page_title: Walter Tapper
section_title: Buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Walter Tapper / Buildings
caption_attribution_description: English: Inside the parish church of the Annunciation, Bryanston Street, Marble Arch, London W1, England, looking east to the chancel
context_page_description: Sir Walter John Tapper FRIBA RA FSA KCVO was a British architect known for his work in the Gothic Revival style and a number of church buildings. He worked with some leading ecclesiastical architects of his day and was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Tapper was appointed Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey and acted as consulting architect to York Minster and Manchester Cathedral. On his death in 1935 his son Michael Tapper completed some of his works.
context_section_description: Tapper's first independent church project was the Church of the Ascension at Malvern Link in Worcestershire (1903). This Grade-II listed structure was designed in the Early English style with lancet windows and features a stone relief of the Ascension by Harry Hems.
  In 1901 Tapper submitted an entry into the design competition for Liverpool Cathedral which was assessed by G. F. Bodley and Norman Shaw; Tapper was shortlisted for the final along with four other submissions from Austin & Paley, C. A. Nicholson, Malcolm Stark and Giles Gilbert Scott. Scott's design was selected in 1903, but Tapper's scheme was highly regarded; Sir Charles Herbert Reilly, whose entry for the design competition was also unsuccessful, wrote of Tapper's rejected design, "it seemed to me one of the finest architectural conceptions I had ever seen. I had no idea... that Gothic architecture could be used with such breadth and spaciousness combined with such delicacy and romance."
  In 1905 Tapper was commissioned to build a large Romanesque-style church to serve the growing population of Southend-on-Sea in Essex. His church, dedicated to St Erkenwald, was built of yellow stock brick and featured a large rose window and flying buttresses. Its grand design and exceptionally large dimensions were intentionally aspirational, as the church was said to have been built with the intention of eventual elevation to cathedral status. In the end, St Erkenwald's proved to be surplus to requirements; with dwindling church attendance the church was eventually closed in 1978 and became derelict. Following a fire, the church was demolished in 1995 to make way for residential property development.
  One of his notable architectural achievements is the Church of the Resurrection, at the Mother House of the eponymous Community of the Resurrection, at Mirfield, West Yorkshire. Only the eastern portion of the church was built to Tapper's highly ambitious design which, had it been completed, would have produced a monastic church of a scale hardly seen in England since the Reformation. Begun in 1908, building was stopped because of shortage of funds and by design problems. It was eventually completed by Michael Tapper as a memorial to Charles Gore, theologian, bishop (of Worcester, then Birmingham, then Oxford) and founder of the Community, and whose mortal remains lie in a fine tomb within its walls.
  Tapper's Church of the Annunciation, Marble Arch in London (1912–13) is one of his more notable works; the tall red brick structure occupies a limited space in a densely built-up corner of New Quebec Street and Bryanston Street and features an array of flying buttresses. The Mediæval-revival interior is noted for its completely vaulted structure and visual height; the windows are placed high to eliminate street noise, the organ is placed in a gallery above the sanctuary and the nave is dominated by a striking triumphal crucifix atop an arch (Robert Bridgeman of Lichfield). Tapper designed the internal fittings including the organ casing and the high altar reredos, executed by Jack Bewsey who also designed most of the stained glass. As part of his diploma work for the Royal Academy, Tapper submitted a watercolour of the Annunciation church exterior painted by the architectural artist Charles Gascoyne, indicating that Tapper considered this building to be one of his most successful projects.
  In addition to church building, Tapper was also engaged in ecclesiastical decorative fittings and ornaments. The ornate entrance to the choir at Ludlow Parish Church is his work, as is the gilded altarpiece in St Chad's, Stafford and the organ casing and font cover in St Wulfram's Church, Grantham, and he designed a silver processional cross for York Minster. He also enjoyed a lucrative arrangement with the Gas Light and Coke Company, designing appliance showrooms in the Art Deco Streamline Moderne style.
caption: Interior of Tapper's Church of the Annunciation at Marble Arch (1912–13)
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