The children’s climbing rock in a park in King’s Cross looks like a sculpture by Henry Moore

The feature in a corner of Bamber Green, off Judd Street, looks like a sculpture by Henry Moore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

I was recently strolling around the streets between Judd Street and Gray’s Inn Road, to the south of King’s Cross and St Pancras station, exploring some of the interesting churches in the area on the edges of Bloomsbury, including Holy Cross Church on Cromer Street and Lumen Church on the corner of Tavistock Place and Wakefield Street, facing Regent Square.

I have known the Bloomsbury area all my adult life, but I only got to know this particular area around the time Charlotte and I were married in Camden Town Hall three years ago.

While I was walking from Lumen Church to Holy Cross Church I strolled through Bamber Green, and noticed for the first time what I thought was a sculpture in the style of Henry Moore in Bramber Green, on the south side of Holy Cross Church. It also looks like a modern stone circle, but it is, in fact, part of a playground, a climbing sculpture designed for children and visitors to climb or sit on.

Bramber Green is a pocket park off Judd Street and Cromer Street, created in the early 1960s. The green space also includes a children’s play area, an outdoor gym, winding paths, and local street art nearby.

Before World War II, many of the nearby streets were lined with well-to-do Georgian terraces and mews running behind, with houses facing into what is today the park, but was at the time, streets and housing. On the other hand, the Cromer Street Estate evolved from 19th century working-class lodgings and model dwellings into a post-war council housing estate, before undergoing major community-led resistance, municipal regeneration, and recent safety modernisations.

Cromer Street was originally developed as Lucas between 1801 and 1837 across the Harrison and Lucas estates. It was first named Lucas Street but was renamed Cromer Street in 1818. In the early 1840s, it was described as being occupied by a class of ‘more or less poor … small tradesmen and artisan lodgers’ in densely crowded lodgings.

Throughout the 19th century, the street and surrounding alleyways housed thousands of labourers, street traders and Irish immigrants. Overcrowding was severe, with multiple families squeezed into single-room and multi-room tenements.

From 1890 on, the East End Dwellings Company, founded by Samuel Barnett, built red-and-white stock brick tenement blocks, known as the Hillview Estate or Cromer Houses, near Tonbridge Street, to replace local slums. The area also included Holy Cross Church, built in 1888, and notable local pubs like the Boot at the west end of Cromer Street and the Lucas Arms at the east end, at the junction with Gray’s Inn Road.

The Boot was the headquarters of the Gordon rioters and later provided Charles Dickens with a location in parts of Barnaby Rudge. Kenneth Williams filmed a sequence in the Boot for the 1980s TV programme Comic Roots as his parents and their friends met there when he was a child, and he had lived at 14 Cromer House.

Bamber Green, off Judd Street, takes its name from the ornage-coloured block of flats, Bramber House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Much of the old 19th century housing was heavily damaged or cleared following World War II. Between 1949 and 1951, post-war six-storey flat slabs designed by the architects Hening & Chitty were built by the local authority to replace older railway tenements. They were singled out by Pevsner in 1952 as some of the first good post-war flats.

Some housing survived the bombs to the south end of where Bramber Green is today. But they were badly damaged and the whole area was cleared and the pocket park was created in the early 1960s on a World War II bomb-damaged site. The park took its name from Bramber House, an orange coloured block of flats nearby.

By the early 1970s, parts of the aging estate had fallen into severe neglect, prompting Camden Council to acquire the properties around 1974. From 1978, Shortlife Community Housing (SCH) managed short-life licenses on the estate, inadvertently helping to cultivate an active, co-operative community of residents who fought back against local crime, drug issues, and proposed demolition plans.

By the late 20th century, Cromer Street had become a core heartland for London's Bangladeshi community. The estate underwent major £46 million regeneration phases starting in the mid-1990s to upgrade residential blocks like Bramber House, Glynde Reach, and Gatesden. The estate has celebrated its oral histories and cultural roots through public art, including the interactive spray-painted mural by artist Mohammed Ali next to Bramber House, unveiled during the 2019 Bloomsbury Festival.

In the 2020s, Camden Council invested millions of pounds through the national Building Safety Fund to replace high-rise façades and complete fire safety modernisations across Bramber and neighbouring estate buildings.

The park at Bramber Green was refurbished in the 1990s, when it was renamed Judd Street Open Space. But local people continued to insist on calling it Bramber Green, and when it was refurbished again in 2019 Camden Council gave in to to local opinion, and the name Bramber Green was restored.

The park has a simple design with open grass lawns, trees, a playground, an outdoor gym, and a winding path. The most noticeable feature in the park is the climbing sculpture in the corner, which adds a unique touch to the park, although it has prompted a debate about whether it is safe for children.

The £65,000 playground has been redesigned as part of a government scheme to improve children’s play areas. The redesign was carried out by charity Groundworks, and the structure was designed by Rockworks Climbing Walls, who specialise in building climbing walls.

It is designed to look like natural sandstone formations or modern grey sculptures, and these climbing boulders provide free-access, low-level physical challenges that help local children develop balance and co-ordination.

But, on an early morning stroll through Bramber Green before meeting a friend for coffee at Friends’ House in Euston Road, the climbing sculpture in the corner still reminded me of the work of Henry Moore.

The Bramber Green feature was designed by Rockworks Climbing Walls, who specialise in building climbing walls (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Lumen Church in Bloomsbury: a 200-year-old church that has seen change and won prizes, but faces an uncertain future

Lumen United Reformed Church, close to the corner of Tavistock Place and Wakefield Street in Bloomsbury, is on the site of the former Regent Square Presbyterian Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Lumen United Reformed Church, formerly known as Regent Square United Reformed Church, is in the heart of Bloomsbury, close to the corner of Tavistock Place and Wakefield Street. The church is a prize-winning building, recognised for its innovative architectural design, and has important works of art, including its windows and the details in its courtyard design, and has an interesting place in early 19th century church history in London. But the future of the church now seems uncertain, and there are many doubts and unanswered questions about its future use.

Until recently, Lumen Church had a small congregation worshipping in the Reformed tradition and part of the United Reformed Church, which brings together formerly separate Presbyterian, Congregational and Church of Christ traditions.

