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City Temple is one of just three non-conformist
churches within the limits of the City of London, and
sits behind its grand frontage on Holborn Viaduct looking
for all the world like the headquarters building of a
northern municipality. Indeed, the architects
responsible, Lockwood & Mason, designed Bradford Town
Hall. When the Temple was constructed in 1874 it was one
of the largest non-conformist churches in London, second
only in size to Charles Spurgeon's Tabernacle by the
Elephant and Castle. The minister responsible here was
Joseph Parker, who led a congregation which dated back to
the 1640s. The cost was an amazing £35,000, about seven
million in today's money.
The frontage is just that, for the church behind was
utterly destroyed in the series of bombing raids which
laid waste pretty much everything between Holborn Circus
and St Paul's Cathedral. The new church behind the
frontage was the work of Seely & Paget, responsible
for the restoration of many of the other City churches,
although of course here they did something quite
different. The reconstruction commenced in 1955 and was
complete by 1958.
You enter through a foyer which is so much like coming
into a cinema that it cannot be unintentional. If you ask
at the reception desk, they'll let you see inside the
auditorium, and you step through a range of doors beyond
into a wide, banked interior. The balcony above provides
a low ceiling until the space opens out into vastness and
relative grandness. It is all very well done and the
little window of the Dove of the Holy Spirit by Hugh
Easton above the business end is the icing on the cherry.Simon Knott, April 2016
location: Holborn Viaduct EC1A 2DE - 1/065
status: working URC church
access: open daily
website
 
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