St Paul's-in-the-car-park - a photo on Flickriver

            St Paul, Harlow, by Humphrys and Hurst, 1955-9, but principally, says Pevsner, by Derrick Humphrys, following Hurst's death in 1958.  Oh dear.  I did an image search and found a picture of the church standing in fields, with a little winding path running along the side.  It was not a photograph, so I don't know whether the church ever stood in such a setting.  Perhaps we should allow for artistic licence.  But the church was certainly one of the earliest buildings of the new town's civic core.  Just look at it now, poor thing, flanked by ribbed cladding and the foul air outlets of air-conditioning systems.
It deserved better, for it is a distinguished building.  The bricks are good, apparently suggested by Sir Frederick Gibberd as a foil to the concrete of the neighbouring civic buildings.  The walls are more glass than brick, so that it is often possible to see right through, as in the transept on the left there.  Unfortunately I was not able to gain entry ...and besides I had left Mrs B sitting in the car with her book in a residential side street... but there are said to be good things, including a mosaic by John Piper.  I noticed that the foundation stone ...you can see it at the right corner...  was laid by none other than the Rt Hon. R. A. Butler.  I suppose the new towns must have been a "flagship"project at the time and some top brass had to be seen to be "on board" ...as it would now be expressed.
Olympus 35RC and Kodak Ektachrome transparency film.
   

Taken on: February 18, 2011

Tags:

Harlow New Town

Humphrys and Hurst

modern church

modern architecture

20th-century church « less

Sets appears in: • Miscellaneous Modern

Groups appears in: • Olympus 35RC - DEPRECATED • Architecture UK more » • Flickr Friends of The Twentieth Century Society • epson v500 • Outrage UK • Sir Frederick Gibberd « less

Stats: 4,450 views / 8 comments

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