St. Boniface

Introduction

Saint Boniface in Tooting, London, was begun in 1906-7 and completed in 1927, designed by Father Benedict Williamson with J.H. Benet Foss. The church is built in Venetian Romanesque style with brick and stone dressing.

History

Benedict Williamson (1868-1948) trained as an architect but became a priest in 1906, the year work on this church began. Williamson returned to architecture in the 1920s and was amongst the first architects to take up Egyptian style motifs. The parish has a Youth Group that was officially established in 2021.

Architecture and furnishings

The church has a nave with side aisles and an integral square brick tower with stone banding around the belfry at the north-west corner. The interior has two six-bay arcades, smooth and flat with clerestory windows above, and plain round columns with carved letters on the capitals. The aisle walls are lined with mosaic panels in the form of triptychs depicting the Stations of the Cross. The apsidal chancel at the east end has a curved fitted altar of stone with Egyptian-style capitals.

The church was first listed at Grade II on 15-Aug-1995. The church follows a basilican plan. The building has a slate roof and a copper-covered spire. The west elevation to Mitcham Road features a central double-height gable of the nave pierced by a large recessed rose window.

The rose window is framed by a simple segmental band of stone springing from stone lintels supported by four short columns with abstract Egyptianised capitals. Below the rose window are two projecting features with stone Byzantine-style hoods, each containing a single recessed window. The ground floor has a central round-arched entrance divided by a single column. Above the middle column dividing the entrance is a carved stone figure of Christ.

The interior has a timber tie-beam roof to the nave. The lean-to aisles have timber ceilings. There is an organ gallery at the west end. The south altar has a statue in a niche within a larger architectural surround with a triangular hood.

The north altar has a Madonna and Child in a niche within a surround with a semi-circular hood. The church retains original simple oak pews.