Marble pulpit

Architect: John Dando Sedding

1890

Sloane Street, London SW1.

“THE PULPIT, which now stands against one of the piers in the South aisle is panelled in rich, multi-coloured marbles, and is supported on columns of alabaster and red marble. Sedding, throughout his life, was influenced by Ruskin's love of marble, and the eloquence with which he had described the interior of St Mark's in The Stones of Venice. However, in his original conception of the pulpit he intended that some of the marble should be replaced, and the pulpit enriched, with elaborately wrought bronze panels by Alfred Gilbert, the sculptor of Eros in Piccadilly Circus, and the greatest British sculptor of the day. The wrought iron hand-rails to the steps ascending to the pulpit were also designed by Sedding, and are a fusion of heraldic formality and sinuous art nouveau. Like Wilson's chancel gates they were made by Henry Longden, whose firm also made the original light-fittings to Scolding's design. In Sedding's initial plans and drawings the pulpit was to stand against the corresponding pier in the North aisle.” — Skipwith, 51