St Jude's Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb

St Jude’s Church stands in Hampstead Garden Suburb, a planned community founded in 1907 by Henrietta Barnett to bring together people of all classes in pleasant, harmonious surroundings. The church was designed by Edwin Lutyens, who blended Queen Anne Revival elements with traditional church shapes. Building began in 1909 and the west end was finished only in 1935, though the church was consecrated in 1911. Lutyens also designed the nearby vicarage, which is Grade II listed. The building is 200 feet long with a spire rising 178 feet above the ground. Inside, the church measures 122 feet from west door to chancel steps and reaches forty feet to the highest part of the roof. The ceiling is barrel-vaulted and domed, with three vaults leading to the crossing and a saucer dome over the sanctuary. Walter P. Starmer painted the murals between 1920 and 1929, beginning with the Lady Chapel and ending with the apse. His work includes the west window of 1937, showing Saint Jude holding a model of the church. Starmer’s paintings also appear on the ceiling panels over the centre aisle and along the Stations of the Cross in the south aisle. The Lady Chapel, opened in 1910, is the oldest part of the church and contains a wooden statue of Our Lady based on a sixteenth-century German original. Nearby, St John’s Chapel was a gift from the Harmsworth family in 1923 and features murals drawn from the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation. Fine iron screens bearing the name Matthias Heit and the date 1710 flank the sanctuary, while the floor is patterned in brick and marble. The high altar incorporates stones from Canada, and the pulpit was also a gift from Canada.