In 200 years, Lumen has had three buildings, belonged to four different churches – the Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of England, and the United Reformed Church – has had five different names and 17 ministers, and the building is the work of several architects who have worked in very different times and styles.

Looking out onto Tavistock Place and Regent Square though Rona Smith’s window in the café (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Regent Square Church was a Presbyterian Church first founded to serve a scattered, mainly Scots, congregation. The church has its beginnings back in 1808, when the Highland Society of London began a Gaelic-speaking Presbyterian mission and a Gaelic-speaking chapel for migrant workers from Scotland who had arrived in London.

The congregation first met in rented accommodation in Westminster, three miles from the later Regent Square site, and was first led by the Revd Duncan Robertson (1766-1825). In 1813, he took the church to larger premises, the New Jerusalem Chapel in Cross Street, Hatton Garden, built in 1797 for followers of Emanuel Swedenborg. However, a rupture between Robertson and the members led to ‘an almost total dispersal of the congregation’.

The Revd Edward Irving (1792-1834), the minister of the Gaelic church from 1822, received an invitation from the Caledonian Church, Hatton Garden, in the winter of 1821, and with that call he was ordained in the Church of Scotland in July 1822.

Irving was so popular a preacher that services had to be ticketed, with people standing in the aisles and even on the pulpit steps. Those who came to hear him included the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, and the future Prime Minister William Gladstone.

Saint Columba in a Maile stained glass window … the church began as a mission to migrant Scottish workers in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

To accommodate the larger congregations, a newer and larger church, the Scotch National Church, was built in 1827 at what was then the very edge of London, at the corner of Regent Square and Tavistock Place. The regency gothic church was the first major commission for the architect Sir William Tite (1798-1873), who designed a miniature version of York Minster, including the miniature versions of the twin towers.

Tite’s greatest undertaking later was rebuilding the Royal Exchange, which opened in 1844, and he designed many of the early railway stations in Britain.

Regent Square Presbyterian Church was consecrated in 1827, and began as a sister church of the established Church of Scotland. It was formed to work among young people from Scotland who had moved to London to work and who ‘in the end are cast away among the manifold temptations of this busy and alluring city’. Prominent figures associated who visited the church during the 19th century included John Ruskin, George Canning, Thomas Carlyle and Sir Robert Peel.

An internal dispute erupted in 1832, when the church doors closed against Edward Irving for allowing members of the lay congregation to interrupt the services by ‘speaking in tongues’. In response, 800 people left Regent Square to form a new church nearby.

Irving and his followers, describing themselves as of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, moved to a new building in Newman Street in 1832, and in March 1833 he was deposed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland on a charge of heresy. He was re-ordained in the church in Newman Street and died on 7 December 1834.

Saint Luke the Beloved Physician in a Maile stained-glass window … many of the early church leaders included medical staff at local hospitals (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Regent Square Church followed the Revd Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) in the Disruption of 1843, when 450 ministers and their congregations, as well as probation ministers, teachers and missionaries seceded from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland.

At first, the church was surrounded by open field. But the industrial revolution soon brought the railways. When the more prosperous residents moved away, they were replaced by poor and working class families in a built-up area, alongside university students, medical staff at local hospitals and overseas visitors. As a result, many elders and members came from districts that were more affluent than the locality of the church.

The Presbyterian Church of England was formed in the 1876 with the merger of the English congregations of the mainly Scottish United Presbyterian Church with other Presbyterian congregations in England.

The Young Men’s Bible Class at Regent Square Church was founded in 1877 by an elder, Robert Whyte, with Christian teaching, cultural pursuits such as a literary society and an orchestra, facilities for cycling, football, rambling and swimming, and its own magazine, The Thistle.

Regent Square Presbyterian Church acquired an adjoining, abandoned Baptist chapel in 1911, repaired it and altered it to become the Regent Square Institute, with a hall, gymnasium and reading room that were was used by groups such as Sunday school, the Boys Brigade and evening concerts. The club continued until October 1923, when The Thistle ceased publication, the class closed and the society amalgamated with the young people’s group. By the 1930s, the harsh economic and social climates were reflected in the Regent Square Magazine, which devoted two pages in February 1933 to unemployment. A recreational centre in the church provided games, newspapers, magazines and writing materials, giving local unemployed men somewhere to go and something to do.

During the inter-war years, John Charles Walsham Reith (1889-1971), 1st Baron Reith, attended the church, where his parents had been married. He was inspired to apply for the new post of Director-General of the BBC by a sermon on Ezekiel he heard in the church in 1922.

Lumen Church hopes to become home to a new congregation in the near future (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

During World War II, the Regent Square Institute was hit by a bomb on 21 September 1940. Evening meetings were discontinued, the institute activities were moved to the Wakefield Street halls, and the monthly church magazine was reduced to four pages.

A V2 rocket destroyed Presbyterian Church House on the afternoon of 9 February 1945, with loss of life, including four senior church officials. The church and halls still stood, but there was considerable damage, the structure was unsafe, and the church was unusable. For the next 15 years, the lecture hall served as a ‘temporary’ church, and another smaller hall served as ‘temporary’ accommodation for yet another six years.

Church House on the corner of Wakefield Street was rebuilt by 1956, and it was agreed to dismantle the old church and build a new but smaller one. The War Damage Commission’s offered a grant of £44,300 and the plans for a new church were approved in 1964.

The dalle de verre stained glass window by Pierre Fourmaintraux depicts the Resurrection (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The new church was designed by the architect Courtenay Theobald, who also built 50 bridges. The distinctive concrete arches used for the roof trusses probably owe their inspiration to his many bridges. The new church was opened on the 11 June 1966 with about 300 people present, including representatives from other local churches.

The church featured a dalle de verre stained glass window by Pierre Fourmaintraux (1896-1974) depicting the Resurrection. The window includes over 1,000 pieces of one inch thick glass in 21 panels. Each piece was expertly cut by hand, by scoring the glass on the surface and hitting it with a hammer on a small anvil so the piece would break cleanly. The surface of the glass was chipped, so that sunlight striking the glass goes in all directions.

Pierre Fourmaintraux was born in France, and first worked in his father’s ceramics factory, where he first worked. He married the English impressionist painter Rachel Winslow (1880-1974) and they moved to England. He worked for James Powell & Sons (Whitefriars Glass Studio) in 1956-1969 as chief designer of slab glass and abstract designs.

