The Parish Church of St Jude-on-the-Hill
‘The parish church of St Jude is one of Lutyens’ most successful buildings. It exhibits all his best qualities and even turns that “naughtiness” or wilful originality which often mars his late buildings into a decided advantage.’ Thus Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, in his witty if somewhat barbed verdict on the church that is generally described as ‘Lutyens’ masterpiece’. From anywhere in Hampstead Garden Suburb and from many of its approaches, the magnificent spire and roof are a familiar sight. Not so many people are familiar with the interior of St Jude’s; and fewer still know the details of its history. The story starts in the summer of 1904, when Suburb founder Henrietta Barnett was walking across the fields that now form part of the Heath Extension with Lord Crewe, a member of her ‘steering trust’ that formed the basis of the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust. At this stage her dream of a Garden Suburb had yet to be realised. When they reached the central hill, she said: ‘This is the highest place, and here we will have the houses for worship and learning’. The appointment of Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) and Raymond Unwin (1863-1940) as architects for the creation of the Suburb was approved in May 1906, when Lutyens was already a rising star of British architecture. It seems probable that Alfred Lyttelton, then Chairman of Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust Ltd, asked Lutyens to become involved with the planning of the Suburb. Mervyn Miller, in his book Hampstead Garden Suburb: Arts and Crafts Utopia?, notes that Lutyens’ influence reinforced Unwin’s appreciation of formal design and that Unwin’s tact smoothed relations with Henrietta Barnett, whom Lutyens had dismissed as a philistine. In the winter of 1907-1908 it was decided that there should be a central square flanked by two churches. Henrietta Barnett took a personal interest in the design of the church and her relations with Lutyens were not always easy or harmonious. She turned down more than one design for the church and objected to the cost and design of the tower and spire. Finally she turned the first sod for the foundations of St Jude’s in October 1909 at a ceremony presided over by the Archdeacon of London. She recalled that ‘the rain fell in torrents, the roads were seas of mud’, but she paid a tribute to Lutyens: ‘It is a beautiful design that Mr Lutyens has made. A long roof and tall gables grouped round the tower and spire, which will reach towards what we hope will be clearer skies than those today – and as it silently points upwards is it too much to hope that it will teach many to aspire to uplift their lives?’ The statistics relating to the size of St Jude’s are impressive. The church is 200 feet long externally; 122 feet internally from the west door to the chancel steps; and 40 feet to the highest part of the roof. The spire rises 178 feet from the ground. The dedication to St Jude recalled the parish of St Jude, Whitechapel, where Henrietta’s husband, Canon Samuel Barnett, was vicar for 21 years. When this church was demolished in the 1920s, the fine Father Willis organ was moved to St Jude-on-the-Hill and rebuilt, initially at the west end before it was moved to its present position in 1934. It underwent a major restoration in 2002/3. Simon Jenkins, in his book England’s Thousand Best Churches, describes the exterior of St Jude’s as being ‘Wren in style to the east, with brick walls and round-headed windows, and English vernacular to the west, with a huge roof that sweeps low over the eaves. These eaves are relieved by dormers, hips and gables on which Lutyens expended extraordinary care.... The tower with its tiers of open brick arches introduces a Byzantine note’. He continues: ‘The interior is designed on cathedral proportions if not scale. The brickwork, round arches, barrel vaults, saucer domes, apses and decoration share the Byzantine theme of the tower. Yet the aisles might be those of a simple Tudor parish church with painted beams and low walls...’. One very unusual feature is the roundel commemorating horses killed in the First World War, next to the west door. Worthy of note are the frescoes or wall paintings by Walter Starmer (1877-1961), painted between 1920 and 1929. They are probably the most extensive twentieth-century cycle in England and a rare example of this type of art from the inter-war period. They depict traditional Bible scenes and worthy Christian women. Starmer was commissioned to paint them by the first Vicar of St Jude’s, Basil Bourchier; they met each other at Arras in 1918 when Bourchier was an army chaplain and Starmer was a war artist. For many years these paintings attracted considerable criticism, based both on their supposed lack of artistic merit and on the belief that Lutyens intended his interior to remain plain and unadorned. Research in the past decade has however revealed that Lutyens was in fact consulted about the murals and visited St Jude’s several times to see work in progress. Starmer also designed the very fine west window, which depicts St Jude holding the cross in his right hand and a model of the church in his left. |
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Edwin Lutyens |
If you would like to wander around St Jude’s at a time when it is not thronged with concert-goers, in 2010 it is open to the public every Sunday from 1130 to 1730 from 28 March until 24 October.
Jennifer Radice