to the south of the chancel are entirely by Comper, and comprise two stained glass windows, two parclose screens, an altar and a retable, all beneath a large square tester. These all date from 1900.
In the nave Bodley was more restrained. He added a simple scrolling stencilled pattern to the wall-plates of the roof, and provided a case incorporating statues for the western face of the organ above the altar of St. John the Baptist. Within the tower space is a Calvary of oak of 1910, carved in Oberammergau. On the opposite side, the baptistery was added in 1902 and the original font was moved into it. The windows are shafted lancets like all the others in the church, and the roof is provided with a rib vault like that of the crypt chapel. Since the space is rectangular, there are additional narrow bays to the east and west. The walls are decorated with blind stone arcading, and the floor is paved with white mosaic with the names of the seven Virtues in Latin in roundels. The font is set on a red marble step.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
c.1900
The altar is panelled in oak, and appears to be part of Bodley's work; it may well still contain the altar designed by Cundy and made by Myers at Mr. Bennett's request, and doubtless still stands on the mensa of the original stone altar which was removed at that time.
Reredos
1893
The reredos was designed by Bodley and erected in 1893; it is large, with much carved polychrome decoration (mostly red and gold). Within a richly sculptured frame adorned with clustering grapes are representations in high relief of The Incarnation and The Crucifixion; immediately above the altar is The Annunciation, and in deeply recessed niches on each side are St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Paul, St. Barnabas and St. Anselm; in the niches on each side of the Crucifixion are an angel with a crozier (symbol of the victory of the Resurrection) and an angel with a sun (symbol of the sun's eclipse in the Passion of Our Lord), and there are also two angels with scrolls.
Reredos
The reredos in the north aisle is a late addition, in the form of a triptych with doors provided with a central niche housing a statue of St. John the Baptist.
Pulpit
1850
The pulpit is original, in the Early English style, of stone with five sides of an octagon, each with a trefoil-headed niche, containing paintings on metal panels of Christ and The Four Latin Doctors.
Lectern
c.1850
The lectern is a brass eagle on a moulded base supported by three lions, modelled on sixteenth-century examples but more lavishly decorated.
Font (object)
The font is the original, of blackened Purbeck marble, octagonal and decorated with floral diaper, set on a drum and eight colonettes and provided with a big spire-like cover of oak with eight angels round the base, crockets along the ribs and four angels round the top.
Bells
Nominal: 1620 Hz Weight: 479 lbs Diameter: 26" Bell 2 of 10
Founded by Charles & George Mears 1849
Dove Bell ID: 35140 Tower ID: 15224 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1421.6 Hz Weight: 555 lbs Diameter: 28" Bell 3 of 10
Founded by Charles & George Mears 1849
Dove Bell ID: 35141 Tower ID: 15224 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1279 Hz Weight: 617 lbs Diameter: 29" Bell 4 of 10
Founded by Charles & George Mears 1849
Dove Bell ID: 35142 Tower ID: 15224 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1188.2 Hz Weight: 664 lbs Diameter: 31" Bell 5 of 10
Founded by Charles & George Mears 1849
Dove Bell ID: 35143 Tower ID: 15224 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1055.2 Hz Weight: 822 lbs Diameter: 33" Bell 6 of 10
Founded by Charles & George Mears 1849
Dove Bell ID: 35144 Tower ID: 15224 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 938.8 Hz Weight: 800 lbs Diameter: 34" Bell 7 of 10
Founded by Charles & George Mears 1849
Dove Bell ID: 35145 Tower ID: 15224 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 837.2 Hz Weight: 1059 lbs Diameter: 37" Bell 8 of 10
Founded by Charles & George Mears 1849
Dove Bell ID: 35146 Tower ID: 15224 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 795.2 Hz Weight: 1141 lbs Diameter: 39" Bell 9 of 10
Founded by Charles & George Mears 1849
Dove Bell ID: 35147 Tower ID: 15224 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 706.2 Hz Weight: 1546 lbs Diameter: 43" Bell 10 of 10
Founded by Charles & George Mears 1849
Dove Bell ID: 35148 Tower ID: 15224 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Churchyard
Grid reference: TQ 284 784
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 | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
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
Quinquennial Inspections
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