Redundancy of imagination
Gavin Stamp
The Times for 3 August published a letter from Sir John Betjeman pro- testing at the threatened closure of the church of St Barnabas, Pimlico, in Lon- don. Because he has consistently and selflessly come to the defence of unfashionable buildings for so many years, our much loved Poet Laureate has suffered the misfortune of having his enthusiasm dismissed by many as quaint; which is possibly why the editor relegated the letter to the bottom right-hand corner of the page. But Betjeman has never fought for anything that is not worthwhile and, though few may know it, St Barnabas's is a fine building and its closure a scandal — a scandal because on grounds historical and pastoral as well as architectural it deserves to stay open. The wilful discarding of a parish so central to the history of the Church of England and the Oxford Move- ment in the 19th century suggests not so much ignorance as cynicism and it begs questions about the methods by which any church is declared 'redundant'.
St Barnabas's, Pimlico, was built of Ken- tish ragstone in the Early English style in 1847-50 to the designs of Thomas Cundy, who may well have been assisted by Butter- field, the architect of Keble College. It is a good example of the early serious phase of the Gothic Revival. It forms the centre of a group of collegiate buildings, with school and clergy house, founded in 1844 by the Revd W. J. E. Bennett, vicar of St Paul's, Knightsbridge — then, as now, a wealthy, fashionable church. Bennett was anxious to build another church, free and open to the poor, at the darker southern end of his parish and the success of his appeal to his congregation resulted in the splendid group of buildings in the Pimlico Road.
This missionary spirit was an important and impressive part of the Oxford Move- ment, that Tractarian or Anglo-Catholic wing within the Anglican Church which produced great buildings, vital religion and such self-sacrificing brave men as Charles Lowder of St Peter's, London Docks, whose biography was recently reviewed in these pages by A. N. Wilson. St Barnabas's was a pioneer in this mould. The founda- tion stone was laid by Dr Pusey and from the beginning the church was sumptuously arranged for dignified Catholic ceremonial. Gregorian chants were revived and there was a choral service twice daily with a choir under the direction of Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley, the organist and composer.
All this, in 1850, was asking for trouble. Bishop Blomfield of London, who con- secrated the church, was soon complaining to Bennett of `histrionic' ceremonial, for this was the year that Lord John Russell, the Whig Prime Minister, fomented the disgraceful 'Papal Aggression' scare in response to Pius IX's restoration of a Roman Catholic hierarchy in Britain. Anti- Popery riots were whipped up by the popular press and services at St Barnabas's were sabotaged and profaned by Protestant mobs — who were to commit even more obscene blasphemies a decade later at St George's-in-the-East in Stepney. Obsessed by the dangers of 'ritualism', public figures who ought to have known better incited further trouble: Lord Shaftesbury declared that he 'would rather worship with Lydia on the banks of the river than with a hun- dred surpliced priests in the gorgeous tem- ple of St Barnabas', a recondite reference to the 16th chapter of Acts which merely resulted in jokes about !Lydian worship' in High Church circles.
Far from suppressing ritualism, these at- tacks merely strengthened the Anglo- Catholics for further fights and eventually resulted in the paramountcy of their in- fluence within the Church of England, but poor besieged Bennett, enjoying no support from his Bishop, was driven to resign his living in 1851 — the year of the ostensibly enlightened and progressive Great Exhibi- tion. As T. F. Bumpus later wrote: Mr Ben- nett was driven from the altars he had himself, at his own exceeding self-sacrifice reared, by the Prime Minister who had tem- poral authority; by the Bishop, who had authority; and by The Times and the mob, who had no authority.
But this was not the end of the story. For a century the services and work at St Bar- nabas's were carried on as its founder in- tended and in the later 19th century the church was steadily embellished by the best ecclesiastical designers, notably Bodley, Kempe and Comper, and as a result it is to- day a unique and consistent expression of Gothic Revival ideals in church art and architecture. Much of this work was carried out during the incumbency of the Revd Alfred Gurney, who made the services both fashionable and popular. Aubrey Beardsley used to attend them, until he Poped. Gurney moved in artistic circles and was a pioneer and influential English Wagnerite. His curate was the Revd G. H. Palmer, associate of Hoist and Vaughan Williams in church music studies; as Betjeman noted in his letter about St Barnabas's: 'It was from its vicarage that the English Hymnal was produced and it was always a place of devout prayer.'
