Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

St Saviour's Church by architect George Fellowes-Prynne, early 20th Century. From a postcard in the author's collection. PD image.

The nave and chancel, early 20th Century. From a postcard in the author's collection. Note the rood beam has the traditional figures of Christ, the BVM and St John which one parishioner had objected to and which the Bishop of London had refused to consecrate as a result, only sanctioning their use if a faculty could be obtained. At a later date, and before 1907, these figures were removed and replaced with a simple wooden cross as can be seen in the next image.

PD image from a postcard in the author's collection.

The nave from a postcard circa 1907 in the author's collection. Note the figures above the rood beam have been replaced with a simple wooden cross.

Note also the pairs of stone statues of saints either side of the chancel arch. Fellowes-Prynne also used this arrangement of pairs of stacked statues in his 1899 design for St John Evangelist, Sidcup, London (formerly Kent), another church on which Percy Bacon and Brothers collaborated.

Not long after the consecration of the church, the east window had been filled with stained glass, but so far it has not been possible to identify the maker.

PD image from a postcard in the author's collection.

Architect's drawing of St Saviour's from the south east (as built actually from the north east).

PD image from The Builder 10 June 1899.

Architect's drawing of interior of St Saviour's from The Builder's journal and Architectural Engineer 19th May 1897. Note the barrel ceiling, a common feature of Fellowes-Prynne designs. This early concept drawing shows the rood loft embellished with more than the three central figures which were ultimately installed, and the single tiers of carvings of saint up the chancel arch pillars became twin tiers in the final execution. It is also of note that this drawing seems to have envisaged a stained east window from the outset.

St Saviour's Church, Ealing viewed from the south east. Early 20th Century.

Posted 13 August 2023. Updated 28 August 2024..

St Saviour's began as a mission church for Christ Church, which itself had its parish carved out of the ancient parish of St Mary. Worship was conducted in an iron church for some years prior to the new church being built. The church was designed by George Fellowes-Prynne in around 1896 and shows those typical features of his distinctive style; built of red brick with white stone courses. The church was built on a plot of land hemmed in by housing just off The Grove, a little south of Ealing Broadway. Oriented roughly north-south within the plot, the church consisted of a nave of 6 bays with north and south aisles, and north and south transepts (as drawn on Fellowes-Prynne's plan these were labelled "north transept and chapel respectively-the latter having a double high-pitched gable),^Fn1 chancel, choir and clergy vestries, and at the west end an apsidal baptistery. A lightweight spire was set on the roof above the chancel arch, the arch itself having been embellished with a rood beam upon which stood polychrome statues of Christ on the Cross, flanked by the Blessed Virgin to the left and St John to the right in a conventional way often seen in designs by Fellowes-Prynne. The north and south walls were pierced by five tall lancets each, and the walls either side of the chancel arch bestowed with grand stacked pairs of stone carved saints.

Fellowes-Prynne's designs (or at least concept drawings) for the church were exhibited at the Royal Academy in May 1896,¹ a full year or more before the construction works were awarded to Goddard & Sons of Farnham in a sum of £9,490.² The foundation stone for the church was laid on 16th July 1897,³ and consecrated by the Bishop of London on 14th June 1899.⁴ During the confirmation ceremony the matter of the statues above the rood was mentioned. A parishioner had objected to the inclusion of the figures on the rood beam and therefore the Bishop, to some people's surprise, stated:

George Fellowes-Prynne, who was particularly fond of including in this designs a rood with traditional Catholic symbolism, spoke at the ceremony, retaliating with a well worded broadside to the assembled company, but aimed squarely at the objector:

It appears Fellowes-Prynne was unsuccessful in his entreaty and the faculty was never forthcoming. At some future date, and certainly before 1907, the figures on the rood beam were removed and replaced with a simple wooden cross (see slide show). St Saviour's would finally be made a parish in its own right in 1916.⁶

Over the years Fellowes-Prynne would return to St Saviour's a number of times to oversee additions and minor restorations, as well as the execution of the Percy Bacon glass in the south transept.

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St Saviour's Clergy House on The Grove. Photo © Michael Dibb - geograph.org.uk/p/6368645 CC-BY-SA/2.0 license

George Fellowes-Prynne's floor plans for the new Clergy House fronting The Grove, and complete with a roof garden.
This shows the under-passage to access the church behind the building.

