The church is built in the ‘Gothic’ style which means it would have looked new in the late 1200s and deliberately old fashioned by 1874. Thus it is very much in keeping with the Tractarian inclinations of Richard Foster and John Knowles. Many other churches from this period therefore used the late 13th century for inspiration. In an industrial age this meant that many of the architectural details could be cut into the stone by machine thus making for much shorter building times. Had a church of this size been built in the 13th century it would have taken many decades; in fact the foundation stone was laid on 10th June 1873 with the completed building being ready for consecration on 4th November 1874.
St Saviours in 1916
All the stone was brought by rail to sidings at Lea Bridge station and then along to the site by horse and cart. Often genuine medieval Gothic buildings involved mixing two different stones; a grey masonry being rough hewn and a lighter smooth stone for facing details. Unusually St. Saviour’s uses four different types of stone. Externally the rougher stone is Kentish ragstone with the detailing being in Tisbury stone. Internally Hassock (a kind of ragstone) is used to line the walls with all the dressings and detailing of the arches etc being in Bath stone. A feature of Gothic architecture is the use of pointed arches which carry the divide and carry the weight of the main walls and roof through their columns. The nave (the main body of the church) is built of five arcades supported by quatrefoil (ie 4-faced) piers of stone. They give a rather grand impression, although there is a rather clinical lack of relieving detail.
Did You Know?
St. Saviour’s tower with it’s broached spire dominates the skyline and was sited so as to make maximum impact when viewed from the major road and rail approaches to Walthamstow. The tower houses a peal of eight bells cast by Warner & Co. of London. They were raised into position through the roof of the porch.
The architect of St. Saviour’s, Francis Dolman was best known as an expert draughtsman and historian of medieval architecture. This knowledge and skill can be seen in the some of the original features which remain such as this external door on the north side which is an exact replica of a medieval original.
