: Courtyard
The All Saints site is entered through iron gates into a courtyard (used for post-service refreshments almost year-round, All Saints’ congregation being hardy people). Immediately opposite is the great buttress with its relief carving of the Annunciation.
To the right stands the vicarage, while on the left stands the old choir school which now houses:
- (Ground Floor) the Parish Room, in what used to be the choir schoool refectory, containing a Butterfield designed fireplace, his distinctive cast iron beams, and a series of panels representing Christ and the four Evangelists, and
- (Upper Floors) residential accommodation.
Soaring above the courtyard is the 227-feet spire – higher than the towers of Westminster Abbey.
All Saints is built of brick. The Ecclesiologists had originally extolled the virtues of rough stone walls, but were converted by the brick churches of Italy and North Germany. The pink brick chosen by Butterfield was actually more expensive than stone. The bold chequered patterning is most likely to have been based on English East Anglian tradition.