St Gabriel's Aldersbrook
St Gabriel’s: the building and its architect
​St Gabriel’s was designed by Charles Spooner and consecrated in 1914. It replaced the ‘temporary iron church’ erected when the Parish of Aldersbrook first came into being in 1903.
Charles Spooner was an intriguing character. Far more self-effacing than others associated with the Arts and Crafts movement, he has been described as ‘an invisible man’. Feeling that he deserved greater recognition Heather Goodman, a member of the congregation, wrote the following personal impression. Her account draws extensively on Alec Hamilton’s book, ‘Charles Spooner (1862-1938), Arts and Crafts Architect’ (Shaun Tyas 2012).
Heather says, ‘After reading this invaluable and informative book I have almost come to think of Mr. Spooner as a friend. Dr Hamilton brings the architect’s life, work and personality into focus, offering us a way of deepening our relationship with our church building.’
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Charles Sydney Spooner: a personal impression - Heather Goodman
As I have encountered Charles Spooner, the Arts and Crafts architect and furniture designer, in particular through the work of his biographer Alec Hamilton, I have come to feel a great liking for the modest man who gave us our thoughtfully designed and meticulously executed church, St. Gabriel’s at Aldersbrook. In this essay I have tried to share with you my sense of him, his gifts, and his contribution.
Alec Hamilton describes Charles Spooner as a diffident and self-effacing person who did not seek the limelight. There is also something of a mystery about him. He was a person who produced designs and architectural drawings which won prizes, including first prizes, when he was a student: he showed a touch of brilliance, but always submitted his drawings under the name ‘Ghost’. He hid from public view. Sometimes he disappeared from public records for a while. He joined committees and societies concerned with architecture but rarely attended or spoke. Alec Hamilton calls him ‘an invisible man’. There is no picture or photograph of him in existence.
But his work was steady and sure. He worked hard and to a high standard, attending to detail and focusing on one project at a time. He designed, built and restored houses, churches, chapels, and war memorials. To each project he brought fresh ideas and an attunement to the community he was serving, including an awareness of limited budgets. He was cautious, careful, tactful, and never showy.
‘You will see that I have prepared a scheme for dealing with the whole of the church, but I think I understood you to say that you only had a small sum of money to hand at present.’
Charles Spooner, re St Peter and St Paul Exton, c.1890
‘Chas Spooner is the architect, which is a guarantee that the money will be spent properly.’
Letter from Rev F.G. Rochfort Wade re Holy Spirit, Rye Harbour, 1912
Charles Spooner was an expert: a confident and knowledgeable church architect rooted in traditional skills and materials. He understood in great detail how churches are laid out and designed, and referenced the whole span of English church architecture: changes over time, the constants, the medieval features which underpin his designs.
​Whether he was designing and building or restoring, his aim was to create beauty, often understated, respecting the origins of a building, the sensibilities of his clients, and the integrity of his materials.
Spooner was also a designer and maker of furniture and church fitments. In this, his wife Dinah Spooner sometimes worked with him as a designer, painter and sculptor. He was more renowned for this creative work than as an architect. He was appointed to the Central School of Arts and Crafts set up by W.R. Lethaby, and taught there for 30 years.
Spooner’s connection to the Arts and Crafts movement is evident in his strong and consistently lived values: valuing the craftsman and the maker, and the importance of their investment in their work.
A significant commitment Spooner made during WW1 was to the setting up of the Hampshire House Belgian/English workshops, bringing together British craftspeople and skilled Belgian refugees, both women and men, to work together and share their skills. He then returned to Belgium to assist in the restoration or rebuilding of wooden churches which had been damaged or destroyed during the war.
The Hampshire House workshops were set up by Spooner with other local residents of Hammersmith, including Fred Rowntree, all interested in supporting craftsmanship and providing social support. In Rowntree’s obituary Spooner wrote: ‘he was a man who lived up to his ideals…he had considerable abilities, and sterling qualities: he was strong, but gentle, modest, kind, practical and clear headed. His work as an architect is sound, sensible and full of charm’. Spooner’s biographer Alec Hamilton suggests that in this comment Spooner perhaps admits to his own qualities, seeing himself reflected in his valued friend.
(Hamilton p141)
Despite being diffident, self-effacing, and inarticulate in a crowd, at home and with friends and family he is described as sociable and a great conversationalist. He liked to support others: when he ‘disappeared’ from view midway through his life, he was actually helping other architects to bring their church buildings to completion. He was a valued consultant, and an authoritative one. His voice expresses this with confidence in his writing: reviews of books about architecture and his own book 'Recent English Architecture'.
Spooner was a devout Christian espousing the High Anglican tradition. At his own Parish Church, St. Nicholas, Chiswick, he was the ‘architect in residence’ assisting with all maintenance and improvement issues.
For him designing and building a church was an act of worship and devotion. In this spirit he brought special gifts to St Gabriel’s. As an architect who did not seek the fame of some in the Arts and Crafts movement, Spooner was willing to take on the building of churches where the community’s means were limited. He wholeheartedly gave his values, inspiration and practical abilities to the task, knowing that he must work to meet budgets. Within this framework Spooner strove to bring light, space, beauty and balance to a worshipping community. He incorporated features that were dear to him: locally hand-made tiles for the roof; were the bricks which give the building its warm reddish colour also specially made? They are of a smaller dimension than standard bricks.
Spooner had always wanted to experiment with crenellation and in St Gabriel's he used a palette that drew on references to battlements, arrow slits and sturdy doors with iron fittings.We can savour this discreet reference to the past which has a lightness and touch of humour about it.He created a wide and light space which ensured that the congregation (‘the faithful’, as Spooner called us) were not too far from the Chancel: they could feel connected to the Altar. The windows allow the light in through clear glass, incorporating the flowing use of leading and occasional lightly tinted panes, like unexpected and discreet jewels.
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​The high ‘upturned boat’ roof provides a sense of spaciousness. The russet red and bright blue and gold marking out the ceiling struts over the chancel make a link to medieval church design: Spooner then dims those colours as the roof extends back into the nave, a sensitive, understated communication to the congregation as they move from the nave into the greater intensity of the chancel.
I can imagine Spooner wondering how he could give this emerging community at AldersbIrook a church that was interesting - somewhere they would look forward to coming to and that would be valued and loved by succeeding generations. In his open, light, welcoming and flexible space, designed for religious services and devotion, Spooner created a church, a sacred space, which thrives on down the years because it can accommodate a wide variety of ‘coming together’ activities and thus serve the community in a generous, and generative, way. The building, with its understated almost humorous detail, is a quiet and steady presence in the locality, pleasing to look at and inviting.
In its gentle solidity and colour it has stood the test of time.
Spooner’s obituaries acknowledge that he is a somewhat mysterious figure: self-effacing, modest and private as well as reliable, constant, and painstaking in his careful attention to the detail of all he undertook.
One of the obituaries of Charles Spooner was written by Francis W Troup, former Master of the Artworkers’ Guild. It concludes: ‘I shall always think of him as the most lovable man I ever met.’
(Hamilton p11)