Parish Contacts

Rev Gordon Jeanes (Vicar)
St Anne's Vicarage, 182 St Ann's Hill, Wandsworth, London SW18 2RS
Tel: 020-8874 2809

Parish website: www.stanneswandsworth.org.uk

Sunday Services

Details of all Sunday and weekday services and activities may be obtained from the parish contacts

Information

Patron: Bishop of Southwark

Population (2001 census): 12,879
Urban Priority Area: Yes

Deanery: Wandsworth
Archdeaconry: Wandsworth
Episcopal Area: Kingston
Diocesan Record Office: London Metropolitan Archives

Details of Church

Built: 1820 - 24
Architect: Robert Smirke
Listing: grade 2*

The latest edition of the Buildings of England (London 2 : South) has the following entry for St Anne's: "A Commissioners' church of 1820-40 by Robert Smirke. The only classical early C19 church in the borough of unhappy outer proportions, with an Ionic giant portico and circular tower behind it, exactly twice as high as it should be. The design of the tower is very close to Smirke's St Mary, Wyndham Place, Marylebone. The rest of the building is in plain stock brick with large round-headed windows above smaller ones. Alterations by William White, 1891, chancel added by Mountford, 1896, with neo-Wren detail. When the church was first built it stood right on the edge of the new suburbs spreading up the hill from the High Street."

Not everyone will agree that the proportions are 'unhappy'. James Pope Hennessy once described the church as "by far the finest building in the Borough". On a summer evening, seen from Borrodaile Road or Denton Street, the view of the huge portico towering over the houses is one of the most dramatic sights in South London, and the "pepperpot" floats over the surrounding area to make innumerable unexpected appearances on the skyline - an enjoyable feature of life in Wandsworth.