St Andrew's Church, Kingsbury, glows in autumn sunshine

 

The landmark horse chestnut tree next to St Andrew's Church, Kingsbury

 

Walking home through the churchyard of St Andrew's churches (old and new) from a day on my allotment at Birchen Grove I was struck by the beauty of the church and its surrounding's  in the late afternoon autumn light. Not for the first time I gave quiet thanks for the genius and enterprise of the generation that took  on the challenge of transferring the church from Wells Street in central London to suburban Kingsbury and chose such an ideal location on a hillock at a bend in Church Lane, near the 12th century Grade 1 listed Old St Andrew's church, now hidden amongst the mature yew trees.

 

 The grass has returned to a vibrant green after the parched brown of this summer's drought

 

 Glowing in the sunshine

 

From the St Andrew's website LINK

   

St. Andrews is one of London's finest Victorian churches, containing some of the finest sculpture and craftsmanship of the nineteenth century. Its own history is quite unique, and symbolizes the very essence of the Christian religion: death and re-birth.

St. Andrews was originally built in the heart of the West End, in the middle of the nineteenth century (in Wells Street near the present-day busy shopping area of Oxford Street). It was consecrated on the 2nd February, 1847, and soon became one of London's best known and fashionable churches, famous for its fine architecture and sculptures and items of craftsmanship. The services at St. Andrews were noted for their outstanding music - finer it was said than at many English cathedrals. The congregation included many of the leading figures of the day. The Prime Minister, William Gladstone, was an occasional worshipper.  However by the turn of the century the area around St. Andrews had changed dramatically. Houses had given way to warehouses and commercial property. The congregation had fallen away and the church was declared redundant. It closed its doors in the West End on Easter Sunday 1931.

The Church looked set to be demolished but there was an outcry at the idea of destroying such a beautiful building containing so many items of outstanding craftsmanship. Surely it could be put to some use? Other suburbs needed churches to serve their growing populations. A proposal was made to move St. Andrews from the West End to the fast growing area of Wembley and Kingsbury, served by the new Metropolitan Line.

St. Andrews was demolished stone by stone - each piece carefully labelled and numbered and transported the ten miles to southern Kingsbury which urgently needed a bigger church. The rebuild took three years - a project dubbed by one newspaper "the biggest jigsaw in the world".  Finally St. Andrews was reborn and reconsecrated on October 13th, 1934 by Arthur Foley Winnington Ingram, Bishop of London from 1901-39.

The church was designed by Dawkes and contains work by some of the top sculptors and craftsmen of the day. It is mentioned in Nicholas Pevsner's noted series The Buildings of England.

 

Heritage Open Day at St Andrew’s Church, Kingsbury, on Saturday 16th September 10am - 4pm

 

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

 

St Andrew’s Church, in Church Lane, Kingsbury, is inviting residents and visitors to a Heritage Open Day on Saturday 16 September, as part of its Rekindling St Andrew’s project. The beautiful Grade II* listed “new church” building, with its magnificent interior decoration by top Victorian artists and craftspeople, will be open to explore between 10am and 4pm. The Grade I listed “old church” will also be open, but inspection of the inside will only be available from 10am until 12 noon.

 

A watercolour sketch of St Andrew’s Church, in 1810 (when it was already around 700 years old!)
(Source: Brent Archives, Naimaster Collection)

 

There is a programme of events taking place during the Heritage Open Day, as listed on the programme below. I don’t think booking is essential for the talks / tours, which are all free, but if you do book it would guarantee your place, if more people turn up for it than can be safely accommodated. More details and bookings can be found here.

 

I am leading the first event, Old St Andrew’s Church, which is a short, illustrated talk in the “new church” followed by a guided visit to Old St Andrew’s, just a short walk away. If you would care to join me at 10.20am next Saturday morning, to discover the history of this fascinating building (Brent’s oldest), you will be very welcome! The other events will be equally interesting and informative.

Philip Grant.

 

Fun, stalls and activities at Open Day at St Andrew’s Church, Kingsbury, on Saturday 8th July 11am - 4pm

Guest post by local historian Philip Grant 

 

 

As part of its Rekindling St Andrew’s project, the whole community is invited to come and enjoy an Open Day at St Andrew’s Church, Kingsbury, next Saturday 8 July. 

 

There will be lots of activities for adults and children, music and a barbeque. There will also be community tables, where you can talk to people who know about things like the environment and local history, and discover more about these and other subjects.

 

 

Best of all is the chance to explore the inside of this beautiful Grade II* listed heritage building and find out more about how it started life in the 1840s in Central London, and was moved to Kingsbury in the 1930s. The work of some of the best artists and craftsmen of Victorian times is on show as you walk around the inside of the church, something that anyone can appreciate, whatever their faith, or of none. You may even hear the bells!

 

St Andrew’s Church, Church Lane, Kingsbury. (Photo by Des Blenkinsopp)

 

It’s free to come along to this Open Day, between 11am and 4pm, so I hope to see you there. I will be at the Wembley History Society table for much of the day (probably in the hall behind the main church building) if you have any local history questions you would like to ask.

Philip Grant.

 

Editor's note: And I will be on the Brent Friends of the Earth stall come and say hello.

