Old St Andrew's Church, Kingsbury
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Old St Andrew's Church, Kingsbury, is a
Romanian Orthodox The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; , ), or Romanian Patriarchate, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates in the Eastern Orthodox Church. S ...
and former
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
church in
Kingsbury Kingsbury may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Kingsbury, London, a district of northwest London in the borough of Brent ** Kingsbury tube station, London Underground station * Kingsbury, Warwickshire, a village and civil parish in Warwickshi ...
in the
London Borough of Brent Brent () is a London boroughs, borough in north-west London, England. It is known for landmarks such as Wembley Stadium, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir London, Swaminarayan Temple and the Kiln Theatre. It also contains the Brent Reservoir, W ...
,
Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...
, England. It is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...
as a designated Grade I
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
, and is under the care of the
Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...
.


History

The present church dates from the 12th or the 13th century, and it is considered to be the oldest standing building in Brent. However an earlier church had been on the site, possibly from the
Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
period. By about 1244–48 the church had been appropriated to the hospital of St John of Jerusalem. In 1393 it had a dual dedication to
Saint Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Church stems from the Gospel of Jo ...
and
Saint John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...
. Additions and alterations were made to the church in the 14th and 15th centuries. However, by 1796 it was in a dilapidated state. In 1840 it had a major restoration; the south porch, the roof bosses and the
rood A rood or rood cross, sometimes known as a triumphal cross, is a cross or crucifix, especially the large crucifix set above the entrance to the chancel of a medieval church. Alternatively, it is a large sculpture or painting of the crucifixio ...
screen were removed. The exterior was covered in
roughcast Roughcast and pebbledash are durable coarse plaster surfaces used on outside walls. They consists of lime and sometimes cement mixed with sand, small gravel and often pebbles or shells. The materials are mixed into a slurry and are then throw ...
, a gallery was added and a brick
vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...
was built. The bellcote was rebuilt in 1870, and another restoration took place in 1888 when the vestry was removed, and a new vestry built on the north side of the church. In 1906 the roof was re-tiled, and there was a further restoration in 1955. In 1884 a new church had been built in the
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
, dedicated to the Holy Innocents, and St Andrew's became its
chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...
. By the late 1920s, due to an increase in the size of the local population, the Holy Innocents church was too small. In 1933 a new church, also dedicated to Saint Andrew, was erected on a site close to the old church. This church had originated in 1847 in Wells Street in the
Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also ) is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropo ...
area of London. It was dismantled, transported and rebuilt in Kingsbury. The old church was declared redundant on 1 April 1977, and was
vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property are acquired by some Legal person, person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vest ...
in the Churches Conservation Trust on 7 October 2010.


Lease to the Romanian Orthodox Church

In 2008 the Church of England gave permission for Old St Andrew's Church to be used as a place of worship for north-west London's growing
Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
n community. In 2012 the
Romanian Orthodox Church The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; , ), or Romanian Patriarchate, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates in the East ...
was given a twenty-year lease for use of the church as a place of worship.


Architecture

St Andrew's is constructed in rendered
flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...
rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...
, and contains some
Roman 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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
bricks and tiles. It has a simple plan, consisting of a
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and a
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
in a single cell, a north vestry, and a
turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...
at the west end surmounted by a spire. The
font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...
probably dates from the 13th century, and consists of a circular bowl with an octagonal rim, standing on a modern
pedestal A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...
. The oak
lectern A lectern is a standing reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of ...
dates from the 17th century; it was used by W. E. Gladstone when he visited the church and read the lesson. Also in the church are three brasses, the oldest dated 1520. There are three bells, dating from about 1350, from 1604, and from 1708.


External features

In the churchyard are six structures, each of which has been listed at Grade II. Four of these are tombstones: these are to Timothy Wetherilt, who died in 1741, to Henry Wetherilt, who died in the same year, to Thomas Raworth, who died in 1744, and to Edwin Austin Abbey, an American painter, who died in 1911. The other structures are a monument to William Frederick Ashton, who died in 1802, and the chest tomb of Joseph Finch, who died in 1776.


See also

* List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in South East England


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingsbury, St Andrew's Church Grade I listed churches in London Former Church of England church buildings Church buildings converted to a different denomination Romanian Orthodox churches in the United Kingdom English Gothic architecture in Greater London Churches in the London Borough of Brent Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust Grade I listed buildings in the London Borough of Brent