(St George’s) Temporary Wooden Church, Upper Holloway

A WOODEN CHURCH - The wooden church lately erected at Upper Holloway for the Rev Henry Hampson, from the designs of Mr George Truefitt, architect, was completed in six weeks by Messrs Evans, builders, at a cost of £700. The diameter of the building is 34 feet; height to top of cross, 72 feet; the span of the roof 64 feet, being only two feet less than that of Westminster Hall [Observer 7 June 1858 page 3]

The church of Saint George was founded by Henry Hampton, the minister at Saint Luke's temporary church, who resigned and with other seceders built a new temporary church. The church was not licenced for Anglican worship so the congregation, some 900 strong, formed the Free Church of England. Hampton left in 1863 and the replacement vicar was officially recognised, whereupon a parish was assigned. The first church building was built of wood. This was replaced in 1866-1867 by a church of Kentish ragstone, designed by George Truefitt. The church was sold in 1970. Services moved to the parish hall until a new church was consecrated in 1975, designed by Clive Alexander.

 From: 'Islington: Churches', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 88 99.

ST. GEORGE'S TEMPORARY CHURCH, TUFFNELL PARK, HOLLOWAY - In relation to the subject of plan appropriate to churches, Mr. Truefitt's "St. George's Temporary Church, Tuffncll Park, Holloway, with sittings for 900 persons, erected in six weeks, at a cost of £700 raises questions that are interesting. It is a many-sided building, nearly circular, timber-framed, with conical roof, lantern and skylights at the top, the seats stepped up in concentric ranges from the pulpit as a centre. The roof has a span nearly equal to that of Westminster Hall, without cross-tie. The half- trusses butt near the top, but in a peculiar manner, against a ring, formed in very short lengths of timber, connected by angle pieces of iron or straps. Each half-truss is composed of principal members or rafters, perhaps 10 or 15 feet apart at the foot (seen in the section), and there connected by a tie or horizontal member, the whole resting on the posts of the weather- boarded external inclosure, and of a corresponding circuit internally; the two posts being also connected by diagonal bracing, but at the feet, below the flooring of the seats. The rafter next the roof- covering is in a single piece: the inner member or series of rafters, in several pieces, is strengthened by a continuous strap of iron. The experiment was a bold one; and the method of construction demands examination. In a roof of low pitch, it is very questionable whether the heads of rafters could be safely framed to no other support than a mere circle or curb of timber, and accordingly in the roof of the lecture-theatre at the South Kensington Museum, where there is no cross-tie, the idea of butting the rafters at the top against any curb was dismissed, if thought of, in favour of the existing arrangement, in which they meet at the apex. In a roof of high-pitch, and where there is a system of trussing, the same necessity may not exist; but the power of the wind would seem to call for extraordinary provisions at the feet of the rafters. The provisions in the Tufnell Park Church, confined to the diagonal bracings at the feet of the posts, and the short strap like that in an ordinary truss, at the foot of each outer rafter, seem scarcely sufficient. However, the success of the arrangement for a temporary building may be considered proved, by the test of high winds. Regarding the plan, considered in relation to purpose of I the building, it is obvious that if any arrangement of seats, similar to that in the present case, be adopted by congregations more or less holding to the doctrines of the Established Church, as an arrangement which arises naturally from the requirements of an auditorium and preaching- room; and if, in the majority of temporary churches, obstructing piers and elongated chancels are never thought essential, it follows that the usual plan of churches is kept up solely on the score of associations, and those such as many friends of the Church are of opinion that it is undesirable to encourage, as well as at a disadvantage in regard to what we may believe to be the chief object in a Protestant church. This at least we know, that there can be no practice of church-building that will prove satisfactory to all classes, till after churchmen have agreed on questions of ritual, or agreed to differ; and that there can be no ecclesiastical architecture possessing the higher attributes of the art, till after such time. [Builder 2 April 1859 page 230]

Reference    Observer 7 June 1858 page 3
Reference    Worcester Journal  5 June 1858 page 6
Reference    Builder 2 April 1859 page 230
Reference    'Islington: Churches', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 88 99.