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Report: churches
Art and Soul
Gavin Stamp admires the richly allusive
Chapel of Christ the Redeemer at Culham,
designed by Craig Hamilton Architects
Photos
Paul Highnam
Opposite
The chapel was conceived as a classical
temple set within the eighteenthcentury parkland of Culham Court.
It sits on rising ground overlooking the
Thames, surrounded by a mandorlashaped ha-ha constructed of Portland
stone and flint dug from the site.
Culham is Craig Hamilton’s second
Roman Catholic chapel. A third is
under construction in Gloucestershire.
Above
The view from the threshold between
the narthex and the nave is dominated
by Alexander Stoddart’s ‘Seated Figure
of Christ the Redeemer’ in white marble,
on a pedestal above the high altar.
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“Relig ion has been the soul of art from the
beg inning”, once wrote Alexander ‘Greek’
Thomson. “The form of the temple was not
controlled by any utilitarian considerations”.
These days, a Roman Catholic chapel would
be an unusual commission for any architect,
but Craig Hamilton has now completed two
– one in the Borders, and one in Berkshire.
Given the commitment to the classical
language held by both this architect and
his clients, precedents for such a building
might seem to be many and obvious. In this
second chapel, nevertheless, Hamilton has
produced a building of subtle orig inality as
well as an exemplar of the superb building
craftsmanship it is still possible to obtain –
if at a cost.
Craig Hamilton Architects was established
in 1991 and is committed to producing
“progressive classical and traditional
architecture”. Given the somewhat
disappointing history of the so-called New
Classicists in Britain over the last four
decades or so, with so many new country
houses being merely pedantic reproductions
of Palladian precedents, to aspire to being
both progressive and traditional might seem
oxymoronic. Hamilton’s work suggests
otherwise. Properly, traditionally, trained in
South Africa, he not only knows and
understands the classical language but has
wide and intelligent sympathies. He is
familiar with the ancients and with the
Renaissance, but also delights in Mannerism
and has an impressive interest in and
familiarity with nineteenth- and twentiethcentury classicists, architects who could still
invent and experiment: Schinkel, Cockerell,
Thomson, Joass, Plećnik. This can be seen at
the new chapel at Culham.
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It was a commission – from the Culham
Chapel Trust – not without difficulties.
The first proposal, in 2008, was for a chapel
to be built near the coach house of Culham
Court, a Georg ian red brick country house
overlooking the Thames near Henley, but
the National Trust (which has a covenant
over the land) objected. An undistinguished
modern house (once permitted by the NT)
on a much better, elevated site in the
eighteenth-century park was then bought,
and it was eventually agreed that this could
be replaced by the proposed chapel. The
orig inal brief was for a Roman Catholic
chapel to seat 100. After negotiations, work
started on a revised design seating some 76
people and is now complete – apart from
much of the new sculpture intended for
the interior.
The first impression is of a traditional
building, a temple or basilica harmonious
with the landscape and faced in carefully
graded knapped flint in panels between
areas of white Portland stone, with semicircular Diocletian windows piercing the
walls above. To the south-east, facing rising
ground, is an apse; to the north-west,
towards the river, the entrance portico. But
even here, nothing is quite conventional.
On one of the long side elevations is a door
(to the baptistery) which is an exercise in
Mannerism, after Hamilton’s expressive
muse Michelangelo, with games being
played with wall planes and elegant
brackets, while the tetrastyle portico itself
is most unusual. The order used is the
Doric, from Cockerell’s favourite temple
at Bassae, except that the two inner
supports are left as plain piers between
severe rectangular openings – as found
in Egyptian architecture and in twentiethcentury stripped-classical buildings.
Left
The west front is approached from a
wrought iron gate within the ha-ha
through a cutting in the site, along a
sloping path of Blue Lias limestone
setts with Portland stone insets.
3
Piers flanking the central bay of the
portico have projecting plinths that
will support bronze figures of saints.
6
5
4
2
1
Beneath the portico, the west wall is
constructed out of Portland stone and
panels of knapped Norfolk flint. A
sculpted frieze will sit below the stone
coffered ceiling, above bronze doors.
Above
The organ loft, above the narthex and
baptistery, houses the purpose-made
organ and accommodates a small choir.
Right
Ground floor and crypt plans.
Key
1
Portico
2
Narthex
3 Baptistery
7
8
4 Nave
5 Sanctuary
6 Apse
7
Lady Chapel
8 Mortuary chapel
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Right
A drawing of the sanctuary is among
more than 250 watercolours of the
church made by the architect.
Below
A coffered structural Portland stone
barrel-vaulted ceiling spans the nave.
Ten Diocletian windows with clear
handmade g lass in bronze frames
provide clerestorey lighting, and
spring from a Portland stone cornice
over a plain frieze of black limestone.
These horizontal bands of white and
black masonry extend into the curved
apse. The colours refer to the masonry
used by Brunelleschi and his followers.
That theme is continued in the floor,
whose grid of Hoptonwood limestone
bands tie the design to that of the walls.
Walnut pews incorporate the same
motifs as the walnut doors between the
nave and the narthex. Bronze pendant
lights have floral drops that hang down
either side of the fitting to catch and
reflect the light.
