CHURCHES OF THE
ESTABLISHMENT
St. Luke's Church
The Lambeth Manor Inclosure Commissioners evidently foresaw the impending development of Norwood, for in their Award of 1810
they set aside 1½ acres of the Common for the
erection of a church. (ref. 65) After the establishment
of the Church Building Commissioners in 1818,
the Lambeth Church Building Committee decided to make use of this site. (ref. 66) Legal difficulties
arose, however, for the Inclosure Act had provided that on the land to be inclosed no building
should be erected within 100 feet of any existing
building without the owner's consent. (ref. 65) It seems
to have been the original intention of the Commissioners that the church should be orientated
east and west like St. Mark's, Kennington, and
St. Matthew's, Brixton, but the west end of the
building would then have come within less than
100 feet of the horns Tavern on the west side
of Knight's Hill; (ref. 65) the Commissioners were
therefore forced to agree that it should be built
on a north-south axis. (ref. 67)
The first plan proposed by the Lambeth Church
Building Committee was rejected by the Commissioners; three more plans were then submitted
and eventually that of Francis Bedford was
chosen. (ref. 67) His first proposal provided for the altar
to be at the south end, but the Commissioners
decided that even if the church could not a face
east the congregation should do so, and a very
odd arrangement whereby the pews stood facing
the altar in the middle of the east side of the
church was approved. (ref. 68) Building started in
November 1822, the contractor “for the whole
of the Works” (ref. 69) being Elizabeth Broomfield of
I Marlborough Place, Walworth, (fn. a) who at about
the same time was also responsible for the brick-work at the churches of St. Peter's and Holy
Trinity, Walworth. (ref. 71) At St. Luke's her contract
was for £10,392. (ref. 69) In 1824 it was decided that,
owing to “the very unexpected and extraordinary
encrease of Buildings” (ref. 72) in the neighbourhood,
galleries should be added. These were erected by
Richard Humphries at a cost of £1,650. (ref. 73) The
total cost of the church was £12,947, of which the
Commissioners contributed £6,448, and the rest
was raised by the parish of Lambeth. Accommodation was provided for 1,412 persons, and
the church was consecrated by the Archbishop
of Canterbury on July 15, 1825. (ref. 65) Thus of
the four “Waterloo” churches in Lambeth,
St. Luke's was the last to be completed.
In 1838 £557 was spent on repairing the roof
and replastering the cornices. In 1852 the church-wardens asked the Church Building Commissioners, who had been responsible for the inconvenient arrangement of the interior, to contribute
to the cost of re-arranging the pews and the
altar. (ref. 65) Unfortunately no record of the outcome of
this request has been found, and it is likely that
no major internal alterations were made until
1870, when George Edmund Street undertook
the complete re-arrangement of the interior. (ref. 74)
Architecturally the church is not an outstanding example of the work of the Commissioners
(Plates 3, 4b, 10). Its similarity to Holy Trinity,
Newington, which was also designed by Francis
Bedford, was criticised at the time, but of the
three Classical churches in Lambeth which stand
on important sites at road junctions (St. Matthew's, Brixton, and St. Mark's, Kennington,
are the others), St. Luke's is the only one whose
portico appears to great advantage.
St. Luke's has a simple rectangular plan, its
major axis running north-south, with the entrance
portico at the north end. Apart from such structural features as the original vestibule forming the
base of the steeple, nothing of the original internal
planning survived Street's drastic remodelling.
Fortunately, Street's commission did not extend
to the exterior, beyond some minor changes to the
windows. Superbly placed from the architectural
standpoint, the church is dominated by its portico
and related steeple. Hexastyle and of the Corinthian order, the portico is of picturesquely weathered Bath stone. Respondent antae mark each
end of the inner face, which is of grey brick and
contains a range of five doorways with windows
over them. Doorways and windows have architraves of similar form, with tapered jambs and
straight heads.
