THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS.
Tine noble Gothic church is so far completed as to enable visiters to judge of the architectural character both of its exterior and interior. It re- markably exemplifies how much may be effected with limited means by good taste and judicious management towards producing a handsome structure. Mr. Pugin is the architect.
The site is a narrow slip of ground opposite Bethlehem Hospital; and, though it is open on three sides, the space itself is contracted, considering that, besides the church, there are schools and residences for the priests erected upon it. The limited funds at the disposal of the architect have obliged him to economize in materials as well as in ornament and space. The whole mass of buildings is of yellow brick, with slate roofs and stone dressings; the tower of the church is not raised higher than the roof, for want of funds; and the ensemble, therefore, is rather quaint than imposing. Had the walls been of red bricks, laid with close joints, the effect would have been much more picturesque: the masses of wall would have pre- aented a livelier aspect, and the outlines of the forms would have been more striking. But this would have entailed great additional expense both materials and construction.
The church is detached from the contiguous buildings; and the two ends are visible, but only one of its sides. It is not placed canonically, the site not admitting of this arrangement. It consists of a nave and aisles, with chancel and side-chapels at one end, and a tower projecting from the nave at the other end; and it is in the decorated English style of architecture. The exposed fronts are richly ornamented with good carved work in stone; the arched door-ways are surmounted with crocketed canopies; the buttresses are enriched; and a beautiful string-course, com- posed of an inscription in detached Gothic letters raised on bosses, ex- tends along the side-front underneath the parapet. The side-chapels are also ornamented in a similar manner, with mouldings formed of inscrip- tions in raised letters on a ground of carved-work. The tower, when car- ried up to its full height and crowned with a lofty spire, will be the great feature of the exterior: at present, its want of elevation materially lessens the effect of the church in this view. The chancel end, with its group of six gables, surmounted with foliated crosses and other ornaments—that of the chancel enriched with a large window of beautiful design—is a good Composition of angles; though the adjacent buildings interfere with its effect. These buildings cover one end of the narrow strip of ground, which here terminates in a. point dividing two roads that branch off at an acute ogee; and in making the.most of the small space, the architect has paid more regard to convenience than effect. The slender spire of a. louvre on the hall, contrasted with square turrets, ornamental chimney-stacks, and gabled roofs with dormer windows, produces a sky-outline picturesquely varied: but the wall-surfaces are too plain; the window-openings are small and irregular; there is but one oriel window, and that of no great dimensions; and the niches for statues, regarded as ornaments, are too detached and insignificant. But the interior of the church is magnificent, even in its unfinished state: it conveys an impression of space and grandeur produced by the most simple means, and depending more upon just proportions than on large di- mensions for its effect. Entering from the end-door, a long perspective of light and lofty clustered pillars, supporting the arches of the nave, leads the eye along a vista terminating in a superb painted window over the altar—one of the richest specimens of modern stained glass that we have seen. The pointed roof has a timber-framing of dark oak; the beams resting on corbel-heads of saints and angels finely carved in stone, and showing the white ceiling between them. The roof of the nave is but a little elevated above the aisles, and has, therefore, no clerestory windows: this gives it a sombre aspect, and suggests the want of colour and gilding as a relief. The arches dividing the nave from the aisles are of beautiful proportions : both wide and lofty, they have a remarkably light and elegant appearance. Those at each end of the nave, dividing it from the chancel and from the porch, are of statelier altitude, and form a noble framework for the end windows. The effect on walking down the nave, from the altar towards the entrance, is also very striking: the opening of the great window over the door appears to expand as you ap- proach the porch, and gradually to fill the still enlarging aperture of the arch at that end of the nave. This effect is produced by an ascending series of arches over the window, which become visible in succession as you come nearer to it. The foliated capitals of the clustered pillars are most delicately carved in hollow relief; and wherever ornament is required--as at the altars and on the font—there the sculptured decorations, of which we saw some exquisite bits lying about, will be of the richest kind. At present, the walls are bare of ornament; and below the arches no carved work is visible but that on two or three tombs, and these were not completed.
The coup d'ceil of the interior, even in its present state, is grand and impressive, regarded only as a work of architecture : the absence of pews and galleries gives an amplitude and unity to the lofty and spacious edifice that would be totally destroyed by such obstructions, which also mar the proportions of a church. The pavement of the nave is of plain square tiles, red and black, laid lozenge-wise: that of the chancel and chapels will be of figured tiles. How far decoration will be carried depends upon the supply of funds: if the other windows were filled with stained glass, like that above the high altar, the walls painted, and the ceiling decorated, the effect would be gorgeous indeed. The Tainted window is rich and lustrous without dazzling: the hues are of intense brilliancy, but so arranged that the colours serve to express the figures of the design with picturesque harmony of effect. It was executed by Wale of Newcastle, and presented by the Earl of Shrewsbury. The dimensions of the church are 245 feet in length by 70 feet in width and 60 feet in height. The cost we have not been able to ascertain: but Mr. Pugin is one of the most economical as well as the most able of church-architects.
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