Hornsey Church Tower

This Sunday afternoon, I decided to take a walk locally, simply to stretch my legs and perhaps burn up a few calories. I have walked past the St Mary's church tower many times in the last 20 years, and knew that there had been some restoration done upon it or iniside it, but had never seen inside, or walked to the top. Imagine my delight to find that today was an Open Day, and that I could actually visit inside.

The Friends of Hornsey Church Tower (whose picture is above - the tower, not the Friends!) have spent the last 19 years restoring this landmark, though even they will admit they have a way to go yet.

Most of the money needed has come either from the Heritage Lottery Fund or local fundraising by the Friends.

The tower is part of a medieval church (St Mary) when Hornsey was a small village in Middlesex. The lower part was probably completed around 1500. The top was added in 1832, to add the clock and bells. The church, however, was demolished - apart, obviously, from the tower - in 1927. By then, a larger church had been built next door for the growing village/suburb. However, they never had enough money to finish the original design; the spire - and thus, the bells, were never added. So they had retained the old church's tower as a campanile.

The Victorian church was demolished in 1968 (I don't know if it suffered damage during WWII, but it was considered too expensive to repair). An infants school was built on the site. The old church tower had, by this time, become a listed building, but lay derelict for 20 years, until the Friends were formed and managed some funding to start repairs.

Since then, the restoration has continued, and a year ago it was so far advanced that the parish decided to use it once more for services twice a week, using the small chapel - holds about 25 people - at the base of the tower.

An interesting open day, being able to get to the top and see where I live. I'd long been able to see the tower from the top floor of this house - it is probably only about 200 yards away - and it was a pleasant change to take the reverse view. While up at the top, I managed a snap of Alexandra Palace, which includes the original BBC TV studios - see the part under the mast in the second photo to the right.