The portico entablature is continued on the
side elevations, each presenting a grey brick face
containing a range of six arch-headed windows,
framed by architraves rising from a continued
sill-band. The pilastered bay at the north end is a
weak attempt to echo the placing of the steeple
which rises from the roof ridge, and is in general
form and details closely akin to Bedford's steeples
at St. John's, Waterloo Road, and Holy Trinity,
Newington. The high square pedestal stage contains a clock dial in each of its rusticated faces,
and the succeeding belfry stage, also square in
plan, has on each face a louvred recess between
Doric columns coupled with corner antae. The
entablature frieze has wreaths centred over the
columns and there are acroteria at the corners.
A smaller square pedestal, each die adorned with
an anthemion panel, is surmounted by the octangular lantern, with eight “Tower of the Winds”
columns supporting the entablature and flat
pyramidal roof that mitres to a square pedestal
finial. This is surmounted by an acanthus crown
and a cross.
Within the shell of Bedford's pseudo-temple,
Street contrived a High Victorian church interior,
comprising a four-bay nave with aisles, and a
chancel flanked by a chapel on the west and a
choir vestry with organ chamber on the east. The
style is Street's very personal Italianate Roman-esque; the materials are harsh and polychromatic.
The stilted round arches of the nave arcades rise
from plain shafted columns with stiff foliated
capitals. An arcaded frieze supports the wall-plate
of the panelled waggon roof, which is tied
by moulded beams. The lunette above the chancel-arch
is pierced by a triple arcade, and the wall
behind the altar has two tiers of blind windows
consisting of a range of five lights above two twin-lights.
The high altar is now placed beneath a
wide baldachino of simple Classical design. In
the two blind windows above are tempera paintings executed in 1885 by W. Christian Symons, to
designs by John Francis Bentley.
Christ Church, Gipsy Hill
In the 1860s Gipsy Hill was the scene of
considerable building development and an iron
church erected there in 1862 was soon filled to
capacity every Sunday. Two years later the person
applied to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who
owned much of the land in the district, for a free-hold site for a permanent church, £1,600 having
already been promised by his congregation as at
contribution to the cost of building. (ref. 75) The site
of the present church, which was designed by
John Giles, (ref. 76) was freely given by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the church (Plate 14d)
was consecrated by the Bishop of Winchester on
June 7, 1867. The builder's contract was for
under £7,500, including 40 feet of the tower. (ref. 76)
Christ Church is designed in Gothic style, and
faced with Kentish ragstone with Bath stone
dressings. The church comprises an apsidal
chancel and nave with lean-to aisles; at the northeast corner there is a three-stage tower, surmounted by a short octagonal spire; the top stage,
very French in inspiration, and more elaborate
in treatment, was added in or before 1889,
Messrs. Giles, Gough and Trollope being the
architects. (ref. 77) The interior of the church is of
simple design. There are six bays of arcading on
each side of the nave, the arches rising from
polished grey granite circular pillars with stiffly
carved foliage capitals. The chancel arch has
similar capitals with short pillars resting on corbels.
The windows generally have plate tracery, that
in the nave clerestory being very peculiar in
design and proportion.
St. Peter's Church, Leigham Court
Road
In or shortly before 1866 a temporary church
accommodating 300 people was erected on the
west side of Leigham Court Road opposite the
present church. In 1870 land for a permanent
church was freely given to the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners by George Henry Drew and
Richard Drew. (ref. 78) The new church was designed
by Richard Drew, but only the eastern portion,
comprising the chancel, vestries and three bays
of the nave, was built. (ref. 79) In this unfinished state
the church was consecrated on July 2, 1870. A
Particular District was assigned in the same year,
despite the opposition of the incumbent of St.
Lucke's, Norwood, who protested that the new
District would strip his parish of its last well-to-do
area. (ref. 78)
In 1882 the parochial committee instructed
G. H. Fellowes Prynne to prepare designs for the
completion of the church. His first plans (which
are illustrated in The Builder, July 17, 1886)
provided for the addition of two more bays to the
nave, a tower at the north-west corner and a
terrace at the west end with a crypt below. On
the north side there was to be an enlarged vestry,
and on the south side a chapel with groined apsidal
sanctuary. At the junction of the chancel and
nave roofs he placed a flèche, which was to house
the sanctus bell and form part of the ventilation
system. These plans were put out to tender but
the committee found it impossible to carry out
the work. A second set of plans was also abandoned. A new committee was then formed, and
Fellowes Prynne received fresh instructions “to
make out a new scheme on somewhat hard and
fast lines, rendering it necessary for him to make
a building more picturesque than imposing”. (ref. 79)
These plans provided for the addition of two bays
to the nave and a projecting octagonal baptistery
at the west end. The work was carried out in
1886–7, and the contractors were J. and C.
