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Isometric drawing of St Paul's Church Harringay

Architectural Drawing
ca. 1990 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Located in a residential area of Harringay, North London, St Paul’s was designed by Peter Jenkins between 1988 and 1993 to replace a Victorian Gothic Revival church (built 1890-1) which was destroyed by fire on Ash Wednesday 1984.

Jenkins’ church combines traditional liturgical forms with contemporary design. The plan of the church is traditional, being narrow and rectangular with the entrance at the west end and the altar at the east. This was in part dictated by the confines of the site, but also by the church’s Anglo-Catholic liturgical tradition which preferred an axial, processional plan. This traditional plan is in contrast to the majority of contemporary churches, which locate congregations around a central altar in order to emphasise the participatory aspect of the Communion.

In scale, Jenkins’ design echoes that of its Victorian predecessor, which was built to a vast scale, able to seat 900, and visually dominated the area’s skyline. Despite being a much smaller church in capacity, seating just 140, Jenkins has maintained the church’s visual dominance, making it an architectural and spiritual focal point in the surrounding area. This aspect of the design generated serious opposition from the local council, which argued – unsuccessfully – that the new church should blend in with the surrounding architecture.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleIsometric drawing of St Paul's Church Harringay (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Ink drawing on tracing paper
Brief description
Analytical isometric drawing of St Paul's Church Harringay, ink on tracing paper, by Peter Jenkins and drawn by Narenda Gajjar, London, ca. 1990
Physical description
Isometric drawing of St Paul's Church Harringay (scale 1:100), depicting the floor sections of the building separated. Below, the ground works levelling the hillside and then built up as a stereotomic base for the nave and raised hearth as the sanctuary at the east end. The altar is shown in its final form as a menhir tomb standing on the sanctuary platform. Beyond the narthex a portal marks entry into the nave in the progress from the public realm towards the sanctuary as the focusof worship. The nave is enclosed in diaphragm wall, 600mm in width, brick diaphragms binding together by weaving into, the inner and outer brick walls.
Dimensions
  • Height: 1193mm
  • Width: 841mm
Credit line
Given by Peter Jenkins
Subject depicted
Summary
Located in a residential area of Harringay, North London, St Paul’s was designed by Peter Jenkins between 1988 and 1993 to replace a Victorian Gothic Revival church (built 1890-1) which was destroyed by fire on Ash Wednesday 1984.

Jenkins’ church combines traditional liturgical forms with contemporary design. The plan of the church is traditional, being narrow and rectangular with the entrance at the west end and the altar at the east. This was in part dictated by the confines of the site, but also by the church’s Anglo-Catholic liturgical tradition which preferred an axial, processional plan. This traditional plan is in contrast to the majority of contemporary churches, which locate congregations around a central altar in order to emphasise the participatory aspect of the Communion.

In scale, Jenkins’ design echoes that of its Victorian predecessor, which was built to a vast scale, able to seat 900, and visually dominated the area’s skyline. Despite being a much smaller church in capacity, seating just 140, Jenkins has maintained the church’s visual dominance, making it an architectural and spiritual focal point in the surrounding area. This aspect of the design generated serious opposition from the local council, which argued – unsuccessfully – that the new church should blend in with the surrounding architecture.
Bibliographic references
  • Taken from notes by Peter Jenkins (Clare Lodge, Practice Archivist, 25/02/2016) Analytical isometric drawing at scale 1:100, ink on AO tracing paper by Narendra Gajjar (NG), showing the elements of the building separated. Below, the ground works levelling the hillside and then built up as a stereotomic base for the nave and raised hearth as the sanctuary at the east end. The altar is shown in its final form as a menhir tomb standing on the sanctuary platform. Beyond the narthex a portal marks entry into the nave in the progress from the public realm towards the sanctuary as the focus of worship. The nave is enclosed in diaphragm wall, 600mm in width, brick diaphragms binding together by weaving into, the inner and outer brick walls. Linear stone coursing ties the diaphragms at every ten courses following the concept of posts and woven walls of the primitive hut in Gottfried Semper’s book 'Four Elements of Architecture'. Eight metres above the base, the nave walls raise the church above three storey terraces of the parish and are capped and restrained by the equilateral wind girder of the roof. This tectonic structure of steel framing and carpentry, clad in fine standing seam zinc sheet, establishes the presence on the new church in the district of north London and can be seen from the northern heights of the city. The equilateral form can be interpreted to represent the Christian conception of the Trinity.
  • Seeley, John, 'Phoenix Rising, St Paul's, Harringay' in Church Building (Summer 1990), p. 45
  • 'Clare Melhuish reports on the new church' in Church Building (Summer 1990), pp. 46-47
  • 'Detail: St Paul's, Harringay by Peter Inskip & Peter Jenkins' in Architecture Today, 17 (April 1991), pp. 88-89
  • Glancey, Jonathan, 'A temple of simplicity to soothe the soul', in The Independent, Wednesday 4 August 1993, p.13
  • Dorment, Richard, 'Putting high art above the altar', in The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday, August 25, 1993, p. 12
  • Maxwell, Robert, 'Sacred Space: Inskip and Jenkins in Haringey' in Architecture Today, 43 (November 1993), pp. 36-41
  • 'New Church of St Paul, Harringay (GB)' in Eurozinc (1993), p. 13.
  • 'St Paul's Harringay, Review by Clare Melhuish and Michael Jones-Frank' in Church Building, Issue 28 (July/August 1994), pp. 31-33
  • 'Spiritual Elevation, St Paul's Church, Wightman Road, Harringay, London N4', in Brick Bulletin (Autumn, 1994), pp. 18-20
Other number
SPH(A)05 - Previous number
Collection
Accession number
E.106-2022

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Record createdJune 10, 2019
Record URL
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