page_title: Church Army Chapel, Blackheath
section_title: Building
hierarchical_section_title: Church Army Chapel, Blackheath / Design / Building
caption_attribution_description: South-east elevation of Church Army Chapel, Blackheath, London, England, being built during 1964. This is a 2009 scan of a 1964 slide taken by the architect, E.T. Spashett (from his archive collection). The scan came out very dark indeed, and some photoshopping of light and contrast was required after the scan to bring out the details - however nothing has been added. There is a slight chance that the metal objects piled on the ground (left edge of image) could be the aluminium sections of the spire. They are not scaffolding (too short and wide; compare with real scaffolding on right of image). The pieces include (possibly) the flanged spire base and a few of the tin-can-shaped sections. During later development the base was redesigned, possibly with a much larger base-plate. The original base-fixing for the spire in the centre of the roof in this picture looks much smaller than the remains of the fixing still evident in 2009. N.B. This image is possibly reversed left-right; it will be corrected in due course.
context_page_description: The Church Army Chapel at Vanbrugh Park, Blackheath, Greater London, designed by project architect E.T. Spashett for Austin Vernon & Partners, opened in 1965 by Princess Alexandra and consecrated by Michael Ramsey, is a locally listed building of outstanding architectural significance, and is notable for originally having had the tallest sectional aluminium spire of its time, and for being one of the earliest 20th-century chapels of modern design to have been conceived with a central altar. It is now part of Blackheath High School.
context_section_description: In the official programme for the 1965 opening the building is described as follows:
  "The chapel is of special interest: it has been planned to suit modern conceptions of worship, with the faithful gathered round the communion table and the celebrant normally facing the people.  Its shell roof is in the shape of a hyperbolic paraboloid, and is constructed of three thin skins of timber laid in different directions, glued and spiked, being supported entirely by its two buttresses.  The slit windows which run from floor to roof are separated by concrete pillars faced outside with a white mosaic tile finish and inside with white leather-cloth.  The furnishings and doors are of American black walnut and the floor is a grey-green terrazzo."
  The columns between the windows do not appear to meet the roof when viewed from below: this gives a floating-roof effect. Although the tops of the white brick walls on the east and west elevations are fixed to the roof to stabilise it, the floating-roof effect is continued with a top row of dark blue engineering bricks with dark pointing.  Viewed from below, this row can look like a gap between wall and roof. This row is clearly shown in a photograph in the Blackheath Reporter.
caption: Chapel being built in 1964: south-east elevation, possibly with spire sections piled on the left
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