'Twenty-Five' Churches of the Southwark Diocese
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE ‘TWENTY-FIVE’ CHURCHES OF THE SOUTHWARK DIOCESE THE ‘TWENTY-FIVE’ CHURCHES OF THE SOUTHWARK DIOCESE An inter-war campaign of church-building Kenneth Richardson with original illustrations by John Bray The Ecclesiological Society • 2002 ©KennethRichardson,2002.Allrightsreserved. First published 2002 The Ecclesiological Society c/o The Society of Antiquaries of London Burlington House Piccadilly London W1V 0HS www.ecclsoc.org PrintedinGreatBritainbytheAldenPress,OsneyMead,Oxford,UK ISBN 0946823154 CONTENTS Author’s Preface, vii Acknowledgements, ix Map of Southwark Diocese, x INTRODUCTION AND SURVEY, 1 GAZETTEER BELLINGHAM, St Dunstan, 15 CARSHALTON BEECHES, The Good Shepherd, 21 CASTELNAU (Barnes), Estate Church Hall, 26 CHEAM, St Alban the Martyr, 28 St Oswald, 33 COULSDON, St Francis of Assisi, 34 DOWNHAM, St Barnabas, Hall and Church, 36 St Luke, 41 EAST SHEEN, All Saints, 43 EAST WICKHAM, St Michael, 49 ELTHAM, St Barnabas, 53 St Saviour, Mission Hall, 58 and Church, 60 ELTHAM PARK, St Luke, 66 FURZEDOWN (Streatham), St Paul, 72 HACKBRIDGE & NORTH BEDDINGTON, All Saints, 74 MALDEN, St James, 79 MERTON, St James the Apostle, 84 MITCHAM, St Olave, Hall and Church, 86 MORDEN, St George 97 MOTSPUR PARK, Holy Cross, 99 NEW ELTHAM, All Saints, 100 Contents NORTH SHEEN (Kew), St Philip the Apostle & All Saints, 104 OLD MALDEN, proposed new Church, 109 PURLEY, St Swithun, 110 PUTNEY, St Margaret, 112 RIDDLESDOWN, St James, 120 ST HELIER, Church Hall, 125 Bishop Andrewes’s Church, 128 St Peter, 133 SANDERSTEAD, St Mary the Virgin, 140 SOUTH BEDDINGTON, St Michael & All Angels, 144 SOUTHEND (Catford), St John the Baptist, 148 STREATHAM, Holy Redeemer, Hall & Church, 156 TOLWORTH, St George, 164 TOOTING, St Augustine, 167 WALLINGTON, St Patrick, 171 WELLING, St Mary the Virgin, 176 Abbreviations, 180 Notes, 181 Index, 190 vi AUTHOR’S PREFACE The compilation of this volume has, in a sense, been a pioneering project, for there has been no previous attempt to produce a cohes- ive account of the Southwark Diocese Twenty-#ve Churches Fund and the ambitious construction programme which it helped to #nance. When I #rst embarked on the necessary research work, it quickly became apparent that sources of information were quite widely dispersed, so that I now have the pleasure of acknowledging with gratitude the help, advice and encouragement which I have unfailingly received from the large number of institutions and individuals I consulted. Particular thanks are due to the staff of the following repositories whose archives each proved an absolute gold-mine of valuable information: Church of England Record Centre, Council for the Care of Churches (especially their Church Survey Files), London Metropolitan Archives (formerly Greater London Record Of#ce), Royal Institute of British Architects (British Architectural Library and Drawings Collection), and the Surrey Record Of#ce. Additionally, the staff of Local Studies Libraries in the follow- ing London Boroughs each conjured up a considerable amount of useful data: Bexley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston-upon- Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond-upon-Thames, Southwark, Sutton and Wandsworth. All this was supplemented by information kindly furnished, sometimes orally, by incumbents, parishioners and others too numerous to single out by name. Their help was equally valuable and is greatly appreciated. IwouldalsoliketoexpressmythankstoJohnBrayforpermis- sion to use his drawings, a small part of his magni#cent portfolio of more than #ve hundred London churches. His drawings are inten- ded to highlight the architectural character of the buildings, and trees and blocking foliage have sometimes been omitted in the interest of recording the structure. Even reduced in size as they are here, his work often gives the measure of a building better than a photograph. As for the photographs, a good number are my own, because of the lack of material in the public collections. My pictures were often taken under rushed conditions, and certainly with no thought of publication. No-one is more aware of their weaknesses than myself, but I have been persuaded that any photograph is better than none, and, in the hope that this is true, would ask the reader’s forbearance. Because of the diversity of sources, and the sad loss of some parish records over the years, it has not been altogether easy to piece vii Preface together the various strands of historical data on individual build- ings and sites into a tolerably coherent and balanced whole. More- over, some of the churches described here have been particularly well served by published material of one kind or another; but others scarcely at all. The consequent harvest of relevant facts has thus been