The interior is a sing le vessel, covered by a
coffered barrel vault of proper structural
stone. It is dominated by a large white
marble figure of Christ the Redeemer,
a work by the Scottish Neoclassical
sculptor Alexander Stoddart, who has often
collaborated with the architect. Inspired
by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorwaldsen
(1770-1844), it is remarkable for depicting
Christ seated. Elsewhere, more Mannerist
games are played, with the side walls
articulated by Bassae Ionic columns recessed
or buried between rectangular framed
niches, a treatment analogous to the way in
which Michelangelo used the orders in his
Laurentian Library.
What is also evident in this grand, richly
furnished interior is the carving of stone
panels and strips as if they are made of
fabric with a hang ing fringe. As Hamilton
explains, “a unifying theme which is used
throughout the building is that of the ‘cloth’
or ‘drape’ motif. Christianity abounds with
references to fabrics, cloths and veils, et
cetera”. It is surely also an allusion to his
hero Joze Plečnik, who was influenced by
the cladding theory of Gottfried Semper,
that all architecture derives from framed
structures hung with textiles.
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Below
Painted triptych within the baptistery;
altar and two candlesticks in polished
Irish Cork red marble within the Lady
Chapel; organ loft.
Bottom
Six niches either side of the nave are
to contain life-size marble statues of
the 12 apostles.
Each niche is hung with a ‘blanket
drape’ in Portland stone, finished with
a fluted fringe. Between the niches the
Ionic order in black Kilkenny limestone
with Portland capitals is ‘buried’ in the
depth of the wall.
There is also a lower crypt, reached by an
elliptical stone staircase with a solid stone
balustrade which is a triumph of geometry
and precise stereotomy (the quality of the
masonry and stone-carving throughout is
deeply impressive). Here, first, is a small,
intensely furnished and richly decorated
Lady Chapel, beyond which stretches a
mortuary chapel. Greek Doric columns
of Ballinasloe stone support a low vault
and divide the space into nave and aisles.
The combination of grey and white evokes
Florentine Renaissance architecture, in
contrast to the richness of colour and
texture upstairs. The furnishings, however
– screens, altars and more – are all g ilded
and adorned with rich, stylised decoration,
somewhat reminiscent of twentieth-century
relig ious work by, say, Giles Gilbert Scott.
Indeed, what is so very impressive about the
whole chapel is Hamilton’s extraordinary
facility in design, turning his hand to the
organ case, to lamps, murals, furniture,
vestments – even to special door handles
(some with deer heads: Plečnik again)
and basin taps in the luxurious vestries.
Other artists involved include the Cardozo
Kindersley Workshop, for incised lettering,
and, of course, Alexander Stoddart, who has
made several sculptures and reliefs and,
one day, will make the life-size figures
of the twelve apostles to fill the niches in
the nave.
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Below
A cantilevered elliptical Ballinasloe
staircase extends down to the crypt and
up to the organ loft. Its complexity is
increased by the inclusion of a solid
stone balustrade that takes the form of
a continuous ‘blanket drape’.
The stair is enclosed within Portland
stone walls incorporating carved dado
rails, string courses and projecting
panel drapes cut with fluted fringes.
Below right
The crypt was conceived as a mortuary
chapel. It is entered via stone doors.
Five bays are defined by Doric columns
supporting a structural groin-vaulted
ceiling. Diocletian windows admit light
through alabaster set into bronze
frames. Bronze grilles depict symbols
of mortality and immortality.
Each aisle contains an altar and three
burial chambers. The grey and white
masonry is redolent of that used in
Florentine Renaissance architecture.
Many hang ing masonry elements
emphasise the weight and gravitational
pull of the loadbearing structure.
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There is not space here to beg in to do
justice to the many felicities, to the variety
of treatment, to the adaptations and
invention displayed in the handling of the
classical orders, in this sumptuous little
building. Some criticism perhaps there
should be. The clever trick of having the
Doric columns at the corners of the portico,
rather than within strong piers, in antis,
possibly g ives the whole composition a
slight weakness. And the bell tower (more
a bell-cote) which rises arbitrarily from
the lead-covered low-pitched chapel roof,
enlivened by a central Ionic column on each
face (Chorag ic Monument of Thrassyllus,
Greek Thomson) is perhaps too small.
But the point is that these elements can
be evaluated in terms of formal language
as well as of precedents, allowing the
discussion of architecture to be a learned
and intellectual affair. Craig Hamilton’s
Culham Chapel demonstrates that
classicism today can be resourceful,
appropriate, and, in its own terms, truly
orig inal. It is a beautiful building. 
Project team
Selected suppliers
& subcontractors
Architect
Craig Hamilton
Architects
Design team
Craig Hamilton, Edmund
Browne, Thomas Sekula,
Peter Folland
Client representative
Woody Clark
Structural engineer
Frank W Haywood
& Associates
Sculptor
Alexander Stoddart
Main contractor
Symm & Co
Masonry contractor
Ketton Architectural
Stone
Portland stone
Albion Stone, Portland
Stone Firms
Kilkenny stone
McKeon Stone
Mechanical
subcontractor
CH Lindsey
Electrical
subcontractor
Monard Electrical
Organ
Mander Organs
Joinery
Houghtons of York
Thomas Bretton
Plasterers, mosaicists
Cliveden Conservation
Bronzework contractor
S&T Ashby Forg ings