| Works
Chapel
of St. Ignatius
Notre-Dame-du-Haut
Church
of the Light
All Saints
Margaret Street
Tokyo
Church of Christ
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Program
In 1849, the area
around the church was dingy houses and shops. The programatic requirements
of the site included communal housing for several priests who performed
the liturgy, and a choir-school for the musical elements of the rites to
be rehearsed, as well as the church itself. The program also called
for movable seats instead of pews because of the negative associations
of rented pews, a practice which discriminated against the lower classes.
All these elements barely fit on the cramped site,
and there was still room to create a minute courtyard just off of the street.
This provides a much needed subdued spot in the middle of London, and an
appropriate transition to the deadly quiet of the church proper.
William Butterfield
Without getting into
the complexities of the Gothic style, All Saint’s Margaret Street was one
of a kind when it was built. It was an experiment in structural polychromy,
using three different colour bricks on the outside and countless types
of stone and tile on the inside to achieve a highly decorated appearance.
Brick was partially chosen because it was a local material (manufactured
near London) and partially because other recent churches had used Kentish
ragstone, which looked out of place in cities and tended to wear badly.
 An
Urban Church
When I went to London
this summer, I stumbled across All Saint’s Margaret Street, not expecting
a church in the middle of a block in the west part of the city centre.
A sign propped up outside said that it was open from 7am to 7pm for prayer
and that a priest was available at all times for those in despair.
I was impressed by the urbanity of the church - its brick coat blending
into the cityscape of brick and stone buildings, the anonymity of primary
mission, helping individuals in need in the big city.
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