Promoting the highest standards in design and protecting Hackney’s unique heritage 20 20 THE HACKNEY SOCIETY SPACENews and views about Hackney’s builtS environment Issue 67 winter 2020 // ISSN 2047-7465 Kings Crescent Estate Clockwise © Jim Stephenson, Peter Landers and Tim Cocker Kings Crescent Phases 1 and 2 is one of the winners of the Hackney Design The centrepiece of the public realm is a Awards 2018. Based in Stoke Newington, the development involved the new play street that runs the length of the creation of 273 new homes and the refurbishment of 101 existing homes. Of site, named Murrain Road after the late these, 41% are for social rent, 10% are intermediate, and 49% are for market resident who ran a local youth club. Both sale. They are part of a 765-home masterplan. route and destination, the street makes a Working with Henley Halebrown Architects, fine grain detailing, with attention paid to new connection to the park, and is a shared Karakusevic Carson Architects have created proportion, scale and elegance. resource for residents and neighbours from a series of three courtyard blocks that the wider area Elevations, massing and detailing are combine new and refurbished buildings intended to subtly respond to a variety The scheme was informed by continuous around landscaped communal gardens. The of contexts, including the surrounding and active engagement with local residents to public realm and landscaped areas were late Victorian townscape of 19th century ensure the design reflected their needs and designed by Muf architecture/art. terraced and semi-detached housing made the greatest possible social impact. The architecture of the new buildings aims as well as the existing post-war estate to bridge the gap between strong, confident buildings whilst maximising views of contents buildings fit for higher density living and Clissold Park. 01 Kings Crescent Estate 02 Buildings at Risk: St Columba Church Help support our work by joining the Hackney Society. Call on 03 St John at Hackney 020 7175 1967 or email [email protected] 04 Noticeboard or visit www.hackneysociety.org 04 Publications 04 Events BUILDINGS AT RISK #2 St Columba Church By Hedy Parry-Davies St Columba Church has a huge and memorable presence on the busy Kingsland Road. It was built from 1868-1869, to designs by the Victorian architect James Brooks (1825-1901), reputedly known as ‘the Sir Christopher Wren of the East End’. He designed four churches of great scale in the area: St Michael, Mark Street, E2 (1863-65), St Chad’s, Haggerston (1868-69) as well as St Columba and St Saviour’s, Hyde Road, Hoxton (1863-1870) though the latter was lost during WWII. All three surviving churches are Grade I listed. Brooks was born in Hatford, near Wantage, Berkshire, to a farming family but at grammar school was influenced by High Churchmen, including Dr Pusey (1800-82), to abandon farming for architecture. In the late 1850s he was commissioned to build St Michael’s church through Dr Robert Brett, a surgeon from Stoke Newington and a friend of Dr Pusey’s. Both were members of a missionary movement promoting Ritualism and targeting the poor communities of London’s East End. Financial assistance was provided by the Church Building Commissioners and the Metropolitan Churches Fund. On a Victorian Society visit in 1972, Roger Dixon, the architectural historian and writer, summarised Brooks’ East End works: ‘The three churches are remarkable for the honesty of their construction, their comparative lack of ornament and their grand proportions. Brooks chose as his model the earliest period of Gothic. The churches are not however in the archaeological tradition of the Gothic Revival…He wished to produce, with the Clockwise: St Columba Church, clergy house and schools, painting by Hundleby 1977; limited means at his disposal, churches for The Builder, 11 December 1869; and St Columba Church, clergy house and schools. the needs of his own day. Churches that Lithograph, Building News, 28 February 1873. would proclaim the Gospel to the poor’ (The Victorian Society ‘Visit to Churches £10,500. The reason for the extra cost was from clerestory glazing, as the aisles are by James Brooks in Shoreditch and partly structural difficulties with the nave windowless. At the crossing is a low tower Haggerston’, January 1972). piers. Brooks designed these of brick but with a pyramid roof. The font, its cover and Ian Nairn in Nairn’s London (1967) agreed settlement necessitated the replacement of the reredos were also designed by Brooks. of St Columba that: ‘…everything is here brick by stone’. And so decorative elements In 1975 the church was declared redundant because it needs to be, and there is none of were in fact omitted to achieve savings. and closed, followed by years of neglect the genteel swoonishness of High Anglican The main entrance is through an arched and deterioration. In 1980 a lease was taken churches in the politer parts of London.’ gateway leading into a quadrangle with the over by the Christ Apostolic Church (CPC), But its austerity was not entirely by design. Church at its south. A detailed description of conditional on their undertaking substantial According to Dixon, ‘Not all the capitals the church is included in Historic England’s repair works. These have not been have received the carving intended for them listing citation (https://historicengland.org. completed, and the church building is on nor has a scheme of mosaic panels been uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1226862). In Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register carried out… The contract sum was for brief, it consists of nave, aisles, transepts Category A. The CPC has now set up a £7,894, although the final cost was nearer and chancel; natural lighting penetrates Crowd Fund to meet the costs of repairs. 02 New life for St John at Hackney church By Paul Bolding © John Pawson Ltd The Grade II* listed St John at Hackney church has been restored and reordered as a multi-purpose space for worship, concerts and community use at a cost of £5.5m. The work includes repairs to the roof and a font in Portland stone designed by Clapton CAAC disliked some design improved access to the church including Pawson. The latter will house the church’s elements of the new residential reopening and restoring all four corner war memorial. development, most notably on the sensitive entrances with their ionic porches. Inside, east elevation that faces the church and the ‘Together, the chapels symbolically mark non-original accretions have been swept grounds. It was ‘deeply uncomfortable’ with the visitor’s journey around the building from away to make a larger open space on the roof terraces. birth, through life, to death, and the hope of original Greek Cross plan. The altar sits on resurrection that lies beyond’, said Zac Lloyd, St John at Hackney was designed by a new permanent raised platform which can church community engagement officer. James Spiller and built in 1792-1797 to double as a stage. replace a 13th century church nearby of Memorials have been rehung and a small Audio and lighting equipment and better which only St Augustine’s Tower remains. number moved. Church offices at the back toilet provision will make it easier to resume have been rearranged. Flat roofs have been The church quotes Pawson as saying: the church’s former life as a concert venue fitted with solar panels. ‘At the heart of a project like this is the alongside its role as a place of worship. challenge of allowing architecture and Before its closure, the church had started to The National Lottery Heritage Fund people to come together in the richest gain recognition as a key gig location with has contributed £1.8m to the total. ways possible. I am looking forward to acts including Emeli Sandé, Robbie Williams The neighbouring Hackney Gardens playing my part in retuning an important and Coldplay. development by Thornsett Group Plc, which piece of London’s historic fabric, to specialises in property deals with churches, Some of the work has corrected poorly make exhilarating spaces charged with provides substantial Section 106 funds. The done repairs and alterations carried out after atmosphere and purpose.’ church gets one of the three buildings in the a serious fire in 1955. mixed tenure development for community The church will not have fixed pews in the Architects of the revamp are Thomas Ford facilities including a food bank, scout hut nave but portable seating will be used. & Partners with interior design by John and church halls. Tiered seating has been installed either side Pawson, including the chapels, stage and of the organ. A Section 106 agreement dated 2015 lighting. Top visual artist and set designer between the borough and the church Both the congregation – which has been Es Devlin has contributed a work for one of provides for £1.741m for church works, using St Luke’s, Homerton during the work the prayer spaces. £102,000 for libraries and education – and the bellringers will be looking forward A new baptistery and resurrection chapel in the borough and £10,000 for public to the reopening at a date in 2020 yet to be have been constructed, the former including realm works. announced, possibly in time for Easter. 03 all ages to take part in the museum’s Noticeboard education work. Visitors will be able to enjoy Publications direct, year-round access to the popular Rewilding Regent’s Canal Ridley Road Market Gardens Through Time exhibition, as well The Wildlife Gardeners of Haggerston by Tamara Stoll developed as a new eco-friendly roof garden. The new have won a prize for their work in creating during an eight-year Collections Library overlooking the front of habitats for animals on Regent’s Canal engagement with Ridley the building will give the public access to the and Kingsland Basin.