ST JAMES, Tower Road. 1913 by Temple Moore. The nave unfinished. The exterior looks earnest, Perp and a little grim. The interior is surprising. Nave arcade with two very large pointed arches on the plainest piers. Perp two-light clerestory windows. Chancel with galleries on both sides and clerestory. But the two sides are treated completely differently, as if two periods had been at work. The S side Early Christian, as it were, with plain round arches, the N side pointed. On both sides all the detail very severe, and only the sparsest bits of red brick to relieve the whiteness of the plastered walls.
CLACTON-ON-SEA. This seaside resort, one of the most popular and most visited holiday towns in Essex, has little to attract historians or antiquarians except its bracing air and its obvious cheerfulness, which even historians and antiquarians can sometimes delight in. Clacton is modern and proud of it. Everything here is designed to attract the holiday-maker and the convalescent, and the tree-lined streets and gardens, the parades and promenades, the Venetian Bridge and the fine cliff walks, are a handsome background for a wealth of entertainment which most visitors find irresistible. As an up-to-date seaside town Clacton is naturally proud of its band pavilion and winter garden, its swimming pool and model yacht lake, its pier 1150 feet long on which amusement literally runs riot, its facilities for so many kinds of sport, its seven theatres, five cinemas, and four ballrooms. Even the fine town hall is largely given up to social life. In Clacton, Play’s the thing and Sunshine the Master of Ceremonies.
If we except the Martello Tower on the sea front the town has no antiquity to show. All its churches are modern, but its smaller neighbours and namesakes, Great and Little Clacton, have both kept their village aspect and their ancient churches. They are treated separately in this book.
If we except the Martello Tower on the sea front the town has no antiquity to show. All its churches are modern, but its smaller neighbours and namesakes, Great and Little Clacton, have both kept their village aspect and their ancient churches. They are treated separately in this book.
I have been visiting this church a lot lately and worshipping there. In my opinion the exterior isn't much to write about, but it belies the interior. The chancel is of Cathedral like proportions because it is very rare to see a triforium in a parish church, although it is unusual that it's only on one side. Plus you have one of the highest High Altars in the country.
ReplyDeleteAt first I felt it was too "Victorian" for my taste but, as I say, it gradually warmed to me - not my usual type to like!
DeleteActually I got it wrong. There is a triforium level on the south side of the chancel. Still unusual though.
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