The Sacred and the Suburban: Atmospherics, numinosity and 1930s interiors in Ealing, London

Abstract

Near each other in Ealing, London, and both dating from the 1930s, the Ealing Christian Centre (ECC) and the Anglican Church of St Thomas the Apostle show contrasting relationships between interior design and Christian faith. Architect Edward Maufe’s St Thomas’s was a purposeful quest to create numinous sacred space in suburbia. The ECC, a branch of the Elim Pentecostal Church, took over the old Avenue Cinema, one of the finest British examples of the ‘atmospheric’ style. At the ECC, the distinctiveness and theatricality of the building makes an important contribution to the nature of collective worship, but the Church resists on theological grounds any suggestions that the space itself has sacred qualities.

Keywords:

• Sacred space
• suburbs
• theology
• atmospheric cinemas
• numinous space
• 1930s architecture
• London

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Fr. Robert Chapman, Senior Pastor Richard Buxton, Akin Osuntoki and the people of St Thomas’s Church and the Ealing Christian Centre for their support and interest in this research. The Making Suburban Faith project is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as a part of the Connected Communities programme, grant AH/M001636/1 “Design, material culture and popular creativity in suburban faith communities”.

The authors are all participants in the AHRC-funded “Making Suburban Faith” project, based in the Geography Department at University College London. The project explores the creativity of suburban faith communities from different religions and migration traditions, focusing on architecture, material culture, ritual, music, and performance.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Gilbert

David Gilbert is Professor of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London. [email protected]

Laura Cuch

Laura Cuch is a documentary and fine art photographer undertaking a Ph.D. at UCL, and contributes the photo-essay to this article. [email protected]

Claire Dwyer

Claire Dwyer is Reader in Geography at UCL and leader of the Making Suburban Faith Project. [email protected]

Nazneen Ahmed

Nazneen Ahmed is a historian of religion and migration, and Research Associate at UCL in the Making Suburban Faith Project. [email protected]