Visit to St Dionis Vicarage.

We are hoping to arrange a visit to this interesting listed building of 1898-9 by the architect, William White (1825-1900), led by the Ven Richard Frank, Archdeacon of Middlesex. The visit will be dependent on the timings of a possible sale, so please register your interest with Barbara Skorupska (barbaraskorupska@hotmail.com).

This listed detached house has recently been put on the market by the Diocese of London for £3,750,000. The Vicarage, the last commission of the well-known Victorian architect William White (1825– 1900), was built in 1898–99 and has an interesting history. A small proportion of the proceeds from Wren’s St Dionis Backchurch in the City of London had been reserved to build a parsonage to serve the new church on Parsons Green, designed by Ewan Christian between 1883 and 1885. Plans to buy a local property and sell the land were initially rejected by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. However, it was not until the Rev. William Samuel Carter became the incumbent in 1898 that a scheme to build was implemented.

For the previous two years, Carter had lived in the White-designed vicarage for St Matthias, Bethnal Green, so it is not surprising that he turned to White for the design of a parsonage on this site. In July 1898, Carter requested the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to pass the plans "as expeditiously as possible as I wish to have the roof on by the winter."

The Commissioners insisted on a fourth bedroom on the first floor, which White accommodated by extending the central bay and inserting a gabled window and a chimney stack above the front door. Approval was granted, and the foundation stone was laid on 3 October 1898. On 4 August 1898, Dove Bros of Islington agreed to a contract price of £2,300 for the building, which was constructed in stock brick with red-brick dressings under a clay tile roof. The centrally placed arched entrance is only lightly pointed and features a stained-glass fanlight with characteristic spots of rich colors. A more egalitarian attitude toward parishioners removed the need for a separate entrance to access the vicar’s study, and there appears never to have been a ‘green baize door’ to divide the servants’ area from the family space, nor a separate service staircase. Water closets were included on the ground floor in both the family and service areas, while the first-floor bathroom had pivoting windows and a separate W.C.

The Rev. Carter and his family moved into the new vicarage on 22 June 1899, seven months to the day before William White’s death.