His windows were especially popular in Roman Catholic churches and those he trained in the dalle de verre technique included Dom Charles Norris, who became one of its most prolific British proponents and whose work I have seen in Saint Bernardine’s Church in Buckingham.

The 11-metre-high conical ‘sacred space’ reaches through the full height of the building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Regent Square Church joined the newly formed United Reformed Church (URC) in 1972, when the Presbyterian and Congregational traditions merged and the church later adopted the name Lumen United Reformed Church.

The institute and the halls were sold in 2007 to finance a major remodelling of the church, and they are now used by the Soka Gakkai International Buddhists. Church House on the corner of Wakefield Street and Tavistock Place, is now United Reformed Church House, the main offices of the URC.

The church was remodelled in 2008 by Theis and Khan Architects, who redesigned and extended it into a multi-faith community hub. It was their first church project and they completely remodelled the building. Their redesign retained the original building’s volume and coherence, and the 1966 window by Fourmaintraux was moved from the west side wall to make it central to the church.

The RIBA award-winning renovation added an 11-metre-high conical ‘sacred space’ that reaches through the full height of the building to penetrate the church roof, receiving direct natural light. The light inside alters with weather and seasons, and was intended to convey a sense of peace and separation from the bustle of the outside world. The position of this sacred space at the heart of Lumen provides a secluded area for contemplation.

The renovation of Lumen Church has won awards from the RIBA (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

New amenities including an entrance, lift, toilets, offices and multi-use spaces. A community café has a north window overlooking Regent Square with geometric metalwork designed by the artist Rona Smith. This is an 8 metre tall bronze screen suspended within the alcove of the window, gently arcing into the interior space.

A garden courtyard is planted with herbs and silver birch trees, providing a modern form of a cloister with an arcade around the courtyard. Alison Wilding created a new font, a drinking fountain and a garden fountain, drawing on the themes of ‘living water’ and light.

Lumen also has a small gallery that has showcased the work of local artists, photographers and students.

Lumen’s small worshipping community included people of different backgrounds who continued to worship there until 2020, when Covid-19 brought services to an end for a group that was already struggling. Although regular Sunday services have ended, the venue continues as an active community space that is home to several community church groups and it continues its links with Gaelic cultural events. Today Lumen says it hopes to become home to a new congregation in the near future.

United Reformed Church House beside Lumen Church is the main offices of the United Reformed Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Holy Cross Church, King’s Cross: a church in London with a mission in an area of poverty and deprivation

Holy Cross Church, King’s Cross, designed by Joseph Peacock and built in 1887-1888 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During my most recent day out in London, I visited a number of places associated with the Comerford family in the past, sought out the sites of some of the earliest coffee shops in London, and visited a number of churches, including Saint Mary Woolnoth, Saint Michael’s, Cornhill, the sculptures in the grounds of Saint Pancras, Euston Road, Lumen Church on Tavistock Place, and Holy Cross Church, Cromer Street.

Holy Cross Church is in the St Pancras area of the London Borough of Camden and has served the people of King’s Cross since 1888. It is now in an area of regeneration, but its mission remains the same, both as a church designed for beautiful and formal worship and as a church that seeks to serve others, particularly people living with the ravages of life.

Holy Cross Church owes its name to the killing of a naval officer on the island of Santa Cruz in the Solomon Islands in 1875. Captain James Graham Goodenough (1830-1875), commander of HMS Pearl, was visiting the island but the islanders distrusted white visitors who trafficked young men to work on Australian plantations. The Pearl’s visit was friendly – the Royal Navy was trying to end the slave trade. But during a fracas with a landing party, the captain was hit by a poisoned arrow and was killed.

Algernon Stanley (1843-1928), the first vicar of the new parish of Holy Cross, Saint Pancras (1876-1879), became a Roman Catholic in 1879 and later became titular Bishop of Emmaus

The Revd the Hon Algernon Stanley (1843-1928) was the first vicar of the new parish of Holy Cross, Saint Pancras, 1876-1879. He was a close friend of Goodenough, and when he was appointed he decided to name the planned church Holy Cross (Santa Cruz) in memory of his friend. The bell from Goodenough’s ship still hangs in the church.

The King’s Cross area was poor and ‘slum priests’ like Stanley who had been influenced by the Catholic revival in the Church of England were keen to work in the new slum parishes. The new parish was needed because London was expanding. The church began as a district chapelry in 1876.

Before the church was ever built, Stanley became a Roman Catholic in 1879, and was the Vatican correspondent of The Times and the Daily Telegraph, an Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster and the titular Bishop of Emmaus. He was a nephew of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-1881), Dean of Westminster, and a brother of Henry Edward John Stanley (1827-1903), 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley, who converted to Islam in 1862, adopted the name Abdul Rahman, and became the first Muslim member of the House of Lords when he inherited the family titles in 1869. The Stanley brothers were also uncles of the philosopher Bertrand Russell.

‘The outside is cheap and shrugged off, there are a hundred like it in London’s suburbs’ (Ian Nairn) … throughout its history, Holy Cross Church seen from the south-east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Holy Cross Church was built after Stanley resigned. The church was designed by the architect Joseph Peacock (1821-1893), was built in 1887-1888, and was consecrated in 1888, when Holy Cross became a parish. Peacock was also the architect of Saint Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road, Kensington, where TS Eliot was a churchwarden for 25 years.

The architectural writer Ian Nairn says: ‘The outside is cheap and shrugged off, there are a hundred like it in London’s suburbs. Inside it is as honest and selfless as King’s Cross Station … nothing unnecessary and nothing put on for form’s sake.’

The braced king post roof is one of the ‘great glories’ of the interior, according to Historic England’s listing.

The nave is exceptionally broad for its length and the aisles very wide. The elevated choir and sanctuary is enclosed by a wood screen that may be the work of Sir Charles Nicholson (1867-1949), who worked at Holy Cross around 1913. The moveable benches are late Victorian.

A small stained glass window on the south wall depicting Christ the Good Shepherd is by Martin Travers (1886-1948), a church artist in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. The lamp in the window copies the lamp in Holman Hunt’s ‘Light of the World’.

