Jesus is Condemned to Death, the first Station of the Cross. Designed by John Standen Adkins, assistant to the architect James Brooks, at St John the Baptist Church, Holland Road, Kensington, London. The church's listing text dates these mosaics in their "aedicular surrounds" to 1912-15, when Adkins was responsible for the church's completion. As shown above left, however, there is a small plaque beneath the mosaic, and it reads, "Gift of the Children of the Church, 1891." Since twelve of the fourteen "Stations" are every much of the same hand (two are quite different, and not mosaics at all), it might be that a set of twelve was designed in Brooks's own lifetime, but only completed under the aegis of Adkins as further donations were made. In any case, these mosaics reflect not only the zeal of the congregation but also the enthusiasm for mosaic work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when Byzantine influence was at its height. The scene is a dramatic one, with Jesus in custody facing Pilate in the Judgement Hall, and a boy with bowed head in attendance, bearing the bowl in which Pilate will wash his hands "of the blood of this just person" (Matthew 27, 24).
Photographs by John Salmon and text by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Bibliography
"List Entry" (for St John the Baptist, Holland Road). Historic England. Web. 3 June 2015.
Created 3 June 2015