Would you like to kneel on the M4?
by catherine croft
I just love church kneelers that refuse to conform to trad imagery or nice flowers. Spotted these on our trip this weekend to churches in North and West London. I especially like the crazy perspecitve on the bus, and the concept of an M4 kneeler is fab. A really imaginative set— I get the feeling the working parties could have been quite fun…..(all from St Thomas the Apostle, Hanwell, 1934 by Edward Maufe– architect of Guildford Cathedral–a really beatutifully detailed II* church with a knitted model of itself inside–yes really– I’m hoping for some good images from C20′s star photographers–check out our Flickr site)
Thanks Catherine for highligthing this aspect of the day I led focsuing on the church architecture of J Harold Gibbons in NW London on 13 October (and on which we also some other 1930′s churches by leading arcihects to provide context). The impetus for decorated kneelers came very much from Edward Maufe’s wife, Prudence, a Director of Helas, who instigated the scheme of marvellous kneelers at Guildford Cathedral showing the parishes of the Diocese (for which St Thomas the Apostle in Hanwell is very much a practice run). They can be a key decorative element in a church interior bringing a welcome element of colour through soft embroidered textile – in St Thomas’s the kneelers mostly have a blue base and we saw others on the event such as at the centrally planned John Keble Church in Mill Hill by D F Martin-Smith.