Source: The Builder 7th July 1910, p524. PD Image.

St Saviour's Clergy House on The Grove, completed in 1910. The archway to the right allowed access to the church itself.
Photo © Michael Dibb - geograph.org.uk/p/6368645 CC-BY-SA/2.0 license.

George Fellowes-Prynne also designed the Clergy House, completed in 1910,⁷ which fronted The Grove to the south of the church. This is now part of Christ the Saviour Church of England Primary School and is a Grade II listed building. See the official listing on Historic England website.

Destruction of the Church

On the night of 16th November 1940 incendiary bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe completely gutted the church, leaving only the walls standing. Services were moved to the nearby parish hall, where they continued until 1951 when St Saviour's was joined to Christ Church on Ealing Broadway to form Christ the Saviour. However, it appears that some outdoor services continued amongst the ruins of St Saviour's for some years as is evident from a photo on Christ the Saviour's website.

Outdoor service taking place in the gutted remains of St Saviour's Church. Of unknown date, but probably sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Link to Christ the Saviour Website, which has other images of the interior of the church.

As late as 1957 Canon Basil Clarke in his collection of hand written descriptions of churches around the country, "Institutions of the Church" reported that the church walls were still standing, :

The font in the baptistery The font in the baptistery eventually found its way to the Church of St James, Clapham Park, built in 1959. eventually found its way to the new church of St James, Park Hill, Clapham Park, built in 1958.⁹ In May 1957 the borough council bought the land on which the church stood for £3,400 in order to expand the Primary School, and the remains were finally demolished.¹⁰ The site is now occupied by Christ the Saviour (CofE) Primary School.

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There are two known works by Percy Bacon & Brothers in St Saviour's, both destroyed in 1940. Percy Bacon had collaborated with the architect George Fellowes-Prynne from as early as 1895 at East Anthony, Devon,¹¹ possibly having made his acquaintance through Prynne's father, George Rundle Prynne who was rector of All Saints, Plymouth when Bacon installed the apse windows in 1894. It is possible Percy Bacon provided the glass for the east (geographical north) window in St Saviour's in 1899, though no evidence has yet been unearthed to confirm this.

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Footnotes : Use your browser's Back button to return to text.

1. Contemporary accounts of the church refer to the east window, south transept etc. as if the church is orientated in a conventional east-west alignment. The map below clearly shows that the church was aligned more or less north-south resulting in some descriptive confusion. It is unclear if it was the initial intention was to align the building east-west as is suggested by the plan in the Lambeth Palace Library (though this is not entirely conclusive as the north pointer is missing from the plan), or the architect's drawing published in The Builder on 10th June 1899, both of which suggested a conventional alignment, and descriptions were based on liturgical convention even though the reality was rotated 90 degrees. In the event the conventional liturgical descriptions remained, as are those in this article, but with additional explanation to avoid confusion; the chancel being at the "east" end (even though at the north geographically) and the "south" transept (though it being on the east side of the building).
   

1. Builder's Journal and Architectural Review, 13th May 1896, p210.
2. The Builder, Vol 72 Iss 2837, 19 June 1897, p559. Tenders for the works. Tenders for the works published in The Builder 19th June 1876, with the works awarded to Goddard & Sons of Farnham.
3. Acton Gazette - Friday 16 July 1897, p3.
4. Acton Gazette - Friday 23 June 1899, p3
5. Ibid.
6. British History Online.
7. The Builder 07 July 1910: Vol 98 Iss 3509. p524.
8. Clarke, Canon Basil; Institutions of the Church. Lambeth Palace Library.
9. Streatham News - Friday 04 December 1959, p6. St James's Church website.
10. Oates, Jonathan; & Lang, Paul: Ealing Through Time, p37: Amberley Publishing, 2013.
11. The Builder Vol 68 22 June 1895, p475. Report on the installation of a window by Percy Bacon at East Anthony under the supervision of George Fellowes-Prynne.
12. The Builder Vol 87 1904 8 Oct, p373.
13. The Middlesex & Surrey Express, 21st October 1904, p8. A more comprehensive report appeared in the Ealing & Acton Gazette, 15 October 1904, p6.
14. Acton Gazette - Friday 20 November 1925, p4.