Open House Festival 19 September. A chance to look – really look – at St Aldhelm’s.

Visit St Aldhelm's as part of the Open House Festival on Saturday 19 September, 10am-5pm

Mother Anna writes: What if you were a visitor, coming to St Aldhelm’s for the first time? What would you notice?

Would it be the outside of the building? The warm red bricks, maybe the detailing over the windows that always looks like eyelashes to me. Or perhaps the doors and their ironwork – they are old and tired but that doesn’t diminish the delicacy and surprising prettiness of the blacksmith’s work.

And walking in, what would you see if you were looking with new eyes? The reredos, of course, designed to draw the eye – big and bright and full of the heavenly radiance of the ascension, but also intimate, the faces of the disciples drawing us in to share their excitement, awe and bewilderment.

Look around - the church is full of faces. Not just the congregation but the stained glass, peopled with saints, angels and some very relatable characters. St Francis, whose kind eyes are full of compassion, John the Baptist, stern and focussed, the Boy Scouts camping cheerfully in field of flowers. There are more  children than you might expect in our windows – more women too, not just Mary but Anne, Elizabeth and Martha.

Our church is busy and full of people, worshipping God and serving our neighbourhood. Our volunteers at the foodbank are looking into the faces of the people who come for food, not peering at the stained glass. Our congregation, like the disciples in the reredos, are thinking about God, not architecture. The disabled adults and young people who use our church midweek are busy making coffee, creating art, building friendships – they are focussed on the job at hand, not the ironwork on the doors and windows.

On Saturday 19 September we are offering you a chance to look – really look – at St Aldhelm’s. It is an overlooked gem – a listed building, built in 1903 by the renowned church architect W. D. Caröe who was a major figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement and architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for over 40 years. That would be enough to make it notable, but as well as the fine architecture we also have the art – painting and stained glass, all by the same artist, forming a unique and cohesive set. The artist, Walter P. Starmer, is best known for his astonishing wall paintings at St Jude-on-the-Hill in Hampstead Garden Suburb. An ecclesiastical artist for most of his life, much of his work has been lost as a result of war damage and redevelopment of church buildings - his work at St Aldhelm’s is the most important collection of his work after St Jude’s but is surprisingly little known.

So come and look. On Saturday 19 September St Aldhelm’s will be open from 10am to 5pm as part of the Open House Festival, a London-wide festival of architecture which opens doors and invites people to visit buildings they would not normally get to see. We will have hot drinks and light refreshments available and there will be a talk about the painting and stained glass at 3pm.

Invite your friends – let’s show off our overlooked church to everyone.