ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET
History and architecture
Introduction | Beginnings | Inside the church | Tiling | Windows | The Chancel | Outside
Outside, and surrounding buildings
The
All Saints site is entered through iron gates into a courtyard (used for
post-service refreshments almost year-round, All Saints' congregation
being hardy people). Immediately opposite is the great buttress with its
relief carving of the Annunciation. To the right stands the vicarage,
while on the left stands the old choir school which now houses: (Ground
Floor) the parish room, in 
what
used to be the refectory, containing a Butterfield designed fireplace,
his distinctive cast iron beams, and a series of panels representing Christ
and the four Evangelists, and (upstairs) residential accommodation. Soaring
above the courtyard is the 227 feet spire - higher than the towers of
Westminster Abbey.
All Saints is built of brick. The Ecclesiologists had originally extolled the virtues of rough stone walls, but were converted by the brick churches of Italy and North Germany. The pink brick chosen by Butterfield was actually more expensive than stone. The bold chequered patterning is most likely to have been based on English East Anglian tradition.
A book about the Vicars of All
Saints Margaret Street, "Good and Faithful Servants" is available
through the Online Shop