Max Lamb redesigns church interiors in the 1960s
London-based designer Max Lamb has created a new altarpiece, sanctuary floor, Easter candleholders and altarpiece for St John Chrysostom’s Church in Peckham, London
Designer Max Lamb, who created a new altarpiece, sanctuary floor, altar candleholders, and candle holder for the Anglican Church in south London, says there is something brutal, modest and pure in St John Chrysostom’s Church in Peckham. “It is not decorated with a lot of decorations or carvings as you see in other churches,” he adds.
Completed in 1966 and replaced by two earlier parish churches that were bombed in World War II, St John Chrysostom’s Church has a pitched copper roof, a softwood roof, and a tower over the sanctuary that provides dramatic indirect lighting for the space below. “When you’re in the congregation looking at the altar, you don’t see any windows and you don’t see where the light comes from,” says Lamb. “So it creates this slanting column of light which makes some amazing effects and shadows.”
Commissioned by the church on behalf of the Archdiocese of Southwark and produced by art curator and producer Aldo Rinaldi, the project saw Lamb respond to the stark beauty of the building’s architecture and the simplicity of its material color palette by keeping its offerings in the same sobriety but poetic record and adhering to similar materials.
However, he was keen on having the extra items. “When I first visited the church, the original altar was made of brick and wood and the effect of the brick altar against a background of a brick wall meant it was almost invisible.” Lamb instead chose Portland stone for the altar and candle holders, which not only contrasts well with the surroundings but is also a nod to the fact that one of the earlier churches on the site – St Jude’s – was built of Portland stone. “One of the stone pillars has been preserved from the site and converted into a baptismal font,” says Lamb. Two other small and unusual elements made of the same limestone can be found in the chapel: a cantilever bench behind the altar and a fresco directly above it.
The altar consists of four panels of Portland stone held together using slot joints and a fifth slab inserted within the four walls. With crisscross decorations at the four corners where the legs meet, and its recessed base designed so that the parish priest can stand near the altar, the finished body appears majestic but has an attractive floating quality despite its weight.
The two candle holders are made of the same sedimentary stone and are cylindrical in shape, while the massive Paschal candle holder is also cylindrical and made of Portland stone but slightly taller (1.35 m) and features a reclaimed teak base for stability that accurately repeats the altar cross.
The final part of the church that Lamb treated was the stepped, raised sanctuary floor which was covered in cork and was in poor condition. I’m generally very pro, but decided it was another foreign element in this case, in that it wasn’t a material found elsewhere, so my suggestion wasn’t to add something new here but to remove the old and sand the concrete underneath so it looks lubricated.
The new old floor complements the existing concrete elements of the church, such as the original stained glass, concrete windows designed by Susan Johnson, and the large concrete base of the organ tubes. The result, enhanced by highly effective natural and artificial lighting (thanks to a recent renovation), is a dramatic, refined and quietly contemplative space with a sculpted altar and candle holders at its heart. §
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