Patrick Comerford
During my afternoon in Pimlico and Belgravia last week, I visited a number of churches in the area, including Saint Peter’s Church on Eaton Square, Saint Gabriel’s Church on Warwick Square, and Saint Saviour’s Church on Saint George’s Square.
Saint Saviour’s Church at the north end of Saint George’s Square is a church in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. It was built in the 1860s as part of Thomas Cubitt’s development of Pimlico on behalf of the Grosvenor Estate. Cubitt’s executors donated the site and the Duke of Westminster funded much of the building work.
The Grade II listed church was designed by the architect Thomas Cundy, who had previously built Saint Gabriel’s Church on Warwick Square, a short walk away in Pimlico. Like Saint Gabriel’s, Cundy designed Saint Saviour’s in the Decorated Gothic style and built it in ragstone with Bath stone dressings to emphasise the contrast with the classical stucco of the houses in the surrounding streets and squares of Pimlico.
The first Vicar of Saint Saviour’s was the Revd John Walker, from 1864 to 1887. The foundation stone was laid on 16 June 1863 and the church was consecrated on 16 July 1864. The spire at 51.8 metres (170 ft) was once one of the tallest in London and remains a landmark visible from much of Pimlico today.
The church has a nave of six bays and a tower at the north-west corner. At first, the church interior was rather bare. Two long galleries extended from the chancel to the west end, there was no screen or pulpit, and just a small brass lectern. The organ was built by William Hill in 1864 and enlarged in 1892.
The furnishings in Saint Saviour’s include the high altar, chancel screen, pulpit and font with its handsome oak cover are particularly good examples of their type. The choirstalls are of oak and pine and probably date from 1864.
A major restoration was carried out in 1882 and a former churchwarden described it as ‘the beautifying of the church’. The galleries were taken down, the chancel was embellished with new arcading, steps and a reredos, and the East Window was filled with stained glass.
The work was supervised by the architect and artist Romaine Walker (1854-1940), son of the first vicar, the Revd John Walker. Further stained glass windows were completed after 1882 and further decorative work was added.
In the sanctuary, the reredos (1882) depicting the Last Supper was designed by Romaine Walker and carved by Thomas Earp.
The East Window (ca 1880) depicting Christ in Majesty and scenes from the Creation was also designed by Romaine Walker and made by Clayton and Bell, and is a dominant feature in the church. The oak rood screen was added in 1911.
The font was also designed by Romaine Walker, and the oak spire was added in 1885.
The side chapel was blessed in 1889, the sanctuary was decorated in 1891 and the clock was placed in the tower in 1895.
A number of new additions were made to the church when the Revd Henry Washington was the second vicar of Saint Saviour’s, from 1887 to 1912.
The church was specially cleaned in 1911, the coronation year of George V, and the steeple repaired at a cost of £250. The Lady Chapel baldacchino was added in 1913, by the architectural practice of Hubert Christian Corlette (1869-1956) and Sir Charles Archibald Nicholson (1867-1949).
A north vestry was added ca 1910-1913.
The Revd Henry Washington’s life and ministry are commemorated by the chancel screen, the oak pulpit and two stained glass windows, including one depicting Christ appearing to his Disciples by the Sea of Galilee.
The stained glass windows include one depicting the first vicar, the Revd John Walker, and a window composed of fragments of glass that were damaged during World War II.
Other windows include one depicting three scenes from the life of Saint Peter (ca 1880), by Clayton and Bell; a window depicting Christ the True Vine (ca 1890), by Clayton and Bell; a window near the Lady Chapel with two scenes from the life of Saint Martin; and the ‘children’s window’ dating from the 1920s with a series of 12 scenes of angels and lambs.
The Mission Altar (ca 1910) in the side chapel in the north aisle was originally in the old Mission Church of the Holy Name in Aylesford Street. Above the altar, the scenes are believed to have been painted one of the sisters in the former Mission House.
The statues of the Madonna and Child (after Michelangelo) and Saint Saviour (referred to as the Sacred Heart but without an open heart) and the Stations of the Cross were brought in from Oberammergau in the 1930s and installed in the church.
Saint Saviour’s sustained some war damage during World War II. A brick church hall was added to the south in the 1950s.
Extensive cleaning of the exterior was carried out in the 1990s and new bells were installed in the tower. The south wall was cleaned and repaired in 1999, extensive areas of damaged plaster-work were restored, and the church was redecorated. During this work, the full extent of the decorative panels of the chancel ceiling was uncovered, and the panels were cleaned and restored.
The Lady Chapel has been reinstated in the south chancel-transept and the nave transepts have been cleared to create a feeling of space throughout the church.
The north vestry was refurbished in 2007 as the Pimlico Room, the sacristy was remodelled and modern accessibility features and toilets were added, and a mezzanine was installed in the sacristy to provide more space for the office and sacristy.
A major restoration programme began in 2016, including a new nave roof and the restoration of the William Hill organ.
Laurence Olivier’s father, Father Gerard Kerr Olivier, was a curate at Saint Saviour’s and Lord Olivier (1907-1989) was a choirboy and altar server. The founder of modern lawn tennis, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield (1833-1912), was a regular parishioner, and the writer Sir Compton Mackenzie (1883-1972) married Faith Stone in the church in 1905.
Saint Saviour’s church hall is in use almost every day of the week and is home to the Young England Kindergarten where Lady Diana Spencer worked before her marriage to the then Prince Charles. After her death in 1977, a tree was planted and a bench seat added in her memory.
Saint Saviour’s Church is open all day, five days a week, offering a welcoming and inspiring space for all.
• Father Matthew Catterick has been the Vicar of Saint Saviour’s since 2011. He was ordained in 1995 and previously worked in parishes in Colchester, Leicester and Wembley. Sunday services are at 8 am, Said Mass, and 10:30 am, Sung Mass, and there is a Said Mass at 12:30 on weekdays.
