St James' Church, Norlands, is a historic Grade II listed church in London, United Kingdom. It is affiliated with the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. It was designed by architects

Lewis Vulliamy Lewis Vulliamy (15 March 1791 – 4 January 1871) was an English architect descended from the Vulliamy family of clockmakers. Life Lewis Vulliamy was the son of the clockmaker Benjamin Vulliamy. He was born in Pall Mall, London on 15 March 17 ...

and Robert Jewell Withers, and its construction was completed in 1845. The church was

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

on 17 July of the same year. The church is built of white Suffolk bricks and is orientated east to west with the tower positioned south of the central bay. The entrance is through a

porch A porch (; , ) is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance to a building. A porch is placed in front of the façade of a building it commands, and forms a low front. Alternatively, it may be a vestibule (architecture), vestibule (a s ...

, built into base of the tower, facing down Addison Avenue. The simple body of the church makes the three-stage tower, built in 1850, stand out. The first stage has gabled

Buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es with roll-moulded edges. The second stage has a clock-face set in on each side and is considerably shorter than any other stage. The final

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

stage has two deeply-recessed paired lancets flanked by single blind lancet panels. There is a drawing in Kensington Public Library which shows that the tower was designed to have been topped with a

broach spire A broach spire is a type of spire (tall pyramidal structure), which usually sits atop a tower or turret of a church. It starts on a square base and is carried up to a tapering octagonal spire by means of triangular faces. File:Leicester Cathedral ...

, however, this was never built, and the tower seems somewhat abrupt and unfinished without it, as the thin octagonal pinnacles on each corner stand out against the sky. Vulliamy's original design provided polygonal apsidal projections at the east and west ends, but these were never built. In 1876 the eastern end was extended by the architect, R. J. Withers. These extensions provide the present

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 ...

vestries A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spent nearly one-fi ...

and an organ chamber. The church is set in a small garden square, which is laid out in an informal style and is mainly two

lawn A lawn () is an area of soil-covered land planted with Poaceae, grasses and other durable plants such as clover lawn, clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawn mower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic an ...

areas with planting at the edges. The views are dominated by the mature

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...

and lime trees which surround the garden. These gardens are private and used by adjacent properties, and only open to the public occasionally.

Present day

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 ...

of " St. Clement with St. Mark, Notting Dale and St. James, Norlands" is part of the Archdeaconry of Middlesex in the

Diocese of London The Diocese of London forms part of the Church of England's Province of Canterbury in England. It lies directly north of the Thames, covering and all or part of 17 London boroughs. This corresponds almost exactly to the historic county of ...

. The church stands in the Liberal Catholic

tradition A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...

of the

References

Holland Park Norlands Norlands Churches completed in 1845 Norlands {{London-stub