NOTES ON NEW BUILDINGS. Gamic CHURCHES AT LEE AND BLACKHEATH.
TuoirGa far from advocating the exclusive use of the pointed or Gothic style for church-building, we coincide with Mr. Fume and the Puseyite preferrers of this, ra hich they call, par excellence, "Christian" architec- ture, in requiring strict attention to its essential characteristics as shown in the numerous examples of its pure state existing in this country ; inasmuch as any deviation from the principles of Gothic construction, expounded in a popular manner by Mr. PuGui in his recent lectures. at Oscott, is pretty sure to be attended with some sacrifice of beauty as well as utility and durability. Nay, further, any want of due attention to the allocation of the different parts of a church, with reference to canonical regulations, which the Catholic ritual makes very stringent on the architect, occasions inconvenience, perhaps indecorum, in the performance of service : and, without going the whole way with Mr. Puma; in his interpretation of the symbolical meaning of the spire, as typifying the Christian's hope, we agree with the writers in the British Critic as to the propriety and necessity of regarding the ordinances of the church in arranging the plan of the structure.
These remarks have been suggested by a visit to the two Gothic churches recently consecrated in the vicinity of Blackheath,—namely, Lee Church, and Trinity Church on Blackheath Hill : taken altogether, they rank among the best modern examples of ecclesiastical architec- ture ; yet having faults both of plan and details, not only injurious to their effect, but inconvenient to the congregation.
Lee Church is a handsome structure of stone, consisting of a nave and aisles of equal length and nearly equal height and breadth, with a richly-decorated steeple projecting from the west end of the nave. The tower is well proportioned, and the pointed canopies and crocketted sublets of its louvre windows form a rich and elegant crown, from which springs a plain pointed spire : had the spire been loftier, and its octagonal form been defined by ribs or crockets, terminating in a cross, vane, or other finial, its effect from a distance would have been greatly improved ; as it is, the spire looks like a cone tapering to a sharp point ; an absurdity only a degree less prepost rous than the needle-spire of the neighbouring church in Blackheath Park, or the extinguisher in Langham Place. The body of the church is too square for the Gothic ; of which elongated proportions in the plan, and pyramidal forms in the elevation, are among its leading characteristics. These features are finely expressed in the altar-end of the Roman Catholic church now being erected in St. George's Fields : and among other old examples, the famous one of Salisbury Cathedral is most conspicuous for the beautiful combination of angles terminating at the apex of its lofty spire as seen from the west end. Mr. BROWN of Norwich, the architect of Lee Church, has, we are aware, in the Temple Church a precedent for his flat altar- end, and nave and aisles of nearly equal dimensions ; yet we presume to differ from his taste in this particular : but he will nowhere find, we may venture to say, any ancient authority for the superfluous windows, not glazed, but filled with wire-work, that destroy all simplicity and breadth in the flat east end of Lee Church. A projecting chancel, or semi-octagonal apsis, we think would have been a handsome feature : it would have supplied, what is so much wanting, a recess for the altar, which is rendered necessary by the doors opening on each side of it ; for persons entering by them come at once on the most sacred part of the church, to the disturbance of the most solemn of all religious rites, if during the communion. This is one of those defects of plan which we adverted to at the outset; and the interior presents another. In this church there are no side-galleries to obstruct the light, which is admitted through tall lancet-wiudows in couples ; the coup d'ceil con- sequently is spacious and airy : but the square proportions are made more square by a heavy projecting gallery extending across the west end, and containing the organ; side-gallerieswould have been better than this ; and the quatrefoil blank spaces between the pointed arches of the lancet-windows might then have been serviceable in admitting more light ; though their use would have necessitated corresponding openings on the exterior, which do not now exist. Shams of any kind ought never to be found in any edifice pretending to architectural pro- priety; they are miserable makeshifts at best. The ornamenting of one part of a building more than another, unless in the instance of a street-front only being presented to view, is likewise to be condemned : the windows of that side of Lee Church which faces the road are en- riched, like those of the two ends, with shafts, deep mouldings, and corbel-heads ; while those on the other side, though equally open to view, have only a plain weather-moulding finished with simple foliated bosses. We observe, as a peculiarity to be noted rather than admired, that the buttresses are splayed, and the enrichments of the steeple con- sist of slender pillars and rounded forms in the tracery : the angularity which gives such brilliancy and sharpness to the lights and shadows of Gothic ornaments cannot be lost without some sacrifice of effect, which is not attended with any compensating advantages. We must not pass over without admiring the altar-screen, with its pillars and crocketted gablets enclosing the tables of the Commandments. &c. ; and the dia- pered windows at the altar-end; the marble-backed sedilia are less appropriate, because a row of benches and the lobby separate them from the altar, which they are intended to adorn. The ceiling of oak in compartments, with carved bosses at the intersections of the ribs, is a handsome yet sober finish to the interior.
Trinity Church, on Blackheath Hill, is a far less imposing edifice ; being built of yellow brick with stone dressings, and showing little more than the altar-end, which abuts on the road : this front consists of a semicircular apsis, with buttresses between the lancet-windows, flanked by two turrets with spires. The mouldings and bosses, the foliated capitals of the pillars, the sculptures over the doors, and other stone decorations, blend well with the brick-work, producing a rich effect that is ornamental without being obtrusive : the only point of ob- jection is 032 heaviness of the pinnacles round the bases of the spires. The effect of the interior is almost destroyed by the cumbrous galleries, which crowd the building and obstruct the light : the view, on entering, looking towards the organ, is very unfavourable, owing to the organ-loft over the end-gallery ; these together almost block up the window behind them. On turning round, the altar presents a most superb coup-d'teil : the three lancet-windows are filled with stained glass of the richest colours and devices, in beautiful harmony ; and underneath is a finely-carved stone screen of five pannels, surmounted with crocketted gablets, ornamented with heads of angels, inscribed in coloured letters with the Commandments, Creed, &c.: the apposition of coloured glass and white stone is extremely piquant ; the contrast heightens the effect of each, and the two opposites combine well toge- ther- The roof of timber framework, with its pendants, and the piers with splayed angles and foliated capitals that support the arches of the nave, are stately and imposing. In this church, too, the entrances are on each side of the altar, and when the congregation are coming out the places of exit are inconveniently narrow. The design is by Mr. WILD, the architect of Streatham Church, whose fine taste in colour is shown in the devices for the stained glass. The gimcrack Gothic toy in Blackheath Park, with its needle-spire, like a steeple in a consumption, has been too long an eyesore to all per- sons of taste to need notice here : but we cannot refrain from pointing out two kindred beauties in its construction,—namely, the window with- out end that splits the tower—forming the eye of the needle—which is "contrived a double debt to pay," the lower part lighting the church, the upper the belfry ; and the doorway at the other end, which would lead directly to a dead wall three feet off, but that it has no steps and won't open. The church, it must be admitted, is in keeping with the houses in the neighbourhood : they are curiously ugly, even to a degree beyond those of other suburban districts where these beauties of brick- laying abound.
It was a welcome treat, after leaving these vulgar abominations, to moue upon the fine example of a gabled house, of red brick with stone dressings, built after the good old English fashion, which is so pictu- resque an object in the Eltham Road, just out of Lee : it only wants a bay-window or two, and a few large trees, to be a perfect picture of our ancient domestic architecture on a small scale.
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