St Paul's Art & History
Visitor Opening Times
St Paul’s is open each Sunday for worship at 11:00a.m. The building is open from 10:30a.m. and closes around 1p.m.
During the week, the building is usually open on Friday morning 11:00a.m. – 1.p.m., and the office (to the right of the doors to the hall, at the rear of the building) is usually manned on Tuesday and Friday mornings (9a.m. – 1p.m.).
If you would like to visit at other times, please contact us.
The Vision
When in 1944 Patrick Abercrombie presented his "Greater London Plan" which laid the foundations for the various New Towns developed around London after 1947, he observed that in every well-balanced community and neighbourhood there should be adequate provision of buildings where communal, as distinct from individual, activities can be carried on.
“With the inevitable increase in leisure time, it will in future be more important than ever to see that sites are reserved for community buildings. In the older parts of every community and in the older parts of the built up area as a whole there is a fairly generous provision of churches, halls, clubs and meeting places, although the buildings are often poor and badly sited. In the newer residential areas there is nearly always a very marked deficiency, which is in many ways responsible for the lack of social life in the suburbs. The Church is the oldest form of community building. It is estimated that church provisions should be made for about 10% of the population. The modern church has on average 500 seats. Assuming this there would be a need for ten to fifteen churches in a community of 60,000, or about two to each Neighbourhood Unit. Church sites should be at least half an acre in size and should include space for a hall and other rooms".
St Paul's Harlow is an example of how Abercrombie's words were translated into concrete, bricks and mortar.
The Church is built
The architect was Derrick Humphrys of Humphrys and Hurst of Dorset Street, London. Reginald Hurst was largely responsible for the fittings and pews, “but [they] were completed by Derrick Humphrys after his death in 1958.” “The architects had worked for N.F.Cachemaille-Day before forming their own practice and this is their principle work” (1).
Early visitors, in October 1957, were Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip They planted two “Pocket Handkerchief” trees on what was intended as an ornamental paved terrace faced by an open-air pulpit projecting from the bell tower. It was during this visit, when the church was not more than a concrete base, that the final design was unveiled as the Queen was shown the architect's model.
The foundation stone was laid in December 1957, in the south-west corner of the church, by the then Home Secretary, Lord Butler.
foundation stone
flower box with words
The building contractors were Hosking & Son (Essex) Ltd; they handed over on 24th January 1959.
It was, in the words of Revd Donald Knight, the new parish’s first rector, "a church not so much for the mature Christian as for the seeker, in a vast new town”. St Paul’s today continues to seek to be a light for Christ at the heart of Harlow in deed and word.
The Church originally seated 400 and cost £40,000 to build. It was opened for worship on St Paul's Eve in January 1959 by the Archbishop-elect of Sidney, the Bishop of Barking, and was consecrated in April 1959 by the Bishop of Chelmsford, preaching on the text, "Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him" - the words at the foot of the John Piper mosaic.
Listing and Awards
The church was Grade II Listed in 2007: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1392352
It has been described by Clare Price of the 20th Century Society as a “jewel box”, and was nominated as one of the top ten modern churches by the 20th Century Society in a competition in 2013 . It features in the book “100 Churches, 100 Years” published by the Twentieth Century Society.
The National Churches Trust describes St Paul’s as ‘an iconic 20th century heritage church’ and it features on their National Churches Trust website
The Town Centre Setting
In the words of Harlow's master Architect-Planner, Sir Frederick Gibberd:
"The Civic Centre, stretching across the southern frontage of the plateau on which the town was focused, was the most significant area in Harlow. It was to contain the town's most important civic buildings. Seen across open landscape, it would symbolise the corporate life of the town.” “[I]t was obvious that if all the civic buildings were faced with the same material there would be a degree of unity… We used precast concrete with natural aggregates. There was one exception, and it was St Paul's Church… A church being a symbol of man's belief in God's demands an individual and imaginative architectural expression. St Paul's compared with the surrounding buildings is small. To compensate…I suggested it should be the one building finished in brick" (2).
Prior to the building of the Playhouse and the Harvey Centre, St Paul's spire stood out as a local landmark.
Over the years further town centre developments have tended to make the church’s position less prominent, but the plans to regenerate Harlow Town Centre with the creation of an art quarter, increased pedestrianisation, and new public outdoor spaces will once again establish the church as a focal point for the town and the community which it serves.
The Exterior
There is a copper-covered spire, surmounted by a golden cross 95 feet above the ground:
“[T]he cross on the spire… was a copy of that on St Paul’s Cathedral, London, to link the church to the metropolis from which almost all its parishioners came.” (Canon Donald Knight, letter to the then Minister of Culture 2nd May 1995).
The detached bell-tower contains a peal of six bells (with Ellacombe apparatus) from a bombed Dockland Church. There is small cross on the bell-tower which is lit at night.
On the east side of the bell tower is an open air pulpit, overlooking the terrace.
The hall and church rooms at the eastern end of the site were added in the 1970s.
