St James' Church, Norlands

About

St James' Church, Norlands, is a historic Grade II listed church in London, United Kingdom. It is affiliated with the Church of England. It was designed by architects Lewis Vulliamy and Robert Jewell Withers, and its construction was completed in 1845.

The church was consecrated on 17 July of the same year. The church is built of white Suffolk bricks and is orientated east to west with the tower positioned south of the central bay. The entrance is through a porch, built into base of the tower, facing down Addison Avenue.

The simple body of the church makes the three-stage tower, built in 1850, stand out. The first stage has gabled Buttresses with roll-moulded edges. The second stage has a clock-face set in on each side and is considerably shorter than any other stage.

The final belfry stage has two deeply-recessed paired lancets flanked by single blind lancet panels. There is a drawing in Kensington Public Library which shows that the tower was designed to have been topped with a broach spire, however, this was never built, and the tower seems somewhat abrupt and unfinished without it, as the thin octagonal pinnacles on each corner stand out against the sky.