All Saints' Church, Dulwich

1. Reconstruction of the fire-gutted interior


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

2. The church is located in the south London suburb of Dulwich


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

3. View from the north


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

4. The Bath stone screen mediates between the scale of the church and its more recent suburban context


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

5. The new west end - the curved screen frames arrival from the west and east


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

6. The grandiose east end with vestry block, Bishop's Stair and generous crypt


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

7. Nave & chancel - lighting gantries create a theatrical quality


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

8. West end with choir gallery - fire damaged masonry is left exposed


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

9. The intimate scale of the Lady Chapel


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

10. A nursery uses the crypt main hall during the day


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

11. Enfilade crypt spaces are separated by acoustic lobbies & glazed screens


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

12. The 1891 'temporary' west end prior to the fire


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

13. After the fire - June 2000


Drawings

All Saints' Church, Dulwich


All Saints' Church, Dulwich


All Saints' Church, Dulwich


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

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Simon McCormack


All Saints' Church, Dulwich

Extension & reconstruction following fire

Contract value: £6.85M

Located between Brixton and Dulwich on an east-facing slope previously occupied by market gardens, All Saints' Church was constructed in 1891, before the arrival of the suburban houses that now surround it. The grade I listed church is considered one of George Fellowes Prynne's most accomplished designs. Only three of the seven bays originally proposed for the nave were completed and for over a century the entrance to the church was via a 'temporary' lean-to construction at the west end. We had been appointed to extend and 'complete' the west end when fire gutted the church in June 2000.

The new design provides improved spatial links between the previously disconnected worship spaces and community facilities in the crypt, a new choir gallery and practice room, together with offices, meeting rooms, toilets, a kitchen and café, access for disabled people and new sound and lighting systems. A series of large halls in the crypt, separated by sound insulated glazed screens, are shared between the parish and a children's nursery.

The remodelling of the church has been executed in a contemporary architectural language that makes use of materials matching the original construction: red facing brick and Bath stone. New construction interlocks with the surviving original fabric of the church to create a unified series of overlapping spaces. Local soot staining and retained fire-damaged masonry record the building's history.

Photography of completed project :
Paul Riddle