St Saviour's church Aberdeen Park

Image: © Natasha Ceridwen de Chroustchoff Taken: 27 Jul 2009

Hard to see amid the surrounding greenery but this is an eye-catching church in the quiet surroundings of Aberdeen Park. It was built in 1866 under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite and Oxford movements, with a full complement of Victorian-gothic features, but became redundant in 1980 after attendance dwindled. "It is a Grade One listed nineteenth century Neo-Gothic style former Anglican Church. The church was designed by the architect William White (1825-1900). Once described as someone “who see-sawed between madness and genius, and ultimately fell off the wrong side.” St. Saviour’s, his masterpiece, was restored from its derelict state by English Heritage in 1988. The building is an imposing red brick edifice, with many unique details, from its echoes of Moorish and Dutch architecture, to its Arts and Crafts use of coloured bricks to create the internal decoration of the church. The church also has strong connections with John Betjeman, who worshipped here, and wrote of it in his poems." From the website of The Florence Trust which now owns it and runs it as studios providing shared space for artists to escape isolation http://www.florencetrust.org/ Betjeman wrote a poem with the title as above which begins: With oh such peculiar branching and over-reaching of wire Trolley-bus standards pick their threads from the London sky Diminishing up the perspective, Highbury-bound retire Threads and buses and standards with plane trees volleying by And, more peculiar still, that ever-increasing spire Bulges over the housetops, polychromatic and high. Stop the trolley-bus, stop! And here, where the roads unite Of weariest worn-out London - no cigarettes, no beer, No repairs undertaken, nothing in stock - alight; For over the waste of willow-herb, look at her, sailing clear, A great Victorian church, tall, unbroken and bright In a sun that's setting in Willesden and saturating us here.

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