St Alfege Church visit 04.10.18
Attended: 1.05pm, Recital: Trinity Laban, Jinah Shim, piano
Music by Bach, Hindemith, Mozart, Debussy
Rebuilt in 1712 to the design of Nicholas Hawksmoor
Built to amplify the spoken words (used for scriptures & sermons). Designed to be an acoustic church.
You can speak in a normal voice (no projection) and it can be heard everywhere within the church
The ceiling is completely flat, which contributes to the church’s acoustic qualities.
Even after the war, the acoustic qualities didn’t change much due to plaster still being used as material.
It doesn’t have too much reverberation, so the music can have some clarity. However, the music doesn’t extend to all corners of the church equally like the voice does, but mainly focus at the front (close to the stained glass)
You cannot hear the bell inside the church (unlike other churches) because the main church isn’t attached to the bell tower.
Architect: Nicholas Hawksmore, woodwork: Grinling Gibbons, ironwork: Jean Tijou
The only church that doesn’t have pillars to support the ceiling.
The ceiling is flat and suspended from above by huge wooden trusses & strengthening cross-beams connected to the dome.
When it was built, it was the largest unsupported ceilings in Europe
The original ceiling was lath and plaster (plaster pushed through a wooden skeleton). After the war, it was rebuilt with casted plaster reinforced with horse hair. Now the ceiling is supported by steel beam
Ceiling is plaster, floor is limestone, interior is wood. The walls inside are bricks, the outside is cladded in limestone.
Stained glass was newly made (after the war)
Hawksmoor used a huge piece of stone to cast a modest entrance
The crypt was built with brick, which is an indication of the church’s material
Originally designed to be a social & educational space. Hawksmoor specified for it to not be used as a burial space, but due to the seeable profit, it became burial grounds anyways. £1 for individual burials, £5 for family vaults (quite expensive)
Floor, originally 1-1.5m lower. However, they started to use it for burials almost immediately after construction, so bodies were put on the ground and floor was raised to cover them. Before modern concrete was poured, bones stuck out on the floor.
Was used as an air raid shelter during WW2
Originally, all arches would be open, it is an open space area. However, upon it becoming a burial ground, arches was blocked in to create narrow tunnels.
Early 19th century, the government stopped burial in all churches.
Heating & Ventilation are from WW2 era.
The outside (limestone cladding) & inside of the tower was connected by bolts (iron bolts from medieval time), which go through wooden beams that hold things together. John James baroque architecture.
St Nicholas Church in Deptford, by Christopher Wren. He used this as a practice for the dome design which will later be used for St Paul’s Cathedral. Thus, this is a smaller dome. This is usually linked with St Paul’s Deptford, by his student, Thomas Archer. The crypt here is of original height & has been cleared to be used for disco parties & events.
The 50 New Commissioned Churches, which are all modelled after St Alfege’s acoustic properties. Modeled on the same dimension of 2:3
University of Greenwich did a complete digital scan of the church
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