The Walsingham Chapel at the back of the church is a reminder of Father Alfred Hope Patten who was inspired to restore the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham while he was a curate at Holy Cross from 1913-1915.

The inlaid marble Stations of the Cross are identical to those in the Chapel of the Hospital of Saint John and Saint Elizabeth in Saint John’s Wood. The painting of Saint Mary Magdalene by Reginald Gray is in the small chapel dedicated to Saint Peter.

The war memorial cross on the west front of Holy Cross Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Holy Cross Church was built to serve a densely populated area and became a focal point for Anglo-Catholic liturgy and community outreach during the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

The Revd Albert Moore, who was appointed vicar in 1888, the year the church was consecrated, is recorded in Charles Booth’s famous poverty maps and notebooks. In an interview with Booth’s researchers in 1898, he provided detailed insights into the social conditions, missionary work, and religious life of his parish.

Moore was succeeded by the Revd John Roffey, who was appointed the priest-in-charge in 1907. The Revd Francis Edwin Baverstock, was the Vicar from 1909 to 1915, and his curates included Father Alfred Hope Patten who later founded the shrine at Walsingham. Later vicars included the Revd Leslie Douglas Rutherford, appointed in 1915, and the Revd Francis Robert Langford-James, who was appointed in 1922 and who was a son of Francis Lloyd Langford-James of Tullaha, Co Cork.

An early 20th century curate was Father Gerard Olivier, father of the actor Laurence Olivier, and the comedian and actor Kenneth Williams attended Sunday School there in the 1930s.

The Revd Ralph Huie Le Messurier (1898-1948), a decorated veteran of World War I, became the vicar of Holy Cross in 1933. Two years later, Holy Cross was merged in 1935 with the parish of Saint Jude, Gray’s Inn Road, which was demolished in 1936. He courageously remained in the parish to continue operating the church’s night shelter for people seeking safety from the Blitz. But he was forced to resign because of his pacifist views during World War II, and was even physically assaulted by members of his congregation. His unpublished autobiography was entitled By Grace A Pacifist.

Father Napier Pitfield Sturt, vicar from 1945 to 1970, had chosen Saint Francis of Assisi as his patron, and his ministry in poor parishes bears out his commitment to working with the poor and the marginalised. Saint Peter’s, Regent Square, was damaged in the Blitz, the church was demolished in 1954, and the parish was merged with Holy Cross that year.

Inside Holy Cross Church, facing the High Altar and the east end (Photograph: Holy Cross Church)

As a result of industrial decline in the second half of the 20th century, by the 1980s the area around King’s Cross Station, including Cromer Street, had become notorious for prostitution and drug abuse. The English Collective of Prostitutes staged a 12-day sit-in at Holy Cross in November 1982 as a protest against police harassment, attracting national media coverage. Father Trevor Richardson – ‘Trev the Rev’– said that the sit-in could continue so long as it did not interfere with services. He also commented that too much attention was being paid to the women occupying the church and not enough to the evils of society that had given rise to their sit-in.

The Crypt Centre was set up in 1988 to work for the homeless, and the development of the crypt in 2021 gives local groups a new place to meet.

Cromer Street is within the Bloomsbury Conservation Area. Since 2019, Holy Cross has been closely involved with the Bloomsbury Festival. The church is a performance venue in the festival each year, a rehearsal and performance space and a music venue, including dementia-friendly and family-friendly concerts on Saturday afternoons.

London’s South Sudanese community holds its Independence Day service and celebration in the church.

Holy Cross has close links with Goodenough College, a postgraduate residential college for overseas students found by Captain Goodenough’s family, and the parish priest has traditionally the chaplain. The church works closely with nearby Argyle Primary School, the King’s Cross Brunswick Neighbourhood Association and other community groups, and a local charity uses the crypt for English classes for asylum seekers.

The church was designated a Grade II listed building on 14 May 1974, but the church is on the English Heritage list of immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric. A settlement of the foundations at the north-east corner of the church has caused structural cracking to the vestry and parts of the walls of the church. The church is on Historic England’s register of buildings at risk and the congregation is working with other local churches to secure funding so that these heritage buildings can once again be a real community asset.

Holy Cross Church has a partnership with three neighbouring churches close to Euston Road – the ‘Camden 4’. All four have buildings that could be used much more by the local community but that need substantial support. The ‘Camden 4’ partners are the Churches of Saint Mary the Virgin, Eversholt Street, Saint Mary Magdalene, Munster Square, Saint George the Martyr, Queen Square, and Holy Cross Church.

Holy Cross Church is a place of prayer and stillness amid the surrounding rush of King’s Cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Holy Cross Church provides a sanctuary for countless visitors – a stopping-off place, a house of God and a place of prayer and stillness amid the surrounding rush of King’s Cross. It serves local residents but also travellers, commuters, students and wayfarers.

Holy Cross Church remains within the Anglo-Catholic tradition, a community bound by the Eucharist and the Sacraments of the Church. The Revd Christopher Cawrse celebrated his final mass in Holy Cross Church and retired as vicar or parish priest on 13 September 2026. The parish now has an open vacancy for a vicar or parish priest.

• The regular services in Holy Cross Church include the Parish Mass, Sunday, 11 am; Mass, Wednesday-Thursday, 6 pm, Friday 12:45 pm, Saturday 10:30 am, Feast Days 7 pm. During Advent and Lent the church also runs Bible Study courses after Sunday Mass. The church is open every Friday 10 am to 2 pm with a coffee morning.

Holy Cross Church remains within the Anglo-Catholic tradition, a community bound by the Eucharist and the Sacraments of the Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Mary Woolnoth: a return visit to a London church linked to John Newton and celebrated by TS Eliot

The Church of Saint Mary Woolnoth has links with TS Eliot, John Newton and a branch of the Comerford family in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

The Stony Stratford Playreaders have been reading TS Eliot’s play The Cocktail Party this week. I suggested this play for many reasons, including its associations with Mary Trevelyan from Stony Stratford, who inspired Julia, one of the play’s characters, its place in the poetry of TS Eliot and discussions of his Anglo-Catholic spirituality, and because of my own long-running interest in the poetry and writings of TS Eliot.

