ST JAMES’s, Norlands, will look familiar to fans of retro television and films. The pale-coloured stone church with central tower, surrounded by imposing stucco houses in a garden square, has featured in the TV series Minder, and in the films A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1979), National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985), and Jack and Sarah (1995).
Roads near by serve as visual shorthand in documentaries about London’s inequality: north-west of the church, 19th-century Holland Park terraces, favoured by celebrities and overseas investors, give way to North Kensington’s social housing, including the shrouded shell of Grenfell Tower. On the night of 14 June 2017, a fire engulfed the 24-storey tower block, taking the lives of 72 people (News, 15 June 2017).
This January, commemorating those who lost their lives in the fire, two new lancet windows were installed in the church’s north wall, near the font. They depict Christ’s baptism, on the left-hand side, and his meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well, on the right. The new windows are an addition to the Victorian and 20th-century stained-glass memorials in the Grade II listed building, designed by Lewis Vulliamy and completed in 1845.
The Vicar of St James’s, the Revd Gareth Wardell, says that the inclusion of portrayals of Black figures in the new window, as well as references to the local area’s transnational heritage, has been warmly welcomed by the congregation. “One of our churchwardens, who is a Black woman, said how good it was to feel represented in the fabric of the church. It is so positive for people to see themselves.”
There have been no negative responses to the content and design of the new windows, he says, apart from some initial queries from the diocesan advisory committee about having such a striking contemporary stained-glass design in a Victorian Gothic church.
One of the first priests to be licensed over Zoom, Fr Wardell came to the parish of St Clement and St James in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. Before ordination, he worked in international development in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then at York University’s Postwar Reconstruction and Development Unit.
The windows were designed by the artist Mark Cazalet, a former churchwarden of St James’s, and their cost was covered, anonymously, by the family trust of one of the artist’s clients. The donor had no link to the church, but wished to do something for the community. Mr Cazalet says that, with stained glass costing £400 to £500 per sheet, and allowing for design, fabrication, and leading, the estimated cost of the new windows is about £1000 per square foot.
An unexpected three buckets of render had to be added to the supporting stonework during installation, as replacing windows in old churches often involves additional structural repairs.
In the Baptism of Christ window, Grenfell Tower, with its symbolic green heart, can be seen at Christ’s elbow, with the flames of the fire reflected in the waters of the Jordan. Behind Christ’s bare back, made of dark-brown glass, the Westway makes reference to the Afro-Caribbean community’s history of activism for social justice, from the race riots of the 1950s onwards.
Capitalising on the transformative qualities of stained glass, different aspects of the scene become more and less apparent with changing light. The word “Cleansed”, at the base of the scene, almost disappears at some points of the day, flitting like a CAPTCHA online-recognition puzzle across the scene.
The Samaritan woman at the well window depicts a Black woman in dialogue with a seated Black Christ, the waters of the well between them. An expressionist fig tree forms the background. The word “Quenched” appears across the ochre rock on which Christ is seated. “The waters of life are there for you, even if your social situation and personal life are complicated,” Mr Cazalet says.
Returning with his labrador, Molly, Fr Wardell drives me the few minutes to St Clement’s, in the north of the parish, which became a focal point after the Grenfell Tower fire, including a visit by then Prime Minister, Theresa May. The church’s 2008 “Carnival” triptych depicts local children, some of whom later perished in the fire, including the artist Khadija Saye.
The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, will dedicate the new lancet windows at St James’s in October.
