Broad Colney, All Saints Pastoral Centre - geograph

All_Saints_Pastoral_Centre_2014-03-15_19-25

All Saints Pastoral Centre is a complex of buildings at

London Colney London Colney () is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. It is located to the north of London, close to Junction 22 of the M25 motorway. It is near St Albans and part of the City and District of St Al ...

on the southern outskirts of

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England. It was built as a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

for the Anglican Society of All Saints Sisters of the Poor. The original buildings were designed by

Leonard Stokes Leonard Aloysius Scott Stokes (1858 – 25 December 1925) was an English architect and artist. Leonard Stokes was born in Southport (then in Lancashire) in 1858 the son of Scott Nasmyth Stokes, a school inspector. He trained in London and tra ...

in 1899 and built in 1901 with a chapel added by

Ninian Comper Sir John Ninian Comper (10 June 1864 – 22 December 1960) was a Scottish architect; one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architects. His work almost entirely focused on the design, restoration and embellishment of churches, and the des ...

. It was Grade II* listed in 1972. The complex was acquired by the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Archdiocese of Westminster The Catholic Diocese of Westminster is an archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in England. The diocese consists of most of London north of the River Thames and west of the River Lea, the borough of Spelthorne (in Surrey), and th ...

in 1973 and converted for use as a pastoral centre. It was sold to a property developer in 2011 with the sale finalised in 2014. The property remains undeveloped, and in 2019 it was included in

the Twentieth Century Society The Twentieth Century Society (C20) is a British charity which campaigns for the preservation of architectural heritage from 1914 onwards. The society's interests embrace buildings and artefacts that characterise 20th-century Britain. It is form ...

's (C20) Top 10 Buildings at Risk List 2019.

Design

The main structure is built around a garden and has an inner cloister leading to the meeting rooms. The building has adapted to modern requirements but has retained its original beauty. The centre today caters to both residential and non-residential conferences, meetings and retreats mainly from the religious sector, and has good transport access to the diocese via the

M25 motorway The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 the lon ...

and Radlett railway station, both close by.

Comper Chapel

Attached to All Saints is an example of design by architect

. The first half of the chapel was completed in 1927. Due to demands for space it was expanded by Sir Ninian's son Sebastian in 1963. In the west end of the chapel below the

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...

is a

Harrison & Harrison Harrison & Harrison Ltd is a British company that makes and restores pipe organs, based in Durham and established in Rochdale in 1861. It is well known for its work on instruments such as King's College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, and the R ...

organ. From the roof of the Comper Chapel, accessed via the bell tower, a panorama stretching from

Radlett Radlett is a village in Hertfordshire, England, between Elstree and St Albans on Watling Street, with a population of 8,042. It is in the council district of Hertsmere in the south of the county, and is covered by two wards; Aldenham East and ...

around to St Albans is visible. From the roof the join between the more recent Sebastian and original Ninian chapels can be seen with the use of a

cross brace In construction, cross bracing is a system utilized to reinforce building structures in which diagonal supports intersect. Cross bracing is usually seen with two diagonal supports placed in an X-shaped manner. Under lateral force (such as wind or ...

securing the north and south walls.

References

20th-century Church of England church buildings City of St Albans Convents in England Grade II* listed buildings in Hertfordshire {{Hertfordshire-struct-stub

Design

Comper Chapel

See also

References