When I was in London recently, I visited Change Alley, which had associations with four generations of one branch of the Comerford, sought out the sites of the earliest coffee shops in London, and that same afternoon I also returned to visit Saint Mary Woolnoth Church, a landmark church near Bank underground station at the heart of the City of London, on the corner of Lombard Street and King William Street.

Members of the Comerford family who are associated with Saint Mary Woolnoth Church include: James Comerford (1764-1833), who was buried at Saint Mary Woolnoth in 1833; and his grandson James William Comerford (1829-1917), who was baptised in Saint Mary Woolnoth on 19 January 1830.

The church is interesting as one of the Queen Anne Churches designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, but also for its associations with many interesting people, including the founder of Lloyds Edward Lloyd, the abolitionist and hymnwriter John Newton and his friend William Wilberforce, and, of course, the poet TS Eliot.

Inside Saint Mary Woolnoth Church … the third church on the site and designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church stands on a site has been used for worship for perhaps 2,000 years. Traces of Roman and pagan religious buildings were found under the foundations of the church, along with the remains of an Anglo-Saxon wooden structure.

The full and unusual dedication of the church is to Saint Mary of the Nativity. The name ‘Woolnoth’ may refer to a benefactor, possibly Wulnoth de Walebrok, a Saxon noble who lived in the area earlier in the 12th century. Alternatively, the name may be connected with the wool trade – this was so with the nearby church of Saint Mary Woolchurch Haw.

The present church is at least the third church on the site. The Norman church survived until the mid-15th century, when it was rebuilt. The new building was consecrated in 1438, but additional work appears to have taken place towards the end of the century, and a spire was added in 1485.

The advowson was given by the founder or his heirs to the Priory of Saint Helen, Bishopsgate. After the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII gave it to Sir Martin Bowes of Lombard Street, a goldsmith and Lord Mayor of London in 1545-1546. The advowson passed from Bowes to the Goldsmiths’ Company, and the patronage subsequently passed through various hands.

The church was badly damaged in the Great Fire of London in 1666, but was partially rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in 1670-1675. Sir Robert Vyner, Lord Mayor of London in 1674, made a major contribution to the costs, and Vyner had his own entrance to the east end of the church, a privilege inherited by the Post Office which later stood on the site of his mansion in Lombard Street.

The style of the church was described as ‘modern Gothick’ in 1708. But Saint Mary Woolnoth was only partially-repaired by Wren. The building became unsafe and in 1711 it was decided to build a new church under the Fifty New Churches Act. By 1712, the church was so dilapidated that the parishioners were afraid to worship there, and repairs were carried out.

Despite its small size, the Church of Saint Mary Woolnoth is surprisingly spacious inside (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Edward Lloyd, the founder of Lloyd’s of London, was a member of the vestry at the time. He founded Lloyd’s coffee house, which later developed into Lloyd’s Corporation. TS Eliot would work for Lloyd’s two centuries later.

Work on rebuilding the church began in 1716, when excavations uncovered remains thought to be Roman, and there is evidence of major Roman buildings in the immediate vicinity. The new church opened for worship on Easter Day 1727. It was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, assisted by John James. It is one of Hawksmoor’s most distinctive and original designs and his only church in the City of London.

Hawksmoor designed an unusually imposing façade in the English baroque style. It is dominated by two flat-topped turrets supported by Corinthian columns. The west side of the façade, facing Lombard Street, has distinctive recesses bearing an inset forward-curving pediment resting on skewed columns.

Hawksmoor’s treatment of the north elevation has been described by as ‘a piece of sheer architectural eloquence hard to match’. The absence of windows on this wall insulates the interior from the noise of Lombard Street.

The wooden baldacchino, with twisted columns and a canopy ornamented with gilded cherubs, was made by John Meard and carved by Gabriel Appleby (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Despite its small size, the church is surprisingly spacious inside. The layout is typical of Hawksmoor, forming a ‘cube within a cube,’ or a square enclosed by three rows of four columns that is itself enclosed by a wider square.

In the shallow chancel, an ornate, baroque wooden baldacchino with twisted columns and a canopy ornamented with gilded cherubs, was made by John Meard and carved by Gabriel Appleby. It was modelled on Bernini’s baldacchino in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The pulpit, with its unusual bulging shape, was made by Thomas Darby and Gervaise Smith and is inlaid with sunbursts by Appleby. The tester echoes the shape of the ceiling. The galleries were made by Meard and carved by Darby and Smith.

A plaque recalling John Newton bears the epitaph he wrote for himself (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Revd John Newton (1725-1807), the former slave trader who became an abolitionist, and an evangelical hymn writer, was the Rector of Saint Mary’s Woolnoth from 1780 to 1807. His best-known hymn is Amazing Grace, and his parishioners included the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce (1759-1833).

John Newton died in December 1807, shortly after the Abolition Act was passed. He was buried beside his wife in the crypt of Saint Mary Woolnoth. A memorial tablet on the north wall bears an epitaph written by Newton himself.

The church was threatened with demolition on several occasions but was saved each time. Its galleries were removed in 1875-1876by William Butterfield, who thought they were unsafe, a number of significant changes were made to the interior, and the chancel was raised.

The pulpit, with its unusual bulging shape, was made by Thomas Darby and Gervaise Smith (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Between 1897 and 1900, the City & South London Railway (C&SLR) built Bank Underground station beneath the church. The company had permission to demolish the church, but public outcry forced the company to think again.

The crypt was sold to the railway and the bodies there were moved for reburial at Ilford, including Edward Lloyd and James Comerford. However, John Newton and his wife Mary (Catlett) were reburied in 1893 at Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, Olney, near Milton Keynes, where he had been a curate and then vicar before moving to London.

The crypt and plinth of the church were used as a booking hall in 1897-1900. The walls and internal columns of the church were then supported on steel girders while the lift shafts and staircase shaft for Bank station were built directly beneath the church floor. At the same time, the bells were rehung with new fittings.

The lower part of the south elevation is now masked by the single-storey former Underground station entrance, with a new vestry, in a style that pays tribute to Hawksmoor.

A second organ, dated 1913, is placed at the east end of the north aisle.