a little more uneven than I would ideally have wished. Inevitably a few omissions will be noticed by the diligent reader; some of these are deliberate, in the interests of reasonable concise- ness, whilst others may have occurred through inadvertence or ignorance on my part. I tender my apologies for any obvious shortcomings of this latter kind. KENNETH V. RICHARDSON viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author and publishers acknowledge with gratitude the permis- sion of the following to reproduce illustrations and photographs: EMAP Construct, for The Architect’s Journal, (East Sheen, All Saints, plan); The Builder Group PLC (Putney, St Margaret, drawing; Hackbridge and North Beddington, All Saints, watercolour); Carshalton, The Good Shepherd (drawings); Church of England Record Centre (Castelnau Church Hall, drawing; Eltham St Saviour Church Hall, plan and elevation; Southend, St John the Baptist, architect’s sketches of the church); Council for the Care of Churches (Eltham, St Barnabas, photographs of interior; Eltham Park, St Luke, photographs of aisle; New Eltham, All Saints, photograph of east end before restoration; Wallington, St Patrick, early drawing of east end); Downham, St Luke (architect’s drawing of interior); East Sheen, All Saints (drawings of the original proposal for the exterior, and of the church with tower); English Heritage, NMR (Southend, St John the Baptist, photographs); Incorporated Church Building Society (Bellingham, St Dunstan, drawing from west; Carshalton, The Good Shepherd, plan; Eltham, St Saviour, plan; Hackbridge and North Beddington, All Saints, watercolour; Mitcham, St Olave, drawing from south; North Sheen, St Philip, plan; St Helier, St Peter, plan and external photograph; Streatham, Holy Redeemer, plan and interior photograph; Tooting, St Augustine, plan); London Borough of Lewisham (Southend, St John the Baptist, photograph of interior showing north chapel); London Borough of Sutton (Carshalton, The Good Shepherd, interior looking east; Cheam, St Alban, interior looking east); London Metropolitan Archives (Bellingham, St Dunstan, plan, east and north elevation, section across nave; St Helier, St Peter, elevations); Mitcham, St Olave (architect’s plan and elevations); New Eltham, All Saints (photograph of east end before restoration); Purley Library Local History Collection (Riddlesdown, St James, photograph of interior); RIBA Library Drawings Collection (Eltham Park, St Luke, south elevation; Streatham, Holy Redeemer, watercolour of east end); Riddlesdown, St James (1940s drawing of church, architect’s drawing); Southend, St John the Baptist (architect’s drawings of interior and exterior); Surrey History Service (Mitcham, St Olave, photograph of sanctuary); Wallington, St Patrick (early drawing of east end); Woodbridge, Mrs Joyce (Eltham, St Saviour Mission Church, interior photograph). The publishers apologise for any accidental breach of copyright in cases where it has not been possible to establish reproduction rights. If noti#ed, they will correct the matter in any future edition. ix The Diocese of Southwark at about the time of the Twenty-five Churches Fund. The Croydon area, shown here as a detached sector (‘peculiar’) of the Diocese of Canterbury, was subsequently absorbed into that of Southwark. x Introduction and survey THE ‘TWENTY-FIVE’ CHURCHES An Introduction and Survey The Problem In his successful General Election campaign at the end of 1918, Lloyd George made his famous promise of ‘A Land Fit for Heroes to Live In’. One of the principal objectives he had in mind was the provision of suitable housing for the millions of men-at-arms who had survived the #rst World War and were now to rejoin their families at home. The problem was that, particularly in the inner cities, four years of strict wartime restrictions on building and maintenance had caused much of the existing housing stock to become badly dilapid- ated and numerically inadequate. In an attempt to remedy this, a Housing Act was passed in 1919 which conferred responsibility on local authorities for the supply of housing for people of limited means. In London, the County Council responded by purchasing land at several locations on the outskirts of the capital and erecting thereon, during the 1920s and 1930s, a series of huge cottage estates. Additionally the London boroughs pursued similar pol- icies, and the part played by private developers cannot be ignored. The inevitable result of all these efforts was a mass migration from the run-down inner areas to the new towns. Despite the obvious attractions of better quality housing and more congenial surroundings, the move proved to be a traumatic one for many, involving as it did the break-up of close-knit communities, the need to seek new work in an unfamiliar area or to undertake long journeys to an existing work-place,