Resonate at Kingsbury: Join singalong sessions and take part in a concert

 

From St Andrews Together

Join us for a series of Community #Singalong Sessions with popular songs focused on themes of love, friendship, and community. You don’t been to be a singer or have any musical training, - just turn up and have fun!

Four Community Singalong Sessions and a concert with singer-songwriter Annalie Wilson.

Annalie is a singer, songwriter, musician and actress based in North West London. She has won awards for her original music and acted as musical director on theatre productions. Annalie is the founder of Resonate, which offers voice workshops influenced by folk music from the country of Georgia. She has led singing and songwriting workshops at the Refugee Council and co-led retreats and meditation programmes involving community singing. www.resonate-voice.com

Join us for uplifting popular songs of love, friendship and community.

• Wed 28th June, 7pm to 8.30pm
• Wed 5th July, 7pm to 8.30pm
• Wed 12th July, 7pm to 8.30pm
• Wed 19th July, 7pm to 8.30pm

Final performance – date to be confirmed.

No experience necessary.

To sign up, please email standrewstogether@gmail.com

Kingsbury: The Bells of St Andrew’s ring out again

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

 

A typical English Church Bell. (Image from the internet)

 

If you think you’ve heard church bells ringing recently, you might have believed you were imagining it. But the chances are that you were hearing the chimes from the bells at Saint Andrew’s, in Church Lane, Kingsbury. After being silent for around twenty years, the eight bells in the tower above the church are ringing out again, especially on Sundays.

 

St Andrew’s New Church, Kingsbury.

 

The peal of eight bells was cast by C.J. Lewis of Shepherds Lane, Brixton, in 1880. They were a gift to the church from Mrs Imbert-Terry, in memory of her daughter. The Imbert-Terrys were from a French landowning family, who lived at Chester Terrace on the edge of Regent’s Park, and worshipped at St Andrew’s. It was then a fashionable Victorian church in Wells Street, in London’s West End. If you don’t know the story of how the church, with its bells, came to be where it is today, you can read my article about Kingsbury’s Recycled Church on the Brent Archives local history website.

 

A record of some notable bell-ringing events on the St Andrew’s bells in Victorian times.
(From “St Andrew’s Church, Wells Street, 1874-1897”, reprinted in the 26 November “Order of Service”)

 

Musical bell ringing, or change ringing, has been going on (mainly in Britain or countries with a British tradition) for centuries, and is now a hobby for pleasure as well as part of church life. It needs a team of ringers, and a fellow Wembley History Society member, now living in the USA, recently wrote:

 

‘I was an avid Church Bellringer when I lived in the UK.  I learned to ring while at University, and rang at Kingsbury, St Andrew’s during the University vacations, and also for the year I still lived in Kingsbury after I graduated.  When I rang there in the 1980s the bells were “rough-going”, and I heard that they’d subsequently become unringable.’

 

I believe the reason why the St Andrew’s bells stopped ringing was that the structure of the church spire was found to have become too weak. The whole “ring” of eight bells weighs 4.25 tonnes, with the largest “E flat” tenor bell weighing more than a ton. They could not risk any bells becoming dislodged, and falling on the bellringers far below!

 

So that the bells could ring again, they’ve been fitted with an electronic chiming mechanism. This allows them to be rung by a hammer hitting the bell, rather than the original manual method of pulling on the bell rope, and the bell being swung round on a large wheel. The bells were rededicated by the Bishop of Fulham, following a Mass for the Feast of St Andrew on Saturday 26 November.

 

The Bishop rededicating the bells at St Andrew’s on 26 November 2022. (Photo by Irina Porter)

 

A peal of bells was rung straight after the rededication, and will ring out every Sunday at around midday, after the main morning service at the church, and on other special occasions. Every day, at 8.30am, 12noon and 6pm, a single bell will ring the “Angelus”. This is a call to prayer, common in the Catholic Christian faith, and also followed by some C. of E. “Anglo-Catholic” churches like St Andrew’s. The Angelus is three chimes of the bell, rung three times with a short break between each, to remind the faithful to say three prayers, three times a day.

 

Martin has kindly recorded the peal of bells at St Andrew’s, and put it into a video, so that you can enjoy them, even if you are not within earshot of the church when they are ringing.

 

 

Towards the end of the video, you will also hear singing from the Romanian Orthodox congregation at St Andrew’s Old Church. If you don’t already know the long and fascinating history of that heritage building, hidden away in the churchyard just behind “new” St Andrew’s, you can read it in this illustrated article on the Brent Archives local history website.

 

A team of church bellringers, ringing a “change”. (Image from the internet)

 

It is hoped that work can be carried out to strengthen the spire at St Andrew’s, so that the bells can be rung manually again, as well as mechanically. This would allow anyone, from whatever faith, or none, to come and learn the art of bellringing, and enjoy this traditional musical hobby (and way of keeping fit!).

 

The church has recently been awarded a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and will be launching a project, “Rekindling St Andrew’s” aimed at sharing the church’s history and facilities with the wider local community. I’m sure that many people will enjoy the chance to take part in secular activities within the beautiful Victorian interior of this Grade II* listed building – and some, in time, to have the opportunity of making the bells ring, in teamwork with new friends. 

 

Look out for news of this project in 2023, and in the meantime, enjoy the bells of St Andrew’s!

 

Philip Grant.