The altar piece in Saint Mary Woolnoth, with the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

TS Eliot, who worked in the City nearby at Lloyd’s Bank, refers to this church in 1922 in a passage in his poem The Waste Land, Part 1, ‘The Burial of the Dead’:

A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying, “Stetson!
“You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
“That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
“Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
“Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
“Oh keep the Dog far hence, that’s friend to men,
“Or with his nails he’ll dig it up again!
“You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!”

In his notes to the poem, Eliot remarks that the ‘dead sound on the final stroke of nine’ was a ‘phenomenon which I have often noticed.’ Spurr interprets this as a symbolic allusion to the traditional hour of execution and Christ’s crucifixion at the ninth hour.

In The Waste Land, Eliot also refers to Saint Magnus Martyr, and celebrates the architecture and spiritual importance of the church, with its ‘inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold.’

Inside Saint Mary Woolnoth Church, facing the west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Mary Woolnoth was the parish church of the Lords Mayor of London. The Mansion House stands almost opposite, on the site of Saint Mary Woolchurch Haw. This association helped protect the church from repeated threats of demolition between 1863 and 1926.

Eliot supported the protests in 1926 to save City churches like Saint Mary Woolnoth from demolition. He wrote that the threatened churches gave ‘to the business quarter of London a beauty which its hideous banks and commercial houses have not quite defaced … the least precious redeems some vulgar street …

‘The loss of these towers, to meet the eye down a grimy lane, and of these empty naves, to receive the solitary visitor at noon from the dust and tumult of Lombard Street, will be irreparable and unforgotten.’

In Anglo-Catholic in Religion: TS Eliot and Christianity, Professor Barry Spurr examines how Eliots references to Saint Mary Woolnoth in The Waste Land foreshadow his later Anglo-Catholic faith. Eliot was baptised on 29 June 1927 at Holy Trinity Church in Finstock, Oxfordshire, by the Revd William Force Stead. He was confirmed the next day, 30 June 1927, in the private chapel of Bishop Thomas Banks Strong of Oxford.

Saint Mary Woolnoth was the only City church to survive World War II unscathed. The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950, and it became a guild church in 1952.

Until recently Saint Mary Woolnoth was used by the German-speaking Swiss community in London. It now hosts ‘IMPRINT Church London’, which includes Saint Mary Woolnoth, Saint Edmund the King and Saint Clement Eastcheap in the Diocese of London, and is part of the HTB Network of churches. The Revd Wole Agbaje is the priest in charge.

• Saint Mary Woolnoth is open Monday-Friday from 7 am to 3 pm and also has a café, Newton’s Coffee, on the front steps.

‘Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?’ … the east end of Saint Mary Woolnoth at Post Office Court (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Holy Trinity Church, a Gothic church in Headington Quarry, Oxford, designed by Gilbert Scott and with links with CS Lewis

Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, Oxford, was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and was built in 1848-1849 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During two recent visits to Headington in Oxford, I visited some of the churches in the area, including Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, Headington Baptist Church, Corpus Christi Catholic Church, and Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston.

But, perhaps, the best-known church in the area is Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, known particularly for its associations with the Belfast-born writer CS Lewis (1898-1963), who lived and worked for most of his life in Oxford, and who was a regular parishioner in Holy Trinity Church for more than 30 years.

Inside Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, facing the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

At first sight, Holy Trinity Church may look like a mediaeval church. But, in fact, it only dates back less than 200 years to April 1849. It is built in the 15th century decorated style, with a nave, north aisle, south porch, and a gable bell-cote with two bells at the west end.

The church was designed by the prolific Gothic Revival architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878), who is known for designing, building and renovating churches and cathedrals in the Gothic style. He was born in Gawcott, on the outskirts of Buckingham, and designed he Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, the Albert Memorial, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, Glasgow University, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, and King’s College Chapel, London. His work in Oxford includes the Martyrs’ Memorial and Exeter College Chapel.

Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, was built in 1848-1849 to serve the needs of people living and working in the then-active quarry.

Inside Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, looking west from the chancel and east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford (1845-1869), was instrumental in getting the church built in Quarry, which he described in a sermon on 9 June 1847 as a ‘hamlet’ in a ‘wild, rural district’. He claimed Headington Quarry had been ‘long cursed by the neighbourhood of Oxford vice’ and said its ‘peculiar circumstances’ demanded ‘the sympathy and assistance of … Christian neighbours’.

Early subscriptions towards building the church included £50 from Charles Tawney, who also gave the site for Headington National School. There were large donations too from the Revd Thomas Henry Whorwood, Vicar of Saint Andrew’s, Headington, and Lord of the Manor of Headington (£25); John Matthews of Headington Manor House (£21); George Ballachey of Bury Knowle House (£20); and Digby Latimer of Headington House (£20).

Other contributors included the heads of Worcester College, University College, New College, Queen’s College, Trinity College, All Souls’ College and Exeter College, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, and the Revd Edward Pusey. Later subscribers included Magdalen College (£200) and Queen Victoria (£20), as well as Oriel College, Brasenose College, Corpus Christi College, Lincoln College, Merton College, Wadham College and Worcester College.

The stone was quarried from Quarry Farm Pit, and the contractors were Wyatt’s of Oxford.

The chancel, High Altar and East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Bishop Samuel Wilberforce laid the foundation stone of the church on 19 June 1848, and consecrated the new church on 22 November 1849. The first Vicar was the Revd Thomas Masterman in 1849-1851. The vicarage house at 42 Quarry Road was built in 1868 for the Revd Arthur Dalton. It was designed by the architect Arthur Blomfield, who designed Saint Barnabas’s Church, Jericho, the following year. The vicarage was converted into flats in 1992.

Holy Trinity Church is a Grade II listed building, with a nave that includes an east window by Sir Ninian Comper, a chancel, a north aisle with the Lady Chapel, a large double bellcote and diagonal buttresses. It is built in coursed rubble limestone with ashlar detailing and stone locally quarried at Quarry Farm Pit, and has red tile roofs.

There are two-light, three-light and lancet windows and a tall south-west porch with two windows. The low north aisle has squat, square-headed windows in a late mediaeval style.

The East Window designed by Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960) depicts Christ in Glory and was installed in 1951 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Inside, the chancel is the same height as the nave, there is a stone arcade, a chancel arch, and a stone pulpit and font, with plain benches in the nave and aisle. Above the altar, the East Window was designed by Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960) and depicts Christ in Glory. The window was installed in 1951 as a memorial to parishioners who died in World War II.