Bowyer of Upper Norwood. (ref. 79)
St. Peter's (Plate 20, fig. 59) is sited on a confined plot of ground, rising towards the southeast and having a frontage on the west to Leigham
Court Road. The west end of the church is
therefore raised on a basement storey containing
parish rooms, with an open staircase ascending to
the principal porch at the south-west corner. The
plan is simple, consisting of a nave of five arcaded
bays opening to aisles, and a short square-ended
chancel flanked on the south by the Lady Chapel
and on the north by the organ chamber, with
vestries beyond.
Figure 59:
St. Peter's, Leigham Court Road, plan
The original design was for a Decorated
Gothic building in yellow brick banded and
diapered in red, with Bath stone dressings. This
scheme was followed in the additions by Fellowes
Prynne, whose own distinctive style in more
clearly seen in the highly picturesque west front.
This balanced but slightly asymmetrical composition centres on the gabled end wall of the nave
and the semi-octagonal baptistery that projects
below it. This has two storeys and in each of the
three outer faces is a two-light window for the
basement and a triple-arcade of lancets lighting
the baptistery. Buttresses with weathered offsets
mark each angle, stopping at the corbel-table from
which rises the steeply-pitched and hipped roof
of red tile. Against the north and south faces of
the semi-octagon are gabled buttresses linked by
flyers to the octagonal turrets that flank the nave
gable-end, with its great wheel-window of Geometrical tracery. Each turret finishes with a stage
of small louvred lancets and a cone-shaped stone
roof. The two-storeyed wings to the semioctagon differ in their fenestration, and that on
the south side has a circular stair-turret projecting
from its outer angle. The end wall of each aisle
contains a window of two lights below a traceried
head, and has at the outer angle a frontal and
lateral buttress, the former rising to an octagonal
pinnacle. The straight stone-coped parapets are
linked by flying buttresses to the octagonal turrets
flanking the nave.
The simple dignity of the interior arises from
the general harmony of its proportions and the
honest decorative use of building materials similar
to those of the exterior. Stone columns with
simply moulded bases and caps support the wide
pointed arches of the nave arcades, which are
formed in brickwork. Above each arch is a
plastered panel, now whitened but probably
intended for painted decoration, between engaged
shafts rising from corbels to support the trusses
of the open wooden roof. The aisles have lean-to
roofs of low pitch, and to correspond with each
bay of the arcade there is a three-light traceried
window set with a plain reveal in the brick outer
wall.
The east wall of the nave has a lunette with
three foliated openings above the chancel-arch,
the chancel being entered through a filigree screen
of gilded wrought-ironwork below an oak rood
beam. The Lady Chapel, which has a threesided apse, is entered through a wrought-iron
screen of more robust design.
In the west wall of the nave, beneath the wheel-window, is an arch opening to the baptistery,
where the lancet windows are screened by delicate
arcades. The font is a handsome one of tawny
alabaster and green marble. The pulpit, designed
by F. E. Howard and executed by the Warren
Guild in 1930, (ref. 80) and high-altar reredos are fine
examples of design and craftsmanship based on
traditional West Country models.
Emmanuel Church, Clive Road
The land for this church was freely given by
John Westwood in 1876; a temporary church
accommodating 430 people had already been
erected in the vicinity in 1872. (ref. 81) The foundation stone of the permanent church was laid on
July 8, 1876, by Francis Peek (ref. 82) and the first part
of the church was consecrated on September 8 of
the following year by the Bishop of Rochester. (ref. 81)
The architect was E. C. Robins (ref. 81) and the
builders T. H. Adamson and Sons. (ref. 82) A District
Chapelry was assigned in 1878. (ref. 81) In 1893 the
church was completed when the baptistery and
the two westernmost bays of the nave were
built. (ref. 83)
The church is a Gothic building faced with
Kentish ragstone and Bath stone dressings. It has
a clerestoried nave, with plate-traceried windows,
flanked by lean-to aisles terminating in transepts.
