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| English Heritage Reference: | 424005 |
|---|---|
| RBKC Reference: | 249/50/1 |
| Property: | FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST SCIENTIST |
| Street: | SLOANE TERRACE , SW1 |
| Date: | 15/04/1969 |
| Grade: | II |
| Grouped: | |
| Description: | Church, now disused, 1904-9. Architect Robert Fellowes Chisholm, contractor Dove Brothers. Portland Stone ashlar, with granite arcade to ground floor, central and upper parts of church, away from street frontage, in brown London stock brick, polygonal sheet metal roof set back behind pierced stone parapet. The building occupies a restricted site, with residential blocks at both ends. Entrances to ground floor foyer and large Sunday School room, with main church above on first floor, as a galleried auditorium. Main side facades to Sloane Terrace (south) and Wilbraham Place (north). Simplified Byzantine style. 2 storeys, ground floor has tall 5 bay arcade, with wall of building set back. Round headed arches with linked dripmoulds, central circular columns with carved simplified composite capitals with Art Nouveau foliage stand on square plinth blocks, and are linked by stone balustrading to lower ground floor area. Central entrance door, with carved lettered panel above, and Diocletian fanlight infilled with geometric-patterned leaded stained glass. Setback wall has square light chamfered stone mullion and transom windows. Watt rises behind arcading to provide support to side galleries of church above. First floor has 7 windows, lighting the church at gallery level. Tall semi-circular headed 2 light windows with leaded geometrical patterned glazing, separated by tall colonettes, and recessed in arched surround. Moulded eaves cornice carried on corbels, surmounted by parapet pierced by circular motifs, with low square piers at bay intervals. At left are 6 small windows in 2 stepped ranges, reflecting the position of access stairs within. At far left, entrance in three storey block, with eaves below main facade, recessed entrance at ground level, 3 light windows above on first and second floors. At right, south-east end, is a tall, slender square campanile, with shallow setback from main facade. Ground floor entrance with moulded flat door hood carried on carved foliated consoles. Lunette fanlight above, 3 storeys of recessed 3-light mullioned windows, clock, and tall upper opening with 3 linked louvered parts, separated by tall colonettes with carved capitals, blank spandrel above, with semi-circular arched head. Cornice with corbels, with, semi-circular projection on each face, balustrades, corner piers with ball finials. Concave octagonal cupola set-back, with arched windows and domed top with bronze finial. Apart from the campanile, the Wilbraham Place elevation is generally similar, but the parts are 'handed'. Interior: Sunday School Room on lower ground floor beneath church. Cast-iron columns with ornamental capitals and blocking pieces support plaster ceiling with shallow coffering between beams, ornamental with modelled plaster scrollwork. Windows with leaded coloured stained glass in Celtic-patterned and traceried motifs, by the Danish artist Baron Arild Rosenkrantz, manufactured by Lowndes and Drury. Church on first and second floors in the form of a galleried auditorium. Main floor steeply raked at a gradient of 1 in 7, with wooden platforms to provide level bases for timber pews, seats with panelled backs, cut profiled bench ends, and frontals with panelled lower sections, open above. Side galleries raked and supported on inner walls, cantilevered out above side pews of lower floor. Frontals ornamented with decorative modelled plaster swags, brass tubular security rails above, with modelled supports. Gallery pews of similar pattern to those on lower floor. Focal point at west end is raised rostrum, with timber balustrade frontal, set in tall semi-circular arched opening, within which is an inner arch framing the panelled front and display pipes of the organ, 1907, by Walker and Sons. Above the rear of the gallery is a large semi-circu[ar arch, with a moulded plaster surround, within which, set-back, is a large Diocletian window, filled with leaded glass. The coupled side windows along the 7 bays of the gallery are similarly glazed, all designed by Rosenkrantz, as in the Sunday School room. The church is spanned by broad elliptical arches at bay intervals, ornamented in plaster with roundels and panels. Segmental profile ceiling, covered with acoustic tiles in 1954, replacing war-damaged plasterwork. Centre of ceiling coffered, with leaded-glazed lay lights. 8 suspended hexagonal box-light fittings. Above ceiling are steel roof trusses. History: This was the first Christian Science church to be built in London. Below one of the columns on the arcading of the Sloane Place elevation a plinth stone records 'This cornerstone of granite from Concord, New Hampshire, U.S.A. was laid on November 29th 1904, and the church was dedicated on June 13th 1909." The architect, R. F. Chisholm had worked for most of his career in India, and the design has oriental characteristics. The first design, which was rejected, proposed a domed circular church, with a row of four domed turrets, and the latter motif was adapted for the campande of the chosen design. References 'The Architect', July 14, 1905 and August 19, 1910, p.120 'The Builder', July 25, 1908, p.105 'Directory of British Architects 1834-1900', RIBA, p.169 Pevsner, N (rev. Cherry, B.) 'Buildings of England', London 3: North-West, pp. 561-2 Description updated 15th August 2000 |
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