Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 25/11/2020

TQ2984NW
798-1/55/1252

CAMDEN
OSENEY CRESCENT
Church of St Luke with St Paul

(Formerly Listed as: OSNEY CRESCENT Church of St Luke with St Paul)

10/06/54

II*
Church. c1867-1869. By Basil Champneys. Red brick with stone dressings. Tiled roof.

STYLE: Early English detail with North German influenced tower.

PLAN/EXTERIOR: nave of four bays with narrow lean-to aisles, two porches, chancel with tower above and south chapel, north organ chamber; buttressed polygonal apse with vestry. Buttressed tower at crossing with saddleback roof a distinctive landmark. Gabled west end with three lancets and plate tracery rose window. Paired pointed windows to aisles, having a continuous stone band at impost level, and clerestory. Apse with plate tracery; tower with three arcaded openings to belfry and plate tracery round opening above on each face.

INTERIOR: nave arcades with cylindrical pillars having moulded bases and capitals carrying moulded arches. Between the arches hafts on corbels rise to the wall plates and carry the principal roof timbers. The roof is ceiled with panels of timber boarding divided by moulded ribs. The clerestory windows are set within plain reveals with central detached shaft, and the west windows are united into one composition by a shafted arch. Floor paved with red and black tiles; all the wall surfaces are of exposed red brick with one band of stone in the aisles and another in the gallery, both at the level of the springing of the window arches. Richer east end. Crossing three steps above the nave, has tall arch to east and west with a plain chamfered outer order and inner moulded order supported on paired colonnettes with moulded capitals and bases. The crossing and sanctuary with brick vaults carried on moulded ribs and shafts in the angles, circular bellway in centre of stone. Upper walls enriched by blind arcading. South chapel with door to sacristy, enriched with ironwork decoration, chevron painting to roof.

Fittings: sanctuary with reredos up six more steps, floor paved in medieval-style decorative tiles. Credence of alabaster under trefoiled arch; sedilia in south wall stepping up towards the east with small vaults within triangular arches. Reredos added c1932. Lectern a brass eagle of 1882 from St Paul's Camden Square. Octagonal font with oak cover. Oak pews in nave. Willis organ, 1893.

Stained glass: three east windows of 1868 designed by H Holiday for Heaton, Butler and Bayne depicting St Paul and St Mary; Christ Arising, Christ Ascending and The Creation; St Mary Magdalene and St Luke. Chancel clerestory windows of 1895. Aisles contain a series depicting the twelve apostles, all c1880-90 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The south clerestory has four windows by William Morris and Company, 1910, stored elsewhere in the building when inspected in 1994; the designs of Sts Alphege and Edward the Confessor taken from figures by Burne-Jones and Sts Thomas of Canterbury and Hugh of Lincoln from Henry Dearle, the glass painters were Glasby and Burrows. West window of the Archangels Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, under circular composition depicting Angels with Musical Instruments adoring the Lamb of God; all by Heaton, Butler and Bayne 1891. Sacristy east window of the Annunciation done in silver stain, c1880. Willis organ of 1893.

HISTORICAL NOTE: St Luke's was paid for by the Midland Railway to replace the original St Luke's on the Euston Road, destroyed by their compulsory clearances to lay new lines. This is the first of few churches by the noted Queen Anne architect Basil Champneys; he was commissioned by his father, the Revd. WW Champneys, vicar of St Pancras parish - not without some acrimony from the architect of the previous St Luke's.

Listing NGR: TQ2949784930

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Luke's Kentish Town at Wikipedia
• St Luke's Kentish Town official website
• Wikidata Q7594053

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)