There is a small baptistery at the centre of the
west end with entrance lobbies at each side. The
sanctuary has an apsidal end and there is an incomplete buttressed tower at the north-east
corner.
The interior is plain and faced with white
gault bricks. There are four bays of stone
arcading with foliated capitals separating the nave
and aisles. The chancel and transept arches are
tall and rest on engaged shafts borne by stone
corbels.
St. Jude's Mission Church, Berridge
Road
This building was erected in 1880 as a mission
church for the parish of Christ Church, Gipsy
Hill. The architect was Frederic W. Ledger. (ref. 84)
It is a small plain stock brick building of little
architectural pretence. There is a small porch
fronting the road; over the east gable there is an
open bellcote surmounted by a cross. The low
projecting wings were designed for use as schoolrooms.
All Saints' Church, Rosendale Road
Despite its present unfinished state All Saints'
is an impressive example of late 19th century
church building, and represents the mature work
of an architect, G. H. Fellowes Prynne, whose
personal style was distinctive enough to survive
the strong influence of his master, G. E. Street.
In the 1880s parts of West Dulwich were still
undeveloped, and a temporary iron church in
Rosendale Road supplied the spiritual needs of
the district. Proposals to build a permanent
church were first put forward by the West
Dulwich New Church Building Committee in
1887, and shortly afterwards the Estates Governors of Dulwich College promised to present a site. (ref. 85)
The foundation stone of the church was laid by
the Bishop of Rochester on October 31, 1888, and
the completed portion of the building was opened
under licence on October 31,1891. The entire
cost, amounting to about £16,000, was met by
gifts from the inhabitants of the district. The site
was conveyed free of charge to the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners in 1893, and the church was
consecrated on November 13,1897. A Consolidated Chapelry was formed in 1899. (ref. 85) The
church was damaged by enemy action in 1944,
and when the work of restoration was carried out
in 1952 a belfry designed by J. B. S. Comper was
erected in memory of the parishioners killed in
the war of 1939–45.
The church (Plate 21, fig. 60) was designed
on a generous scale for a congregation of some
1,400, with a plan probably derived from the
great hall churches of Catalonia (also a favourite
prototype with Street) consisting of a wide and
long nave joined to a short and narrow apsidalended chancel. Here the nave was intended to
have seven arcaded bays, the westernmost four
opening to narrow aisles while the easternmost
three open to chapels. The Lady Chapel on the
north side forms in effect a small church, being
wider than the south chapel of All Souls and
having a narrow chancel of three arcaded bays
with a three-sided apse and an ambulatory.
Figure 60:
All Saints', Rosendale Road, plan.
West end not built.
Splayed bays link the nave to the chancel, which
consists of one wide bay terminated by a seven-windowed apse and surrounded by an ambulatory.
The three westernmost bays of the nave, with
the semi-circular baptistery and flanking porches,
remain unbuilt.
The building is correctly orientated and sited
along the south side of a large triangular plot of
ground that falls sharply towards the east, lying
between the two roads that converge from different levels to meet at the north-west point of the
triangle. Consequently, the chancel end is raised
on a lofty basement, with fine dramatic effect,
and the whole composition was designed to appear
at best advantage from the north viewpoint.
In style the building is Gothic of an eclectic
nature; the east end, for instance, might well have
been inspired by the cathedral at Erfurt. The
exterior, of red brick dressed with stone, is
dominated by the chancel apse, where the elongated three-light windows are ranged between
offset buttresses, linked near their bases by flyers
to the gable-ended buttresses of the ambulatory
and basement. The ambulatory is lit by small
lancets, three in each bay, and the basement
windows are deeply recessed behind open arches.
