St Martin's Church, Blackheath

Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 19 Oct 2014

I knew nothing of this church until I happened upon it on this October afternoon. The round-headed arch with its halo of terracotta tiles (used edge-on) reminded me quite powerfully of the church at Pixham, near Dorking: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2986929 The Pixham church is by Lutyens, and dated 1903. The entry for Blackheath in the Surrey Pevsner (Nairn and Pevsner, 'The Buildings of England: Surrey') gives the architect's name as C Harrison Townsend, and the date as 1895. So Blackheath church pre-dates the one at Pixham by eight years. Blackheath is no more than a few miles from the heart of Lutyens' territory, around Munstead. I don't think there can be any doubt that he saw the Blackheath church taking shape - at a time when he was just finding his feet as an architect. Terracotta tiles, used edge-on, were to become a significant element in Lutyens' repertoire. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2204583 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3748115 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2986962 I may be wrong, but I think it unlikely that Lutyens used tiles in this way before 1895 - in other words, perhaps he cribbed the idea from Townsend . . . Townsend went on to make a name for himself as the designer of the Whitechapel Gallery (1897-99) and the Horniman Museum (1902). The interior of the church he built at Great Warley in Essex is described by Pevsner as 'an orgy of the English Arts-and-Crafts variety of the International Art Nouveau'.

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