Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lord, Upper Clapton

The Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lord is a Georgian Orthodox church located on the border of Upper Clapton and Stamford Hill, London.

It is a Grade II* listed building, in part because of its exceptional Arts and Crafts stained glass windows but also as the former headquarters of a late-Victorian Christian cult.

[4] The tower statuary and at least some internal stone carving were designed by Arthur George Walker,[5] and were considered "accomplished" by the national charity English Heritage as part of their rationale for the church's listing.

[6] The main external sculpture consists of two sets of the four beasts of the tetramorph – an ox, a lion, an eagle and a winged person – in stone around the entrance and in bronze at the corners of the top of the tower around the base of the spire.

The stained glass windows were designed by the children's book illustrator and member of the Arts and Crafts movement Walter Crane and made by Sylvester Sparrow.

[6] English Heritage also quotes an 1896 review of the glass by The Builder: "it is difficult to write without superlatives; for richness and magnificence of colour we believe it never has been, and is not likely to be, surpassed".

[10] The church was built for the Agapemonites between 1892 and 1895 as the London base for their rising star John Smyth-Pigott who became their leader (the beloved) in 1899 after the death of the movement's founder.

Aside from the prominent large statuary on and of the tower, an unusual feature of the church interior when it was the Ark of the Covenant was that instead of an altar it had a chair for "the beloved" – Smyth-Pigott.

In 1903 (or September 1902 according to English Heritage[11]) Smyth-Pigott had to be protected by the police from a mob of thousands after he had declared himself to be Jesus Christ but declined to walk over Clapton Pond.

He took refuge in the Agapemonite community in Spaxton and died there in 1927, he was buried in the grounds, and his grave was left open for some time in the expectation of his resurrection.