Today we did something rather unusual. We went to church. While that in itself is pretty unusual (though the third time I have been to church in as many months!), that wasn't the half of it. Today was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Owen Jones (1809-1874), the Welsh architect and designer whose theories of design and polychromy were fundamentally inspired by his early experience of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, where he lived and studied for six months in 1834, and whose magnificent publications of its buildings during the 1840s were the first major work to employ the newly invented technology of chromolithography, in order to represent his theories of the use of primary colours in the original decorative scheme of the Islamic palaces. These books were also almost single-handedly responsible for the Victorian discovery of the Alhambra and of 'Moorish' design, and were perpetuated through all his later work, at the Crystal Palaces at Hyde Park (for the Great Exhibition of 1851) and at Sydenham, where he designed and erected an 'Alhambra Court' - a 3D version of the Alhambra palaces in microcosm, in the heart of south London, in the Grammar of Ornament, which became an immensely popular and widely-used design textbook, and in the foundation of what became the South Kensington Museum, now the Victoria and Albert Museum, where I have the great privilege to be a curator. Jones is very current in our thoughts these days, since the 19th-century revival of Islamic Spain and dissemination of its designs, primarily through his work, will form the fourth chapter of the book I will soon be writing, and my colleague Abraham Thomas has curated a display which will open at the V&A on 28th March (until late November), in time to celebrate his bicentenary. During the second half of this year, we will be working together on turning this display into a fully-fledged touring exhibition. More on that anon, no doubt.
So Abraham had the bright idea, because Owen Jones's birthday fell on a Sunday - today - to attend the service at Christ Church in Streatham, which was designed and built in the Byzantine style (though with Islamic inflections) by Jones's brother-in-law and protégé, James Wild, in 1841 - the V&A has several of Wild's original designs in the collection, for instance here. Jones conceived the interior design, of which all that survives is the painting in the apse ceiling, and the decoration of the capitals.
This church is basically at the end of our street - it's a 20-minute walk up Brixton Hill. I had tried to visit it before, during one of the two-week breaks I like to take from work in the summer, in order to explore London - but I had come at a time when the church was closed and there was no getting in. I had made a note of the vicar, Father Tricklebank's (what a fantastic name!), contact details, and Abraham got in touch and let him know that we were coming. There was quite a contingent of us: myself and K; Abraham and his girlfriend; Kathryn who did her PhD on Owen Jones and is our fount of all knowledge; Sonia who is working at the V&A on Indian textiles and has discovered interesting links to Owen Jones through the history of the Museum's collecting (which you can read more about in her recent article, here); and Charles, who was one of our curators of prints and drawings until his retirement a few years ago, and another expert in the 19th century.
Father Tricklebank put us on the order of service, and even mentioned us in his address - he had been doing a spot of reading, in preparation for our visit, and brought attention to the fact that Byzantine and Islamic styles had been employed in the design and decoration of the church, and that this regard for other faiths and cultures was reflected in the congregation of the church today, which is largely African and Afro-Caribbean. It was gratifying to see so many people in the congregation - as Charles commented, about as many as you might expect on a slack Sunday in 1846... There was also a baptism on the order of service, of a very sweet Nigerian baby who was being christened with the fantastic name of Chisom Pureheart Obiesie. It made you think of Arthurian legends, and the setting was right for that! This was the first baptism I had ever been to. It was very high church - I think they are Anglo-Catholics, and I must say I found it difficult to distinguish between this and the memorial service we attended for Ralph Pinder-Wilson last month at the high Catholic church of Our Lady of Victories. K went up to take Communion - I am never sure if he does this out of genuine residual faith, or if it is because of his academic interest in the working of churches. Probably a bit of both.
After the service, they welcomed us to look around and take pictures, and go up to the gallery, to get a closer look at the capitals and organ (which had Egyptian-style papyrus designs on its pipes). Several members of the congregation came up to ask us more about Owen Jones and the history of the church. The layout of the church reminded me of the synagogue we had visited during Open House weekend last September, the New West End Synagogue in Bayswater, also High Victorian and decorated internally in a neo-Byzantine style, but from the 1870s - indicating how influential, but also avant-garde, Wild's church at Streatham had been.
After milling and looking for half an hour or so, we went off to lunch at Brazas on Tulse Hill, which was really an excuse for K and I to try a relatively recently-opened local restaurant which several of our neighbours have raved to us about. It was excellent - very much a place to be returned to many times. This even led to talk of celebrating Owen Jones's birthday every year, or founding a gastronomic society in his honour!
After a somewhat lazy lunch, the others, very commitedly, set off to travel to Kensal Green Cemetery, one of London's great Victorian cemeteries, where Owen Jones and other Victorian worthies of his generation are buried. We wandered gently home, having taken absolutely no form of transport other than our feet all day. How wonderful!
This week in 1809 was a vintage week for births - Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on Wednesday! Some other names came up over lunch, but the only one I can remember now is Edgar Allen Poe. Sadly Owen Jones is not quite so renowned these days, and is not getting any of the press coverage that Darwin is getting (the BBC are doing a whole season on him!). We're doing our bit though, in our own little way. Happy Birthday Mr Jones!
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