St. James’s Nativity
St James’s Church, Piccadilly London
Creating a Nativity from a Catalpa (Indian Bean) Tree.
In 2012 I was commissioned by St. James’s Church Piccadilly to create a nativity.
The material for the figures was wood from a Catalpa (Indian Bean) tree which had stood for a century near the entrance to the church. During this time, having survived bombing during the Blitz, the tree had become well known and appreciated beyond those at St. James and appeared in Time Out’s Great Trees of London.
After serving for so many years as a focal point for ceremonies and blessings, their venerable tree had sadly declined in health to the point where it had to be felled in 2011.
The St James’s community hoped that something could be made from its remains which would continue to be part of church life while at the same time commemorating their much loved tree.
Extracting the huge sections of timber from the church grounds was an immense effort in itself, requiring a large team of volunteers and some real ingenuity.
They were then transported to my mountain workshop where, over several months of planning and carving, they became the set of figures which are now a central part of the Christmas celebrations at St. James’s



















