St James The Less, Pimlico

St James the Less is an Anglican church in Pimlico, Westminster, built in 1858–61 by George Edmund Street in the Gothic Revival style. A grade I listed building, it has been described as "one of the finest Gothic Revival churches anywhere". The church was constructed predominately in brick with embellishments from other types of stone. Its most prominent external feature is its free-standing Italian-style tower, while its interior incorporates design themes which Street observed in medieval Gothic buildings in continental Europe. HistoryThe church was Street's first commission in London, which he took on after his widely admired work in the diocese of Oxford and at All Saints, Boyne Hill, Maidenhead, where he delivered buildings in polychromatic red brick and stone. He had also published in 1855, to considerable acclaim, his book Brick and Marble Architecture in Italy. In 1858, he was commissioned by the three daughters of the Bishop of Gloucester (James Henry Monk) to construct a church in their father's memory in what was, at the time, an area of slums and run-down tenements in a very poor part of London. The parish was inhabited by around 31, 000 people at the time. The church, which stands on land formerly owned by Westminster Abbey, was consecrated in 1861. Street also built a parish school next to the church in 1861–64, in similar style, while his son Arthur Edmund Street revisited his father's designs in 1890 to add an infants' school (now a parish hall) attached to the west end of the church.

St James the Less is an Anglican church in Pimlico, Westminster, built in 1858–61 by George Edmund Street in the Gothic Revival style. A grade I listed building, it has been described as "one of the finest Gothic Revival churches anywhere". The church was constructed predominately in brick with embellishments from other types of stone. Its most prominent external feature is its free-standing Italian-style tower, while its interior incorporates design themes which Street observed in medieval Gothic buildings in continental Europe. HistoryThe church was Street's first commission in London, which he took on after his widely admired work in the diocese of Oxford and at All Saints, Boyne Hill, Maidenhead, where he delivered buildings in polychromatic red brick and stone. He had also published in 1855, to considerable acclaim, his book Brick and Marble Architecture in Italy. In 1858, he was commissioned by the three daughters of the Bishop of Gloucester (James Henry Monk) to construct a church in their father's memory in what was, at the time, an area of slums and run-down tenements in a very poor part of London. The parish was inhabited by around 31, 000 people at the time. The church, which stands on land formerly owned by Westminster Abbey, was consecrated in 1861. Street also built a parish school next to the church in 1861–64, in similar style, while his son Arthur Edmund Street revisited his father's designs in 1890 to add an infants' school (now a parish hall) attached to the west end of the church.