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A Chapel and its Architect: James Cubitt and Union Chapel, Islington, 1874-1889*(Presidential Address)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Anonconformist church is a place for drama, not mime or magic. It is a place for the production of the Word; for communication and for decision; for encounter, therefore, and crisis. It is a place for salvation. Its sole purpose is to promote the crisis of salvation and sustain its outworking in worship. When the question which must be asked of any building is asked of such a building—‘Does it work?’—what is really asked is: ‘How effectively does this meeting of client, architect, and craftsman house that historic crisis of man’s salvation when God meets man and is recognized? Has this been especially a place for such a crisis?’ This paper concentrates on one architect’s role in this process. James Cubitt (1836–1912) was a Nonconformist architect twice over, since he happened to be a Nonconformist as well as an architect who worked consciously for an architecture of Nonconformity.
- Type
- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1992
Footnotes
*
In the preparation of this paper, and the larger study of which it forms a part, I have received particular help from Mr M. R. Alden, Mr E. Atkinson, Miss Jean Ayton (Manchester Central Library), The Revd D. Batten, Mr J. Bettley (RIBA Library), Dr H. Bowen, Mr J. H. Y. Briggs, Mr N. Burton, Mr R. Clarke, Mr D. Cubitt, Mr C. Dowse, Mrs R. Dunk, Dr Mary English, The Revd D. V. Fagan, Miss D. M. French, Mr N. Gibbs, Miss S. Groves (Northants Record Office), Miss J. Gyford, Mrs L. Hamilton (Stockport Central Library), Mrs K. Haslem (Glos Record Office), Dr Brenda Hough, Mr S. C. Humphry (Southwark Local Studies Library), Mr B. Jackson (Tyne and Wear Archives), Mr F. Keay, Mrs J. EJiingscott (Nottingham County Library), Mr K. Kyffin, Ms S. Mackenzie (Hackney Archives Dept), Mrs S. Mills (Librarian, Regent’s Park College, Oxford), Ms N.J. Mungeam, Mrs J. C. Powles (Librarian, Spurgeon’s College), Mrs B. Reid (Loughton Central Library), The Revd H. A. Richardson, Dr T. Roberts (Archivist, University College of North Wales, Bangor), Dr S. Salter, Mr P. C. Saunders (Cambridgeshire Record Office, Huntingdon), The Revd Professor A. P. F. Sell, Mrs P. Sheldon (Newcastle Central Library), The Revd A. J. Spring, Mr A. A. Smith, Miss J. T. Smith (Essex Record Office), The Revd J. Tattersall, Mr B. Thomas (West Glamorgan County Library, Swansea), The Revd D. Tucker, Mr R. Wallington, Mrs R. Watson (Northants Record Office), Mr D. B. Weston, The Revd B. R. White, Mr C. Wilkins-Jones (Norwich Central Library), Mr David Wilkinson, Mr J. Trevor Williams, Mr R. Wilson, The Revd Dr Janet Wootton.
References
1 Edward Augustus Freeman to Henry Allon, 13 Jan. 1876: Peel, A., ed., Letters to a Victorian Editor (London, 1929), p. 106.Google Scholar
2 For Henry Allon (1818-92) see DNB.
3 The architect is thought to be H. Leroux (1806); porticoed and enlarged 1839.
4 Union Chapel Deacons’ Meeting Minute Book [hereafter Deacons’ Minutes], 22 Feb. 1869—Union Chapel MS in possession of Union Chapel, Islington.
5 Ibid., 28 Feb. 1870. In its early years Union’s worship had followed Prayer Book usage, but now a congregational meeting ‘decided by a large majority that it was not advisable to introduce any liturgical change.’
6 William Revell Spicer (1805-85), Henry Spicer (1801-77), and Henry Spicer, Jr (1837-1915) of Spicer Brothers, New Bridge Street, Blackfriars. The younger Henry Spicer was Liberal MP for South Islington, 1885-6.
7 Deacons’ Minutes, 29 Jan. 1872.
8 Ibid., 22 Jan. 1872; 29 Jan. 1872; 20 Oct. 1873; 21 Oct. 1873.
9 Harwood, W. H., Henry Allon D.D. Pastor and Teacher (London,1894.), pp. 54–5.Google Scholar
10 Ibid., p. 56.
11 Ibid., pp. 56-8.
12 For Gauntlett, Henry John (1805-76), organist at Union Chapel 1853–61, compiler with Allon of The Congregational Psalmist (London, 1856), see DNB.Google Scholar
13 Harper, R. H., Victorian Architectural Competitions. An Index to British and Irish Architectural Competitions in ‘The Builder’ 1843-1900 (London, 1983), p. 100.Google Scholar
14 For Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905) see DNB.
15 The following account is drawn from Builder, 3 April 1875, pp. 292-3; 10 April, p. 333; 17 April, p. 356.
16 Builder, 3 April 1875. The plan would appear to owe much to Banks’s Whitehaven Congregational Church (1872).
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
20 Builder, 3 April 1875.
21 Welch, C., ed., London at the Opening of the Twentieth Century: Contemporary Biographies (Brighton, 1905), p. 475.Google Scholar
22 Ruskin, J., The Stones of Ventee (London, 1853). I have used the Everyman edn, 2, pp. 10–24 Google Scholar.
23 The sceptical might find more of Santa Fosca in parts of Henry Fuller’s Clapton Park Congregational Church (1872) than in Cubirt’s Union, Islington.
24 Ruskin, Stones of Venice, pp. 349–50.
25 Deacons’ Minutes, 29 Sept. 1876.
26 Ibid., 30 Nov. 1876.
27 Deacons’ Minutes, 28 May 1877.
28 Ibid., 31 May 1876.
29 Ibid., 28 Feb. 1876.
30 Richard Stone to James Cubitt, 7 March 1876: Union Chapel Letter Book 1875-; Union Chapel MS [hereafter Letter Book].
31 Ibid., 16 March 1876.
32 Ibid., 20 March 1876.
33 Deacons’ Minutes, 27 March 1876.
34 Richard Stone to James Cubitt, 23 May 1876: Letter Book.
35 Ibid., 26 Sept. 1876.
36 Ibid., 25 Oct. 1876.
37 R. Stone to J. Cubitt, 6 Nov. 1876: Letter Book. The City Temple (Mawson and Lockwood: 1874) was Congregationalism’s City counterweight to the Baptist Metropolitan Tabernacle. It, too, was classical, but its façade was Wren, a domeless St Paul’s perhaps. Its famous Ruskinian ‘Great White Pulpit’ was the gift of the Corporation of London. Joseph Parker wasits minister 1869-1902.
38 Letter Book, 6 Dec. 1876.
39 Deacons’ Minutes, 2 Dec. 1880.
40 Ibid., 1 Aug. 1881.
41 Cubitt, J., A Popular Handbook of Nonconformist Church Building (London, 1892), pp. 67–8.Google Scholar
42 Harwood, Henry Allon, p. 59.
43 Ibid., p. 68. Emmanuel Church, Cambridge, cost £14-£16,000.
44 Harwood, Henry Allon, pp. 61, 68. H. W. Brewer’s sixty-eight ‘Notable Examples’, 1842-92, included Union Chapel and Christ Church, Westminster Bridge Road. Builder, 1 Jan. 1943, p. 17.