St Matthias' Church is a Grade-I listed

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

Stoke Newington Stoke Newington is an area in the northwest part of the London Borough of Hackney, England. The area is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington (parish), Stoke Newington, the ancient parish. S ...

north London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames and the City of London. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshi ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Since it opened it has been known for its distinctly ‘

High Church A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...

’ forms of worship.A P Baggs, Diane K Bolton and Patricia E C Croot
'Stoke Newington: Churches'
in ''A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8, Islington and Stoke Newington Parishes'', ed. T F T Baker and C R Elrington (London, 1985), pp. 204-211. British History Online, website, accessed 28 June 2019.

History

The parish of St Matthias

was created in 1849, out of the parish of Stoke Newington and a parcel of 'detached' land belonging to

Hornsey Hornsey () is a district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Haringey. It is an inner-suburban, for the most part residential, area centred north of Charing Cross. It adjoins green spaces Queen's Wood to the west and Alexand ...

parish. The patron of the new parish - responsible for appointing the clergy - was alternately the Crown and the

Bishop of London The bishop of London is the Ordinary (church officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury. By custom the Bishop is also Dean of the Chapel Royal since 1723. The diocese covers of 17 boroughs o ...

. The impressive church building was designed by

William Butterfield William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a British Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy. Biography William Butterfield was bo ...

(1814–1900) and completed and consecrated in June 1853. The cost of the building was substantially met by a wealthy local surgeon named

Robert Brett Robert George Brett (November 16, 1851 – September 16, 1929) was a politician and physician in the North-West Territories and Alberta, Canada, and was the second lieutenant governor of Alberta. Early life Robert George Brett was born on Nove ...

(1808–74). Brett was concerned at the flourishing of local Dissenting chapels such as the

Newington Green Unitarian Church Newington Green Unitarian Church is one of England's oldest Unitarian churches, located on Newington Green, north London. The site has maintained strong ties to progressive political and religious causes for over 300 years, and is London's old ...

at the expense of the Established Church whose local buildings simply could not accommodate the area's rapidly growing population. Choral services at St Matthias' were developed by the organist,

William Henry Monk William Henry Monk (16 March 1823 – 1 March 1889) was an English people, English organist, Anglican church musician, and music editor who composed popular hymn tunes, including "Eventide", used for the hymn "Abide with Me", and "All Things ...

, musical editor of ''Hymns Ancient and Modern'' and composer of "

Abide with me "Abide with Me" is a Christian hymn by Scottish Anglican cleric Henry Francis Lyte (1793–1847). A prayer for God to stay with the speaker throughout life and in death, it was written by Lyte in 1847 as he was dying from tuberculosis. It is m ...

". Under the incumbency of Rev. Charles James Le Geyt, the

ritualist A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

, high church, tone of the services sparked off strong protests. In October 1867 the church was surrounded by a mob hundreds strong, protesting, and the vicar shouted at during the service. After the service the mob had grown and parishioners "roughly handled". It then tried to storm Brett's house, to be repelled by the police. After a subsequent anti-Ritualist demonstration in London Fields a large crowd processed towards St Matthias, one man dressed in a cardinal's cap, shouting "Attack the Church", "Down with St Matthias" and "Down with Le Geyt's house". A large police force with a reserve of 400 men were outside Le Geyt's house and the mob, again, dispersed having let out three large groans of protest at Le Geyt's High Church tendencies. The building suffered from aerial bombing during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

when all the interior surface decoration, stained glass and furniture was destroyed, as too the brick and stone vaulting of the chancel. The rebuilt church was reopened in 1954. The architect was

Nugent Cachemaille-Day Nugent Francis Cachemaille-Day (1896–1976), often referred to as NF Cachemaille-Day, was an English architect who designed some of the most "revolutionary" 20th-century churches in the country. His Church of St Nicholas, Burnage has been c ...

(1896–1976). After the war the patronage of the living was transferred to the

Corporation of London The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's fi ...

. American musician Circuit Des Yeux performing inside the church in 2022 In 2022 it was hosting performances by musicians.

Description of the current building

The strongly individual building is of

stock brick London stock brick is the type of handmade brick which was used for the majority of building work in London and South East England until the increase in the use of Flettons and other machine-made bricks in the early 20th century. Its distincti ...

with Bath stone dressings and slate roofs. The tall nave of five bays has low, pent aisles and alternate octagonal and compound piers. The saddleback crossing tower with its very long bell openings is the most striking feature of the building creating inside a tall chancel arch with half-arches at east end of the aisles. The window tracery is a freely-adapted late Decorated type.Historic England: Church of St Matthias
website, accessed 25 June 2019 A programme of repairs is ongoing, funded by the parish with assistance from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

and

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

.Historic England
''Church of St Matthias, Wordsworth Road, Stoke Newington N16 - Hackney''
website, accessed 25 June 2019

History

Description of the current building

References

Further reading