The symbol at the top of the East Window is that of the Holy Trinity with the heraldic symbols of the Diocese of Oxford and the Oxford industrialist Lord Nuffield below. Comper’s distinguishing strawberry mark is in the bottom right-hand corner of the window.

The first piece of stained glass in the church, a window depicting the Crucifixion, was placed in the East Window by the Revd Arthur Dalton, vicar of the parish in 1867-1870. The centrepiece has since been installed in the Lady Chapel.

The tapestry behind the altar was designed by Father Elias Polomski and is inspired by Andrei Rublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church was refurbished and redecorated in the early 1990s, at the initiative of the vicar, the Revd Christopher Hewetson. The altar area and the chancel were remodelled, when the old curtain that hung in front of the east window was swept away, the stone work was cleaned, much of the floor was renewed, new lighting was installed, and the bosses were regilded. Two clergy stalls were added, and the roof was boarded because of the decay of the original plaster.

At the same time, the altar was moved from the east wall in the chancel, allowing west-facing celebrations of the Eucharist.

During the refurbishment and redecoration, old and decaying curtains were removed, and a new tapestry was hung behind the altar in 1994. It was designed by Father Elias Polomski, curate of the parish in 1990-1994. It is inspired by Andrei Rublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity and depicts the three angels who visited Abraham in Genesis 18. The other panels of the tapestry depict the rocks, oak trees and ponds of Shotover, to the east of the parish, with a scattering of Greek long-necked sheep.

It took volunteers from the parish over 2,000 hours and two years to complete the tapestry. The completed tapestry was dedicated by the Bishop of Oxford on 17 July 1994.

The chancel window depicting Saint Andrew and Saint Philip confuses the Gospel scenes associated with each saint (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The chancel two-light window depicting Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Headington, and Saint Philip, are in memory of a former vicar, the Revd Philip Doyne (1916-1924). But the windows were assembled incorrectly in the workshop, so that each saint has the Gospel scene associated with the other.

The chancel organ was built by Kenneth Tickell of Northampton and was installed in 1992. The colours and pipe shades were also designed by Father Elias Polomski.

The chancel also has a credence table in memory of a former vicar, the Revd Eric Bleiben, and a piscina in memory of a former sacristan, Anne Kimber.

The Lady Chapel at the east end of the north aisle was added in the 1990s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Lady Chapel at the east end of the north aisle was added in the 1990s as a memorial to the Revd Ronald Heald, vicar in 1956-1990. The altar and chairs were also designed by Father Elias Polomski and made by Hugh Croft of Devon. Other furnishings include the carpet, chandelier, icon from Athens, and an antique Persian lamp and chain.

The Athens icon was bought by Father Charles Smith of Corpus Christi Church when he was in Athens in May 1994 for the Greek Orthodox Easter. The Trinity icon was a gift from Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili of the Georgian Baptist Church, who had studied in Oxford, and was blessed by him on Trinity Sunday 2010. The statue of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child is a copy of a French Gothic statue in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The iconof the Theotokos was bought in Athens in May 1994 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The stained glass by the pulpit depicts the Archangel Gabriel and was installed in 1910 in memory of the Revd Charles Longland, who died in 1908 and his daughter Mary Elizabeth who had died in her teens. The scroll has Gothic script with the words ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son’ (John 3:16).

The Baptistry window shows the Holy Spirit descending on the font. It was installed in 1916 in memory of Kate Johnston, wife of the Revd Charles Johnston (Vicar in 1891-1916).

The Narnia window in the north aisle by Sally Scott in the north aisle includes images from CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and was installed in 1991.

The vestry, which is a 20th century addition, is single-storeyed with a flat roof and extends north from the east end of the aisle.

The Narnia window by Sally Scott in the north aisle was installed in 1991 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, is still remembered today for its associations with the writer CS Lewis, who was a regular parishioner for more than three decades. He is commemorated in the Narnia window and in his simple grave is in the churchyard. CS Lewis and his brother Warren Lewis, began attending the church in 1930 and remained active in this church until their deaths, CS Lewis in 1963 and WH Lewis in 1973. But more about CS Lewis and Headington Quarry in the days to come, hopefully.

• The Revd Martin Little is the Vicar of Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry. Sunday services are 8 am, Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer); 10 am, Parish Communion; 6 pm, evening service once a month, varying from Choral Evensong to seasonal celebrations, to informal worship. Midweek services include Holy Communion at 10 am, Wednesday, and Morning Prayer at 9 am, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, was built in the 15th century decorated style (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

For my guide to churches, chapels and religious buildings and sites in Oxford, visit here

Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston: a 1950s church in suburban Oxford with important works of modern art

The Church of Saint Michael and All Angels on the corner of Jack Straw’s Lane and Marston Road, Oxford … today is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Michael and All Angels (29 September), and in anticipation of this feast day, I visited the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels in New Marston in suburban Oxford last week when I was visiting churches in the Headington area last week.

During my two visits to Headington last week, and in between appointments in the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, I visited some of the churches in the area, including Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, Headington Baptist Church, Corpus Christi Catholic Church, and Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston.

I found Saint Michael’s Church, which was built as a chapel of ease for Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, at the bottom of Jack Straw’s Lane on the corner with Marston Road.

Inside Saint Michael and All Angels Church, New Marston, facing the High Altar, chancel and east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

New Marston is a suburb about 2 km (1.25 miles) north-east of the centre of Oxford. The area is built on land that was originally part of the Manor of Headington, and it was rural until the 19th century, when housing began to develop along Marston Road from St Clement’s towards the village of Marston.

Saint Michael and All Angels Church was built 70 years ago in 1954-1956 on the corner of Marston Road and Jack Straw’s Lane as a chapel of ease for the parish of Saint Andrew, Headington. New Marston’s early Anglican needs were first met by a mission hall built on Ferry Road in 1919 until the new church was consecrated in September 1955.

Saint Michael and All Angels Church was designed in an Italianate style by the architect Thomas Lawrence Dale (1884-1959), who was the Oxford Diocesan Surveyor for 23 years. At first, Dale specialised in designing houses for private clients. From the 1930s, he was the Oxford Diocesan Surveyor and he was noted for designing, restoring and furnishing Church of England parish churches.

