St Thomas of Canterbury (RC), Fulham, London SW6, by A.W.N. Pugin (original) (raw)

The west end of the church from the churchyard.

St Thomas of Canterbury, Rylston Road, Fulham, London SW6. Built by George Myers in 1847-48, using coursed Kentish rubblestone with Caen dressings, this Grade II* listed church is, as St Thomas's own website points out, "the only complete Pugin Church in London, ... designed in the decorative and inventive English Gothic of the late 13th – early 14th centuries." It is also part of a complex with a brick-built presbytery of 1850 attached at the north side, and a school, so of great interest to Pugin scholars. [Click on all the images to enlarge them.]

As for exterior, with its three aisles, the church itself has three gables on the Rylston Road side, partially hidden by trees, and a north-west tower on the cemetery side at the back (as shown above), making it one of the architect's few asymetrical churches. The three-stage tower and spire reach 142' (Evinson 122), while the height of the two gables at the west decreases towards the liturgical south, with the south aisle naturally being narrower and subordinate to the nave. John Harries, when listing these asymetrical churches, describes St Thomas's in passing as "a handsome church" (39). But, although Pugin set store by landmark towers and spires in large churches, Phoebe Stanton suggests that he could find it hard to incorporate them successfully into the overall design: here as elsewhere, she feels, the general effect is "complex and angular," lacking coherence — "a mere collection of parts" (135).

Certainly, the well-proportioned and colourful interior makes a greater impact than the exterior, especially since its redecoration of 2010.

The interior, looking east towards the sanctuary. Notice the sunburst pattern against the green of the sanctuary roof.

This is not exactly as Pugin himself envisioned it. One early change occurred when the church's patron, Elizabeth Bowden, refused to countenance the placing of a rood screen between nave and chancel. Other changes would follow. The stencilling itself, though clearly inspired by Pugin's designs, is from the recent decoration, "with the arches and window reveals being picked out in blue and brown with white fleurons whilst the nave and sanctuary ceilings are blue" ("Fulham — St Thomas of Canterbury"). As an example of the pains taken to channel Pugin's own vision, the same source notes that "[t]he sunburst details in the sanctuary are taken from Pugin’s Glossary of Floriated Ornament (1843)."

Left: The north aisle, with its chapel dedicated to St John the Evangelist. Right: The south aisle or Lady Chapel.

Worth noting here is the front of the organ gallery on the north wall. The structure itself came later, but the finely worked wooden screen was to a design by Pugin. Of special note in each chapel are the original stained glass windows. Unfortunately, John Hardman's great east window itself was lost to war damage (except for the tracery) and replaced in 1947 by the firm of Goddard and Gibbs with a rather uninspired row of saints. St Thomas of Canterbury is flanked by four further figures: John Fisher and St Alban on one side, and St Edmund and St Thomas More on the other. However, Hardman's chapel windows remained intact. The north one focuses on the Crucifixion, while the south chapel has two, the three-light east window depicting "a scene of healing," and the two-light one in the south wall depicting the flight into Egypt and the holy family (Eberhard).

Left: The stone lectern or pulpit. Right: The font.

Despite the changes over the years, writes Denis Evinson, "[t]he reredos of the original high altar remains, as well as two side altars, the font and the stone lectern from which Newmanpreached at the opening of the church. All of these were then in place, having been designed by Pugin and supplied by Myers" (122). At the base of the octagonal font, shown on the right above, are carvings of the evangelists. From left to right can be seen the eagle of St John, the winged figure of St Matthew, and the winged lion of St Mark.

The interior, looking west from the chancel.

The pews are new, but aesthetically pleasing, in the Arts and Crafts tradition. The beautiful five-light west window by Nathaniel Westlake, dating from 1896, has survived intact. It is surely one of his finest, depicting the assumption and coronation of the Mary.

Outside in the small cemetery are the graves of several important architects, including Joseph Hansom and Joseph Scoles, as well as those of several descendants of Dickens. And at the other end of the churchyard is St Thomas's School, with what the church website describes as its "nucleus of Pugin rooms" dating from 1849.

As the church lost its early rural context and became part of the metropolis, the group of buildings as a whole became not only more liable to bomb damage, but less "picturesque" (Cherry and Pevsner 234). But the recent redecoration has done much to enhance the church interior; and St Thomas of Canterbury and its associated structures still constitute a fascinating ensemble which is "well worth studying" (Cherry and Pevsner 234).

You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.

Bibliography

"A Brief Parish History." St Thomas of Canterbury, Fulham. Web. 26 October 2025.

Cherry, Brigid and Nikolaus Pevsner. London 3: North West. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002.

"Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, Rylston Road SW6." Historic England. Web. 26 October 2025.

Eberhard, Robert. "St Thomas of Canterbury (RC) Church in Fulham, Inner London." Church Stained Glass Records. Web. 27 October 2025.

Evinson, Denis. Catholic Churches of London. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998.

"Fulham – St Thomas of Canterbury." Taking Stock: Catholic Churches of England and Wales. Web. 26 October 2026. https://taking-stock.org.uk/building/fulham-fulham-1-st-thomas-of-canterbury/

Harries, John Glen. Pugin: An Illustrated Life of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, 1812-1852 (1973, rpt with amendments). Princes Risborough, Bucks: Shire, 1994.

Stanton, Phoebe. Pugin. New York: Viking, 1972.

Created 27 October 2025