The impressive Georgian Classical Church of Holy Trinity, on its busy junction near Regent’s Park, must be well-known to countless thousands of motorists and pedestrians, a familiar landmark with its elegant and neat John Soane portico. Much less familiar is the church of St Mary Magdalene Munster Square, tucked away in a quiet enclave only a few hundred yards to the north, its architect and patron little known to those who are not enthusiasts for the obscure byeways of Victorian art and history. In this brief introduction I’m just going to suggest why a visit would greatly reward the more determined pilgrim in search of beauty and history.
The exterior of the church is, it must be said, not promising: its square bulk, in pale ragstone, is not set off by a tower, and it was built on a cramped site in what was originally a very poor area. Only the rather charming statue of St Mary Magdalene, the patron, in a beautifully carved Gothic niche, suggests the care which has gone into the construction and embellishment of the building. On entering through the dark Gothic porch, one is immediately struck by the breadth and spaciousness of the interior, its elegance and colour being quite a surprise after the plain exterior. Its architect was the now little known R. C. Carpenter (1812 – 1855), whose small output includes the lovely church of St Paul’s near the seafront in Brighton and the monumental Lancing College Chapel, which benefits as this church does not from its downland setting and dignified surroundings.
The church differs from nearby Holy Trinity church in more than style; it breathes the mystical and devotional ideal of the medieval church which pastors such as Rev Edward Stuart (1820 – 1877), founder of St Mary Magdalene, sought to reintroduce into the Church of England, being inspired by the sacramental ideal of the so-called ‘Tractarians’ of the ‘Oxford Movement’. Stuart asked Carpenter for ‘a church as near perfection as the handicraft of man, the skill of architects, and the experience and ingenuity of ecclesiastical art could make it’, and many may feel that he more or less achieved this aim.
Particularly notable are the beautiful wooden statue of the patron, to the side of the chancel arch; the glowing altarpiece, at the east end, rich with colour, and surrounded by dignified paintings of saints and apostles; the richly painted paneled chancel roof; the elaborate rood and rood beam, crossing the chancel arch; and the wealth of exquisite stained glass. The east window was designed by the famous Augustus Pugin, one of his final works, and in many ways the church represents Carpenter’s effort to introduce Pugin’s medieval Catholic ideal of worship into the Anglican church. The picture to the left shows the church as it was when first built, in 1852, and regrettably its architect died before the interior could be completed, though nothing of the additions jars with its original artistic vision.
The introduction of ‘catholic’ ideals into Anglican worship was inevitably attended by controversy, and the founder of the Church, Rev Stuart, was very much at the forefront of such disputes. Stuart came from a wealthy and privileged background, being educated as an English gentleman at Eton and Oxford, but he could count the Scottish Stuart monarchs amongst his ancestors. However, he poured his wealth and spirit into this once-lowly mission church, founded out of the famous Christ Church Albany Street, where he had served as curate. Stuart was caught up in the ‘ritual’ controversies which rocked the church in the 1850s, of which he was a staunch public champion on the ‘Tractarian’ side. However, for men such as Stuart ‘catholicity’ was concerned with much more than ritual; it was about a classless ideal of worship and unity, in which all joined in the service of God and neighbour, a noble ideal for a noble building, which may still speak to us today.
Church. 1849-52 by RC Carpenter for Rev Edward Stuart, alterations 1866-7 by Slater and Carpenter; north aisle & crypt added 1883-4 by RH Carpenter and B Ingelow. Snecked Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings. Tiled pitched roofs with ornamental ridge tiles.
STYLE: Decorated.
EXTERIOR: large sanctuary, 6-bay nave with 2 aisles of almost equal widths and height under separate roofs. No clerestory. Uncompleted south-west tower. North-west facade with octagonal bell turret terminating in gabled louvres under a conical roof with finial. Gabled entrance porch at north-west corner with hoodmould and ballflower decoration to pointed arch moulding; cast and wrought-iron gates with scrolled decoration. In the gable, a relief cross added 1921 with quatrefoil enrichment on a patterned background. Aisles buttressed between traceried windows. East end has 7-light window with reticulated tracery and wheel; west end has 6-light window with quatrefoils and quatrefoil rose window.
INTERIOR: arch-braced collar-truss type roof of Baltic fir with cross windbraces. Pointed aisle arcades on piers of 4 clustered columns; moulded chancel arch on clustered columns. White plastered walls. Nave floored in red tiles from the first, and always with movable free seating. Arcaded chancel with shafts and spandrels of St Ann's marble. Sedilia and roof coloured by Mssrs. Crace. Piscina 1895 by Norman Shaw and made by Farmer and Brindley. Chancel floored in encaustic tiles when raised in 1866 by Slater and Carpenter and frescoes added by Bell, Redfern and Almond 1867. Memorial to Edward Stuart on lowest step. High altar lengthened 1912 by MCC Durston. Crucifix 1884 moved to south aisle. Reredos 1929 by Sir Charles Nicholson; his also the clergy and choir stalls, the latter moved to back of nave in 1971. Reordered 1990. Roodbeam (1903) and screens (1906) by JT Micklethwaite and Somers Clarke. South or calvary chapel with altar and communion rails by Nicholson (also glass, see below). Altar in the north or Blessed Sacrament chapel from Christ Church Albany Street, its lamps are Spanish, donated in 1895. Font restored 1886, cover 1930 by Nicholson. Attractive settle in children's corner dated 1929.
Stained glass: east window of special interest as being one of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin's last designs, made by Hardman. One chancel window the only other Hardman glass to survive.
South aisle from east: east window replacing Hardman's designed by Nicholson in 1931-2 and made by Scharlieb; two memorial windows to Sir Edward Hall Anderson, 1857 by Clayton and Bell under the supervision of William Butterfield. Nativity window 1862 by Lavers and Barraud; west aisle window 1884 by Clayton and Bell. North aisle from east: east window and one next to it by Clayton and Bell, Last Supper 1891; two windows of 1884 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne; memorial to George J Palmer dated 1892 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne; west aisle window 1891 by Clayton and Bell. West nave window by AA Orr replacing memorial window to RC Carpenter 1857 designed by John Clayton and made by Hardman, destroyed in Second World War. Painting on south aisle wall over former schools entrance by Clayton and Bell. Stations of the Cross given in 1895. Windows in north aisle of crypt filled by 1975 with delightful stained glass from St Augustine's Haggerston, of 1930-2 by Margaret Rope.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the plan of the church with its nearly equal nave and aisles and intended tall tower, together with its wholly English style, demonstrate the influence of Augusutus Welby Northmore Pugin. The design was based, however, on the Austin Friars Church in the City. It was a leading centre of Tracterian worship from its foundation. On its consecration in 1852 the Ecclesiologist described it as "the most artistically correct new church yet consecrated in London". Norman Shaw worshipped here for 42 years and described it as "the beau ideal of a town church".