Like Charles Ponting (1850-1932) to whom he had been articled, Dale’s church architecture was strongly Anglo-Catholic. However, whereas Ponting continued to work in the Gothic Revival idiom long after it had passed out of fashion, Dale adopted Italianate architecture for his churches.

Inside Saint Michael and All Angels Church, New Marston, facing the west end … the church was designed in an Italianate style by the architect Thomas Lawrence Dale (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Dale was born in London and was educated at University College School, Hampstead. He began trained at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in 1900, was articled to Charles Ponting in Marlborough, Wiltshire (1901-1904), was assistant to the architect Edmund Buckle (1904-1906), and qualified as an architect in 1906.

He was a captain in the Army Cyclist Corps during World War I and was mentioned in despatches. After World War I, Dale moved to Banbury and designed a series of council houses in several villages. Two of his earlier works are Edwardian houses in Hampstead Garden Suburb, one of which has been described as ‘an excellent house of the Lutyens school’. Dale later moved to Oxford, where he designed his own house on Woodstock Road, and later moved again to Bradmore Road.

As Oxford Diocesan Surveyor, Dale designed at least four parish churches in the Oxford area, and also designed restoration work or new furnishings for a number of parish churches. His churches in the Diocese of Oxford include: Saint Francis of Assisi (1930-1931), Cowley, built on a site provided by Morris Motors as a temporary daughter church of Saint James, Cowley; Saint Alban the Martyr (1933), Oxford, replacing a chapel of ease built for Saint Mary and Saint John Church in 1889; Saint Michael and All Angels (1954-1956), New Marston, built as a chapel of ease for Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington; and Saint Swithun (1956-1958), Kennington.

The sculpted reliefs on the main front include a small figure of Saint Michael and two large reliefs of angels, by John Bunting and Michael Groser (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Dale died in 1959 and was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. His son Simon Dale (1919-1987) was also an architect. He was beaten to death at The Heath, the house he and Susan had restored at Hopton Castle, Herefordshire.

The only suspect, Dale’s former wife, Baroness Susan de Stempel, was cleared of his murder due to insufficient physical evidence. The case remains ‘one of West Mercia Constabulary’s relatively few unsolved murders’. But that’s a story for another evening, perhaps.

TL Dale’s churches reflect the various brands of classicism popular in church architecture in England in the mid-20th century and Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston, is perhaps his most ambitious. It is an interesting essay in a sort of stripped Italian baroque manner, typical of Anglo-Catholic taste from the 1920s on.

The statue of Saint Michael by the sculptor Michael Groser (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Michael’s was built as a chapel of ease for Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington. Although the building is slightly limited by its corner site, it is substantial in scale and has been described as being in a ‘vaguely Italian renaissance style’. Its notable features include its campanile, its elliptical windows and its tall, box-like chancel.

The sculpted reliefs on the main front include a small figure of Saint Michael in a niche at the top of the gable, and two large reliefs of angels flanking the oval window, by John Bunting (1927-2002) and Michael Groser (1918-2009). The Latin wording above the west door says: Gloria in Altissimis Deo et in Terra Pax (‘Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace’).

Bunting and Groser were probably responsible for the carvings inside the church, including a suspended rood with the Crucified Christ flanked by figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint John, the frontal to the altar and the Stations of the Cross. The statue of Saint Michael is by Groser, the painting of the Annunciation and a series of reliefs are by Bunting, and the reredos above the High Altar was painted by Leon Underwood (1890-1975).

The suspended rood, with figures of the Crucified Christ, the Virgin Mary and Saint John, is by John Bunting and Michael Groser (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

John Bunting was one of Leon Underwood’s students. He later taught for many decades at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire, where his students included Antony Gormley, creator of the ‘Angel of the North’, Martin Jennings, whose works include the statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras station and the statue of Philip Larkin in Hull, and the painter Andrew Festing.

Michael Groser was born in his grandfather’s rectory in St Winnow, Cornwall. His father, the Revd St John Beverley Groser (1890-1966), was an Anglican priest and a prominent Christian socialist. He was said to be ‘the best-known priest in the East End’ and Kenneth Leech said that he was ‘one of the most significant Christian socialist figures in 20th century Britain’. He was present at the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. He was appointed the Warden of the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine in 1948. He played Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 1951 film adaptation of TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, produced and directed by George Hoellering.

Michael Groser moved to London with his parents in the 1920s and attended the Mercers’ School. After a degree in English Literature at Leeds University, he studied for the priesthood at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield, Yorkshire, where his father had once been a student. As a conscientious objector during World War II, he was sent to a coalmine near Huddersfield, but managed to study sculpture part-time at Leeds School of Art.

He later moved to Kirtlington, Oxfordshire, and then to Banbury, and sang occasionally with the choir at New College, Oxford. As an actor, he played the Third Priest in Murder in the Cathedral (1951), alongside his father. He moved to Co Cork in 2004, and when he died in Bantry in 2009, he was buried at Church Cross, near Skibbereen.

The painting of the Annunciation by John Bunting above the altar in the Lady Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Michael's Church, New Marston, was consecrated in September 1955 and superseded the Ferry Road mission hall, which was then deconsecrated and sold for secular use.

Saint Michael’s became a parish church in its own right in the Diocese of Oxford in 1963, with a new parish formed from parts of Headington, Marston and Saint Clement’s parishes.

The church built by Kingerlee & Sons. The ground for the new vicarage in Jack Straw’s Lane was bought in 1952, but the vicarage was not built until 1966-1967.

In recent years, a problem with subsidence has left the church needing extensive repairs and when I visited the church last week much of the south side of the building was covered in scaffolding.

The campanile at the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

• The Revd Elaine Bardwell has been the Vicar of Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston since 1996. Saint Michael’s uses modern Catholic worship and has a smallish congregation that welcomes all comers. The main Sunday service is the Parish Eucharist at 10 am, and there is a short said Eucharist on Wednesday mornings at 10:30 am.

The tall, box-like chancel and south side of Saint Michael’s Church seen from Jack Straw’s Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

For my guide to churches, chapels and religious buildings and sites in Oxford, visit here