History - Saint Augustine's Church, Archway Road, Highgate, London, N6

All Saints Church Highgate, was built in 1874 to serve the expanding population of the Parish of S. Michael, Highgate. As early as 1812, the cutting and widening of the Archway Road was providing a way around Highgate Hill. (The story is told that this was because the residents of Highgate village were disturbed by the noise of the horses and carts making the climb of the hill). Inevitably, along this stretch of road, with its tollgate, new streets and dwellings grew up. The population was expanding rapidly. The new church of All Saints was not big enough, and a former iron schoolroom was dismantled and rebuilt on a site obtained from the Winchester Hall Estate on the site of the present-day block of flats – Northwood Hall, in Hornsey Lane. This itself is an interesting construction with amazing views all over London. It was built in the 1930s by German architects. It is cruciform in design and clearly visible from the air. Rumour has it that it was built thus to provide a marker for German planes flying into London a few years later.

The former schoolroom was consecrated on 23rd March, 1882, under the patronage of St. Augustine of Canterbury. It proved inadequate and was soon bursting at the seams. A competition was held to produce a design for a new church. James Brooks, J.E.K. Cutts, J.D. Sedding and Charles Mileham were short-listed. After a fierce competition, J.D. Sedding’s design was accepted. Great interest has been shown in his work, due to Sedding's other main projects which were in the design stage: Holy Redeemer, Clerkenwell and Holy Trinity, Sloane Street. While not matching the magnificence of either of these, traces of his developing and distinctive style are to be found in St Augustine's.

In 1885 the Building News published two illustrations of the proposed new church. The contract with Stimpson and Co was signed in March 1887 and the foundation stone laid by Baroness Burdett-Coutts. She was a philanthropic local resident, responsible for the establishment of Holly Lodge Estate, next to Highgate cemetery which was created as a safe environment for professional women living and working in London.

The following are described as the 'Selected Designs' by JD Sedding and were published in The Building News on January 30th 1885.

please click on the images to enlarge

J D SEDDING

The total cost of the new church was £8,150. The site had been bought for £3000 : £300 of which came from the Bishop of London’s Fund, and the remainder from a friend of the vicar of All Saints, Father Edgar Smith (who is commemorated in the statue of St. Augustine beneath the west window). The building construction cost £7,500 and a further piece of land was purchased additionally to the east of the church (now occupied by church halls and fine vicarage built in 1901). By the time of the consecration on 4th February 1888, only the chancel and one bay of the nave was complete: the old iron church serving as the nave. Financial restraint meant that sections could only be added when money was forthcoming.

Work was further hampered by the death of Sedding in 1891. His pupil Henry Wilson completed much of the work, although he made alterations to the original plans. The Lady Chapel was completed according to the specifications. The nave was complete by 1896, but the façade facing the Archway Road remained a wooden structure clad with corrugated iron for the next seventeen years.

In 1898, St. Augustine’s congregation was gaining confidence and requested the creation of an independent parish. The Order in Council was dated 7th March 1898 and sections of both All Saints and St. Michael’s were realigned in order to provide St. Augustine’s with a parish (of some 5,000 residents). Fr. Arthur W. Bradnack became the first vicar (having served as curate of All Saints since 1892). It was after this time that a vicarage was then built to house the new parish priest.

A new Vicar arrived in 1907 by an interesting route! Fr. Bradnack was exhausted by the fund-raising and establishing of a new parish, so he swapped his living with Fr. C.G.T. Maturin, Vicar up until that time of Amcotts in Lincolnshire. The debts on the building were soon cleared, to the extent that plans were formulated to finish the building. By 1914, J. Harold Gibbons had constructed a very fine west end which included some re-ordering of the interior of the church as well.

But the church was only to remain in that condition for 10 years, for on Friday 11th January 1924 most of the interior was destroyed by fire. There was a rumour that this was the result of an arson attack by unsympathetic protestants, who disapproved of the catholic nature of the worship at St. Augustine’s. Little remained except the Lady Chapel and north aisle. J. Harold Gibbons returned to restore the building magnificently, adding this time an organ gallery. The Church was re-dedicated on 19th October 1925 It was the second time during his episcopate that Bishop Winnington-Ingram had consecrated the church.

In 1925 Hunter built a new organ for the building which has never been completed. In 1938 Adrian Gilbert Scott was commissioned to construct a fine gilt High Altar (which remains unfinished). The Lady Chapel Reredos has a wall painting by Christopher Whall (1895) which was restored in 2000. There is stained glass by Westlake and increasing evidence of work by the Rope sisters: stained glass (roundel above the High Altar and in the south aisle), sculptured figures and possibly also embroidery. Laurence King was commissioned to produce a quasi-baroque shrine containing an Image of Our Lady and child (reminiscent of the Walsingham Image) in 1962. This was presented by Fr. Henry Hodgson in memory of his sister.

While not one of Seddings finest churches, the combination of his vision and the execution of various artistic styles by subsequent architects, have produced a fine church of interest and richness. Many of the artefacts of the church are very fine indeed although their origins and the names of their donors have been lost due to the fire. Fr. Harold Riley (Secretary of the Church Union when Fr. Hodgson retired in 1952) described St. Augustine’s as “the best equipped church in the diocese of London”.

J D SEDDING

Clergy of St Augustine's

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Painting of Saint Augustine, Highgate, London N6

This water colour is by Peter Luscombe, and has been reproduced as A4 prints, which are for sale for church funds at £10 each plus p&p.

Exterior view by Peter Luscombe

These notelet cards and postcards of St. Augustine's, Highgate are also available at 15p each plus postage.