The Parish Church of
St Mark St Marylebone
(Church of England)
Chapel of Ease in the Parish of
St Mary Bryanston Square with St Mark St Marylebone
Sunday Services
held at St Mary's Bryanston Square
11am Informal Family Service
6.30pm Informal Service
St Mark's Church. 1871-72 by Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829-1899). Red brick with Bath stone dressings, tiled or slate roofs. Nave with aisles, aligned north-south, with altar at south end.
EXTERIOR: Gabled end with buttresses, lower aisles to either side. Central gabled entrance with moulded arched door surround of stone: stiff-leaf capitals to shafts flanking doors, tympanum above contains relief of St Mark, holding roundel with lion, within a mandorla against a relief of rinceaux. Double plank doors with Gothic Revival ironwork. Lesser door to left (or east) with IHS monogram in tympanum. Band of herringbone brickwork beneath moulded string course over porch, above which is a receding tiled roof; arched opening to centre of upper gable contains a pair of arched lights with quatrefoils above, a circular window with three quatrefoils, flanked by circular rosettes of moulded brick, with more herringbone brickwork to the recess. Gables terminate in octagonal finials. Sides of exterior are largely concealed by neighbouring buildings: each has rows of arched recesses with four-light windows at upper level, over sloping side roofs to aisles.
INTERIOR: four bay nave with arcades of cast iron piers to either side. Open king-post truss roof to nave, open truss roof to aisles. Large chancel arch opening to sanctuary carried on colonnettes, with triple arched openings above. Triple openings to arcaded sides, carrying paired arches above: those to (liturgical) north contain windows, those to (liturgical) south are open. Three-light (liturgical) east window, upper parts by Morris & Co., lower parts form a parish war memorial of c.1920. North chancel chapel added in 1895. Organ loft at west end with organ by Whiteley of Chester (not the orignal) and an arcaded trefoil headed front to loft.
FITTINGS: largely removed. Altar table, dedicatory plaques in north chancel chapel in situ. Five-panel reredos with scenes from the Life of Christ.
HISTORY: this church was consecrated on 29 June 1872 and was originally a daughter church to that of St Mary's, Bryanston Square. It seated about 600 persons, and was intended to improve provision of worship space in this crowded area of St Marylebone. A controversy over ritualism broke out here in the mid-1890s concerning changes to the east end. Slight alterations were carried out here in 1903 under the direction of G.F. Bodley. The church was largely cleared of its fittings in the mid-1990s and has been used for a mixture of uses since then. This church is a good example of an inner city church, built with a limited budget, to provide spiritual outreach to the crowded districts of Inner London. Together with the neighbouring vicarage and church schools it forms a notable group of High Victorian religious buildings in an inner city setting.