| St Mary and St Joseph | |
|---|---|
| Church of St Mary and St Joseph | |
Church of St Mary and St Joseph
| |
  St Mary and St Joseph Location of church within Tower Hamlets, London | |
| 51°30′43.3″N 0°1′14.26″W / 51.512028°N 0.0206278°W / 51.512028; -0.0206278 | |
| Location | Tower Hamlets, London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Website | parish |
| History | |
| Status | Active |
| Consecrated | October 1960 |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Parish church |
| Heritage designation | Grade II |
| Designated | 5 March 1998[1] |
| Architect(s) | Adrian Gilbert Scott |
| Style | Art Deco / Jazz modern Byzantine Revival |
| Completed | July 1954 |
| Administration | |
| Province | Westminster |
| Archdiocese | Westminster |
| Clergy | |
| Archbishop | Vincent Nichols |
| Priest(s) | Fr Andrew Bowden |
The Church of St Mary and St Joseph is a 20th-century Roman Catholic parish churchinTower Hamlets, London, England.
The modern church was built in 1951-1954, as part of the Festival of Britain's Lansbury Estate Live Architecture Exhibition, and was consecrated by Cardinal Godfrey in October 1960.[2] It replaced an earlier church of the 1850s by William Wardell that was destroyed in the Second World War.[3][4]
The building is listed Grade II.[5] Its architect was Adrian Gilbert Scott, who specialised in ecclesiastical buildings.
On a Greek Cross plan, it is built of steel girders and brick, with a reinforced concrete spire.[6] On the outside, the plan becomes a series of rectangular blocks.[7]
It is notable for its elongated and tapered round parabolic arches (described as 'camel vaulted' at the time of its listing).[1] Its mixed or transitional style combines Art DecoorJazz Modern with elements suggesting Hispanic Moorish, ancient Persian or Egyptian.[8] Gavin Stamp's descriptive phrase 'Jazz Modern Byzantine' was used in the church's listing.[9]
The design has similarities to work by Giles Gilbert Scott[2] and to Adrian Gilbert Scott's own earlier St. James Anglican Church (Vancouver), and its parabolic arches informed his later work on St Leonard's Church, St Leonards-on-Sea.[10]
The interior contains stone reliefs of the Stations of the Cross by Peter Watts. The stained glass is by William Wilson of Edinburgh.[11]
In the immediate post-war period, reinforced concrete was the natural material to use due to its cheapness and availability. Bricks and steel remained in short supply even after the end of building restrictions in November 1954, allowing church building to resume. It is possible to pick out only the most striking examples here. Sir Giles and Adrian Gilbert Scott turned to the parabolic arch as a basis of construction, Sir Giles initially with his rejected designs for the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral in 1944, and Adrian at St Leonard's, St Leonard's on Sea, Hastings, of 1953-61 and at SS Mary and Joseph, Lansbury. The latter, was part of the Festival of Britain's 'Live Architecture' show at Lansbury, belatedly built in 1951-4.
"Pretentious and timid" and "aggressive and flaccid" was how Ian Nairn described it, with a grandiose conceit asserted from far and near. The coffin-shaped windows, and the Egyptian-arched main portal, served only to endorse Nairn's view of this massively centralised pile of brick as being a "free standing crushing bathos".
The style is not easily defined, but is best described as 'Jazz-Modern Byzantine', although it also has a suggestion of Hispanic Moorish, while the tapered roundheaded arches have been described as 'Egyptian', as well as being likened to those found at Ctesiphan in Ancient Persia. The design is very much transitional. It is reminiscent of Clemens Holzmeister's Vienna Crematorium of 1922...)