Ambulatory and basement arcade continue as a
unifying motif around the Lady Chapel chancel,
beneath its small-scale clerestory of two-light
windows, stopping against a round cone-roofed
stair turret. Chancel and chapel walls are
finished with coped parapets, the former being
underlined by a corbel-table, and above them rise
the steeply-pitched slated roofs. The side elevation of the Lady Chapel nave is simple in treatment, with two tiers of lancet windows grouped
in threes within the three buttressed bays, and a
steep gable-ended roof that conceals the clerestory of the main nave. This last has a wide-spreading roof that continues the pitch and ridgeline of the chancel roof, although the junction
is defined by the base of an intended flèche,
approached by open stairs on the roof slope. The
architect originally intended to flank the body of
the church with two tall and slender towers,
placed anglewise and rising off the splayed junction walls between nave and chancel. These
would have combined with the flèche to produce
the skyline relief for which the present pyramidalroofed belfry can only be regarded as an inadequate substitute.
The interior is spacious and very impressive,
a finely controlled design carried out in yellow
and red brick dressed with stone, with a pointed
waggon vault of wood. The nave bay divisions
are strongly articulated by moulded brick piers
with stone shafts on their cardinal faces, those on
the nave side rising to carry the groined sections
of the vault. The nave arcades have moulded
brick arches of nearly semi-circular form. Over
each arch is a large panel intended for colour
decoration and above this the three lancets of the
clerestory, the middle one rising into the lunette
formed by the groining. Superimposed arches
penetrate the splayed walls flanking the great
chancel arch which contains the most striking
feature of the interior—a stone screen of three
tall arches with foliated heads rising from slender
shafts of Devonshire marble, the lunette being
filled with tracery consisting of a cinquefoil between two quatrefoils. The shafts are linked by
girders of delicate wrought-ironwork forming a
rood-beam. This screen, which has its counterparts in several of Prynne's churches, was probably
inspired by the late-Gothic stone screens in the
Essex churches of Stebbing and Great Bardfield.
Each side wall of the chancel has a wide and lofty
arch, its moulded head dying into massive piers.
Within the arch is a gallery supported on a light
screen of three arches, the north gallery being
intended for musicians and the south containing
the organ. A climax of light is produced by the
seven tall three-light windows of the apse, where
the high altar stands against a simple background
of draped walls flanked by interlacing arcades
containing the statues of sixteen saints.
In the Lady Chapel architectural interest is
centred on the chancel, with its arcade of pointed
arches rising from round columns and its clerestory of two-light windows ranged between
shafts that rise from corbel-heads to support the
groined intersections of the wood vault. Here,
and in All Souls' Chapel, is the best of the stained
glass remaining in the church, which includes
examples of the work of Burlison and Grylls,
B. Barber and Sir Ninian Comper.
St. Paul's Children's Church, Elder
Road
This church was originally a Mission Hall for
St. Luke's, Norwood. It was built in 1897,
James C. Wright being the architect and Mr.
Bugg the builder, and cost £1,335. (ref. 86) It is a
plain stock brick building of no architectural
pretence. The west gable has a tablet inscribed
with the date 1897.
Church of St. John the Evangelist, Guernsey Grove
In 1902 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
voted £350 from the City Parochial Charities fund towards the cost of purchasing a site for a
mission church for the parish of Holy Trinity,
Tulse Hill; another £350 was raised by local
subscriptions, and a temporary iron church was
erected in 1905. The foundation stone of the
present church was laid on June 17, 1911, by the
Rev. H. Woffindin, vicar of Holy Trinity. The
architect was Leonard Martin, and the estimate
of the contractors, Messrs. F. and H. F. Higgs,
was for £3,925. The church was dedicated by
the Bishop of Southwark on January 20, 1912. (ref. 87)
St. John's Church (Plate 15d) is a simple red
brick building having a nave and chancel with
three-light Perpendicular Gothic east and west
windows. Its liturgical arrangement is reversed
with the altar at the west end and the entrance
porch on the Guernsey Grove frontage. The red
tiled roof is punctuated by an octagonal shingled
flèche near the east end. The floor of the nave is
raised well above street level, and there is a church
hall beneath.
