Church of St Mary and St Joseph, Poplar explained

St Mary and St Joseph
Fullname:	Church of St Mary and St Joseph
Pushpin Map:	United Kingdom London Tower Hamlets
Pushpin Mapsize:	257x240
Map Caption:	Location of church within Tower Hamlets, London
Location:	Tower Hamlets, London
Country:	United Kingdom
Denomination:	Roman Catholic
Consecrated Date:	October 1960
Status:	Active
Functional Status:	Parish church
Heritage Designation:	Grade II
Designated Date:	5 March 1998^[1]
Architect:	Adrian Gilbert Scott
Style:	Art Deco / Jazz modern Byzantine Revival
Completed Date:	July 1954
Archdiocese:	Westminster
Province:	Westminster
Archbishop:	Vincent Nichols
Priest:	Fr Andrew Bowden

The Church of St Mary and St Joseph is a 20th-century Roman Catholic parish church in Tower Hamlets, London, England.

History

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]}

Architecture

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). Its mixed or transitional style combines Art Deco or Jazz 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 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]

External links

• • 'Poplar – St Mary and St Joseph, Upper North Street, London E14' in Taking Stock: Catholic Churches of England & Wales
• 'William Wilson: Print | Paint | Glass: 8 October - 13 November 2022', Royal Scottish Academy
• 'Church of the Month', Londonosaurus
• Oliver Wainwright, 'Architects hark back to Festival of Britain with "vertical carnival"', The Guardian

Notes and References

1. Web site: Church of St Mary and St Joseph: A Grade II Listed Building in Mile End, London . British Listed Buildings . 5 February 2023.
2. Web site: The Lansbury Estate: Gazetteer of permanent developments, Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs. Originally published by London County Council, London, 1994 . 6 February 2023.
3. Web site: About the Parish . Roman Catholic Parish of Poplar . 6 February 2023.
4. Web site: William Wardell's Ladye Chapel, St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, Victoria . Ursula . de Jong . 26 April 2021 . Australian Catholic Liturgical Art: A Work of the National Liturgical Architecture and Art Council. 6 February 2023.
5. Web site: C20 Churches: St Mary and St Joseph . Twentieth Century Society. 6 February 2023.
6. Web site: The Use of Reinforced Concrete in Early 20th Century Churches . Elain . Harwood . buildingconservation.com . 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.. 6 February 2023.
7. Web site: Developments in Catholic Churchbuilding in the British Isles, 1945-1980 . Paul D. . Walker . PhD diss., University of Sheffield . 1985 . 340 . Quoting Ian Nairn ('Lansbury Centrepiece', Architectural Review, October 1954, p.263-4) . "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".. 6 February 2023.
8. Web site: The Lansbury Estate: Gazetteer of permanent developments, Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs. Originally published by London County Council, London, 1994 . 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...). 6 February 2023.
9. Geoffrey Fisher, Gavin Stamp, et al., Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: The Scott Family, ed. Joanna Heseltine, 1981, p.185
10. Book: Harwood, Elain. England: a Guide to Post-War Listed Buildings. Ellipsis London Ltd (under licence from English Heritage). London. 2000. 1-84166-037-X. 7.16–7.17 . 6 February 2023.
11. Book: Sir Nikolaus . Pevsner . Bridget . Cherry . The Buildings of England: London, Volume 5 . 2005 . 643.