Congregation

Grade 1 Listed, St Mary Magdalene Church Paddington is one of the finest neo-Gothic churches in the country and was built in the 1860s and 70s by the great Victorian architect G E Street. Street orchestrated the very best artists and craftsmen of the day to produce a masterwork combining architecture, sculpture, stained glass, and arguably the most remarkable painted ceiling in an English parish church. From the mid-20th century the church fell into disrepair. It has now been lovingly restored and a beautiful new building has been added alongside, designed by Dow Jones Architects, which provides a café, learning studio and visitor facilities.

Managed by Paddington Development Trust, the Grand Junction project sees the church opened up to all as a venue with a lively community and arts programme. Grand Junction is open as a venue running courses for adults, after-school clubs for young people, family workshops, and a rapidly growing arts and music programme. The church is open regularly for visitors, allowing enjoyment of its astonishing architecture by a much wider audience. At the heart of Grand Junction is the idea of bringing together different communities, bridging some of the parallel worlds of 21st century London.

Staged in the newly refurbished undercroft of St Mary Magdalene, the Congregation exhibition addresses the changing nature of sacred architecture in Britain through the presentation of 23 buildings designed in the past decade. It includes projects designed to serve a wide spectrum of faith groups: Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Hare Krishna and the White Eagle Lodge.

Social and economic factors are reflected in this new generation of religious buildings. Congregation presents examples of how faith groups, faced with unsupportable maintenance costs of their existing buildings, have developed new models of survival through the integration of secular spaces.

The selected projects capture a visible statement of Britain’s developing multi-culturalism, and explore how attitudes towards questions of tradition, reform, integration and ornamentation are expressed in a new generation of religious buildings.

Congregation is at Grand Junction at St Mary Magdalene’s, Rowington Close, London, W2 5TF until 7 March 2020.

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