The West Entrance The South Entrance

Outside St. James's Church is a large churchyard, a garden and the church hall. Immediately next door to the church is the vicarage. The most striking and characteristic external feature of the church is its tower and spire at the west end of the church.

The south porch, built on to the church in 1879, houses both one of the entrances to the church and also an entrance to the church hall. The current west porch was built on to the church in 2005, replacing an older one.

A large teak-framed notice board, with glass doors, made at Twickenham Technical College, was erected on St. James’s Road frontage in the early 1960s. The doors were removed after it was vandalised and then it was moved to face Park Road around 2000. A new smaller metal board was sited there when the church hall was built. See the pictures below.

There are several crosses on the roof of the church and one right on top of the Spire. A different gargoyle is on each of the four corners of the top of the tower. The word gargoyle the French 'gargouille' meaning throat and the Latin 'gurgulio' meaning throat and the gurgling sound water makes as it passes through a gargoyle. A gargoyle is a carved stone waterspout designed to carry rainwater away from a roof and from the side of a building to stop it from running down the walls and eroding the mortar between the stone blocks. The rain water gushes through the open mouth, or as in the case of those at St. James's along a lead runner above the head, away from the building. The longer the gargoyle is the further the water is thrown from the wall. The crosses and gargoyles can be seen on the images page The Church's Exterior.

Two of the crosses on the roof

The lych gate

The noticeboard in 2008

A gargoyle on the top of the tower

A foundation stone, on the outside of the east wall, for the church was consecrated in 1863. One for the tower and spire, on the south side of the base of the tower, was laid on the 20th of June 1887. The last foundation stone, that for the church hall, on the west side of the porch, was consecrated by the Bishop of London, David Hope, during the St. James’s Festival on the 4th July, 1993.

Foundation stone for the church

Foundation stone for the tower/spire

Foundation stone for the church hall