Out of Africa: G. F. Bodley, William White, and the Anglican Mission Church of St Philip, Grahamstown, 1857–67

The Anglican mission church of St Philip, Grahamstown, is to this day a relatively little-known building (Fig. i). Erected at the height of Anglican missionary fervour in the 1860s, it is at first sight a small, nondescript structure the likes of which could be found throughout South Africa — indeed, the entire British empire — during the nineteenth century. On closer inspection, however, St Philip's reveals itself to be anything but ordinary. It is one of very few buildings of its type remaining in South Africa that is entirely original in its design and almost completely unaltered in its condition. Although a number of noteworthy Anglican churches in the region survive from this period (especially those by Sophia Gray), many have been restored and/or extended. St Philip's, however, remains today virtually the same as it was when consecrated over 140 years ago.