Ex cathedra

I'm not a religious man, but I do find that one of the joys of random suburban exploration comes from gingerly poking my head around the door of a post-war Church to have a gawp at the inside.  The Devil may get all the good lines, but God has some nice buildings.

Apropos of basically nothing, here is a couple of little churches I've found taking inspiration from some rather more famous big brothers.

This little church near East Croydon station, shimmering in the afternoon sunlight...

...is doing a lovely impression of stained glass in Basil Spence's cathedral in Coventry.

This one, from which I was hoofed out 'because the door wasn't supposed to be open', is just round the corner from the super Crystal Palace-stylee Homebase in Beckenham Hill.  

Its in-the-round seating and crown-of-thorns centrepiece...

...does a rather good impression of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (the one that isn't Gilbert Scott's immense and dense pink stone Anglican Cathedral), albeit without the neon strips of laser-glazing.

This church (St John the Evangelist*, somewhere quite random in Shirley), is notable for being particularly friendly to this dishevelled cyclist-author as he rolled past on a Wednesday morning.  It doesn't remind me of anything in particular, but it is a rather nice little building.  

*The Google streetview of this appears to have been taken during the apocalypse.  Perhaps they know something I don't.