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
St. Matthew's Roman Catholic
Church, Norwood High Street
St. Matthew's was opened on April 2, 1905;
the architect was probably F. W. Tasker. The
church has a nave and sanctuary flanked by lean-to
aisles; it was lengthened at the east end in 1937.
After damage by enemy action in 1940 the west
end was rebuilt in 1949–50 with a two-storey
brick front containing a central entrance with
side lobbies; the architect was Donald Plaskett
Marshall. Set in a round arch over the entrance
is a stone statue of St. Matthew carved by Joseph
Cribb, an associate of Eric Gill. (ref. 88)
NONCONFORMIST CHURCHES
Chapel Road Congregational Church
This building was erected between 1819 and
1821 on land bought by William Salter from
Benjamin Shaw, to whom it had been allotted
by the Lambeth Manor Inclosure Commissioners. (ref. 89) The church (Plate 26a) has a plain
stock brick body made more imposing by a taller
pedimented front which is stuccoed and contains
a recessed Ionic porch at the centre. The flanking
stuccoed wings have round-arched windows and
were built as Sunday schools.
Primitive Methodist Chapel, Windsor Grove
This chapel was erected by the Wesleyan
Methodists in 1838; the congregation soon outgrew the building and built a larger chapel at
Knight's Hill (see below). The chapel in Windsor
Grove was subsequently occupied by the Primitive Methodists (ref. 90) but is now used for commercial
purposes. It is a small stock brick building with
three narrow round-headed windows on the road
front.
Congregational Church, Park Hall Road
The foundation stone of a small Congregational
chapel in Rosendale Road was laid on October 7,
1851, by the Rev. J. Burnet. The building soon
proved too small and a larger chapel was erected
at the corner of Chancellor Grove and Park Hall
Road, and opened in 1855. (ref. 91) The foundation
stone of the chapel in Rosendale Road was
incorporated in the fabric of the new chapel, and
two inscribed stones record that “THE STONE
BENEATH THIS IS THE FOUNDATION
STONE OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHAPEL IN DULWICH”; and
below “THIS STONE WAS LAID BY
THE REV. J. BURNET, OCTOBER 7TH
1851”. The chapel was destroyed by enemy
action in the war of 1939–45.
West Norwood Methodist Church, Knight's Hill
This church was erected in 1852–3; a
chancel was added in 1894. (ref. 92) It is a small stock
brick building with a ragstone front in Norman
style.
Baptist Chapel, Chatsworth Way
This chapel was erected in 1876–7 at a
cost of about £6,000, including £500 for the site.
The architects were Edward Power and Wheeler
and the builders were Newman and Mann. In
1900 a hall was built at the back, the architect
being R. W. Moore and the builders Higgs and
Hill. (ref. 93) The chapel and hall were destroyed by
enemy action in 1944.
Upper Norwood Methodist Church, Westow Hill
This church occupies a stock brick building
designed in the Early English Gothic style and
erected in 1874; (ref. 82) the south front is faced with
Kentish ragstone. At the south-west corner there
is a tower surmounted by a stone spire.
Roupell Park Methodist Church,
Norwood Road
The foundation stone of this church (Plate 27b)
was laid on June 11, 1879, and the building was
completed in the following year. (ref. 94) The architect
was Charles Bell and the builders J. and C.
Bowyer. (ref. 82) The church is designed in Early
English Gothic style and is faced with Kentish
ragstone with Bath stone dressings. At the
north-east corner there is a tower supporting a
stone spire. The side aisles have transverse roofs
which are gabled, and the west end is apsidal.
A clock was erected in the tower in 1888. The
cost of the church amounted to about £15,000. (ref. 95)
Gipsy Road Baptist Church
This church was erected in 1881–2 at a
cost of £5,000, probably by Richard Henry
Marshall, builder. The church was extended in
1890. (ref. 96) It is a brick building of simple Gothic
character, with a Kentish ragstone front, and is
approached by a steep staircase.
St. Cuthbert's Presbyterian Church
of England, Thurlow Park Road
This church was erected in 1901 to the designs
of Arthur Owen Breeds. (ref. 97) The building is
prominently sited above the road and is built of
red brick with stone dressings. At the northwest corner there is a tower surmounted by a
short copper spire.