ROMAN CATHOLICISM.
There is no record of
Roman Catholicism in Norwood until the parish of
St. Anselm, Southall Green, was founded in 1906. (fn. 90)
The chapel, a temporary building, was opened in
1907. (fn. 91) In 1919-20 a new hall and church were
opened. (fn. 92) The hall was used as a mixed junior and
infants' school in and after 1921. (fn. 93) In 1930 a new
church of St. Anselm was opened (fn. 94) but this too was
considered temporary by 1961. (fn. 95) At that date it was
a long, low, brick building with a separate small
wooden bell turret; the roof was supported on iron
girders and the east end was separated from the nave
by 3 brick arches. The site for another church on
the Green was being proposed in 1967. (fn. 96)
After the First World War the former St. Marylebone school in South Road (fn. 97) was bought as a Roman
Catholic girls' school and renamed St. Joseph's. (fn. 98)
The school, which was run by the Daughters of the
Cross, (fn. 99) was offered for sale in 1931. The buildings
were demolished soon afterwards and are now commemorated in St. Joseph's Drive. (fn. 1)
PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY.
In 1878
the Primitive Methodists registered a chapel in
Western Road, Southall. (fn. 2) The present chapel building, standing on the corner of Western and Sussex
Roads, was erected in 1876-7. (fn. 3) In 1961 it was a twostory building of yellow brick with a slate roof and
a cement-rendered front. The Wesleyan Methodists
opened a chapel in South Road in 1885 (fn. 4) which was
re-registered in 1907. (fn. 5) Before 1916 the chapel had
been joined by the Wesley Hall. (fn. 6) At that date both
chapel and hall were demolished, and the present
King's Hall was erected and opened on their site,
the architect being Sir Alfred Gelder of Hull. (fn. 7) The
King's Hall formed the headquarters of Wesleyan
Methodism in the area and provided a place for their
social and religious meetings. (fn. 8) In 1961 the hall consisted of a large rectangular 3-story building with
a red brick and stone front facing South Road.
The Baptists founded a church in Western Road
in 1889, (fn. 9) which was registered in 1890. (fn. 10) Six years
later the site and the chapel, a temporary one, were
vested in trustees. A further piece of land, on the
corner of Western and St. John's Roads, was added
in 1898. (fn. 11) The chapel was rebuilt in 1901, (fn. 12) and the
old corrugated iron chapel was then used as a Sunday school. (fn. 13) This building, an annexe to the church,
was rebuilt in 1912-13. (fn. 14) The surviving trustees
vested it in the London Baptist Property Board in
1930. (fn. 15) Branch Sunday schools were also held at
the schools in Lady Margaret Road and Carlyle
Avenue, and at the Norwood Green School. (fn. 16) In
1961 the church was a plain, yellow brick building,
with red brick arches over the doors and windows
and a small wooden central cupola. The annexe was
a fairly large hall with offices attached. A Baptist
mission station at the junction of Thorncliffe Road
and Norwood Road, Norwood Green, was registered in 1946, but the registration was cancelled in
1954. (fn. 17)
The Congregationalists are said to have founded
a congregation in a private house in 1909 although
increased numbers eventually led to their renting
a hall. (fn. 18) The church itself was formed in 1911 (fn. 19) and
a building in Villiers Road was registered in 1913. (fn. 20)
This was an iron building given by the friends of
Penge (Kent) Congregational Church. (fn. 21) The present building was erected adjoining it and registered
in 1932. (fn. 22) In 1961 the church, which lay alongside
Villiers Road, was a red brick building, with entrances at each end and a large free-standing centre
facade of brick.
The Barn Mission took its name from evangelical
services held in the 'old barn' of a Southall farm
between 1862 and 1889, when the barn was burned
down. A hall was used until 1898 when the founder
and owner, H. Baxter, left Southall. Thereafter the
mission used various premises including St. John's
(church) hall and a carpenter's shop. (fn. 23) Between 1909
and 1921 their hall was situated behind 8-9 Alexandra
Villas, Norwood Road. In 1921 a new hall was
opened (fn. 24) on the present site in Norwood Road which
apparently consisted of the re-erected St. George's
school hall. The present building was erected in
1935-6. The Mission itself is affiliated to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches. (fn. 25)
A Salvation Army barracks in Waltham Road was
first registered in 1885, and re-registered as a hall in
1897. (fn. 26) The Salvation Army Citadel in Adelaide
Road is said to have been opened in 1883, but it was
not registered until 1905; (fn. 27) it seems most likely in
fact to have been the successor to the earlier Waltham Road barracks. In 1961 this remained the
headquarters of the Army in Southall. Between 1913
and 1927 it also had a hall, the Athenaeum, on
South Road. (fn. 28) In 1927 a second hall, which was still in
use in 1961, was opened on the Broadway (Uxbridge
Road). (fn. 29)
The Gospel Hall in Hammond Road, Southall,
was erected in 1898, (fn. 30) although previously meetings
had been held in various houses. The congregation
termed itself 'brethren' and had no set order of service. (fn. 31) The hall was small and built of yellow brick,
with a red brick front, and a round-arched porch in
the centre. The Christian Brethren first met in 1904
and moved in 1935 to the Ebenezer Hall in Kingston
Road. (fn. 32) The congregation had no paid minister and
was registered for marriages and funerals. (fn. 33) The
hall in 1961 was a small brick building with a tiled
roof and central cupola. The Assemblies of God
started a mission in Southall in 1920, and the Glad
Tidings Hall at 15 Hortus Road, Southall, was
opened in 1926. (fn. 34) At its registration the building
was called the Ebenezer Hall, but it appears to have
no connexion with the hall of the same name registered in 1935 by the Christian Brethren. (fn. 35) In 1961
the building was constructed of corrugated iron.
The Southall Spiritualist Church was founded as
a meeting in a private house in Osterley Park Road
in 1930, (fn. 36) and the church in Hortus Road was
registered in 1932. (fn. 37) This building was rented by the
congregation until 1954 when it bought the freehold. (fn. 38) In 1961 the church was a small corrugated
iron building. Another Spiritualist centre, opened in
1938 in Featherstone Road, Southall, had evidently
fallen into disuse by 1954. (fn. 39) The Pentecostal Assembly rented a room in 1934 in a building in
Cambridge Road, Southall, describing themselves
simply as Christians. The registration was cancelled
by 1954. (fn. 40) The Southall Sisterhood, an undenominational group which in 1961 met weekly, held their
meetings in a corrugated iron hall which stood on
the corner of Villiers Road and Park Avenue. This
hall was the first Congregational church in Southall,
and stands next to the present Congregational
church. (fn. 41) The Southall Brotherhood met in the Norwood Road Sisterhood Hall opposite Endsleigh
Road. The hall was built in 1929 of red and yellow
brick with a small central porch. The Brotherhood
and the Norwood Road Sisterhood, also an undenominational body, met weekly. The North Road
Hall, apparently erected in the 1930s, was a meeting
place of Christians every Sunday in 1961. The red
brick building had a small south porch, a tiled roof,
and a centre louvre.