And now it is being proposed for closure by another Bishop of London, despite its powerful and poignant associations in Lon- don's religious history — how pleased Bishop Blomfield might be! Very probably' it will not be pulled down but, because of its architectural importance, vested in the Redundant Churches Fund. But what use Is that? No alternative uses will really he possible and this will merely be a waste of resources both material and spiritual (which is not to deny that some churches must be preserved as museums). With all the C of E's trendy talk of 'action' and 'inner-00' problems', it might be thought that a church with a powerful tradition, with a large clergy house and a flourishing school, placed right in the centre of a parish full of working-class flats and housing, would be a perfect vehicle for the Church's work to- day. But no. In truth, the Church of England has largely given up in the inner ci- ty: in London as in Liverpool. Middle-class areas, both in the West End and the suburbs, are still well supplied both with buildings and curates; in the East End and in inner Southwark — where the Victorians at least tried — a shameful number of chur- ches have been closed and the clergy wh° are left usually have to work singlehandedlY in difficult parishes. Clerical bureaucrats (who seem to be in the majority these days), posturing in response to the latest sociological ideas, tend to dismiss church buildings as so much disposable 'plant', but the ordinary parishioners in what is still the Established Church recognise buildings as a palpable and reassuring embodiment of the existence of religion and they draw their own conclusions when the authorities neglect, demolish or sell off sacred edifices.
Although cut down, the parish of St Bat- nabas's still contains 3,100 souls. These ate to be joined with the 1,500 or so in the adja- cent parish of St Mary's, Bourne Street. Now St Mary's, which certainly ought not to close either, is a well-endowed and very special Anglo-Catholic church to which worshippers come from all over London; it is not a true parish church (though, unlike St Barnabas's, it enjoys the help of a curate). Both churches have roles to play' both ought to stay open.
That the Church of England has declin- ing resources, declining support and too many buildings is a commonplace, but by what criteria is a redundancy decided? The Church behaves as if dwindling populations and attendances and the problems with old buildings are absolutes when they are in fact relative factors and are powerfully affected by a consideration seldom referred to: the quality of the incumbent. A good man can build up a congregation; a bad one can empty a church in months. The damage done by lazy, worn out, difficult or inap- propriate vicars seems never to be con- sidered by those empowered to disperse the Church's legacy from a more munificent past. What also needs to be considered is the potential of a church, especially if it is an important monument whose ultimate preservation will be a drain on somebody's resources. St Barnabas's may have a tiny congregation today, but could it not still be
the perfect place for an energetic and com- mitted priest? There are plenty of them, despite what bishops may think.
Cases of churches ruined by their in- cumbents are legion; cases of churches sav- ed by a new vicar are fewer but nevertheless significant and impressive. St Paul's, Dept- ford, is a great Baroque pile by Thomas Ar- cher in a poor and run-down part of south- east London. Twenty years ago, faced with huge repair bills, it seemed ripe for ra- tionalisation and replacement by a modern worship centre'. Instead, the Revd David Diamond has made the building the centre of a vigorous parochial life with well at- tended services, and he has managed to restore the building sympathetically.
What a foolish clergyman can do is shown by the fate of All Souls', Haley Hill, .1-lalifax, by Sir Gilbert Scott, who described It as 'on the whole my best church'. Unfor-
tunately, this sumptuously furnished mid- Victorian building has been in the charge of an incumbent who believes that God is bet- ter worshipped in an upstairs room. He refused to apply for the grants that were available to maintain and restore the fabric, which, for once, the diocese wanted to keep; the building was abandoned and allowed to be vandalised, services held elsewhere and most of the parish alienated.
If St Barnabas's, Pimlico, is closed despite its possible future as well as its past — those of us who detect an essential smug cynicism and an opportunistic defeatism in Church House and the Church Commis- sioners will have our worst suspicions con- firmed. Betjeman is right to say that, 'ar- chitecturally it is a jewel of a church . . . And historically it is central to the history of the Church of England in the 19th cen- tury.' Does that not matter?
Previous page
