Information

Tradition: Modern Catholic
Patron: Bishop of Southwark

Population (2001 census): 5,703
Urban Priority Area: Yes

Deanery: Lambeth South

Archdeaconry: Lambeth

Episcopal Area: Kingston 

Diocesan Record Office: London Metropolitan Archives

Introduction to parish

We are a varied group of people at different stages in both our
lives and spiritual journeys. Our purpose as a church has an inward and outward focus:

• To draw closer to God in our worship, prayer and fellowship, which is based around our Sunday Eucharist (Holy Communion).

• To serve our neighbourhood and the world.

We believe that the richness of the church is to be found in the diversity of its members. We welcome people from all stages of life, backgrounds, lifestyles and even beliefs, from the doubter to the most committed.

Details of Church

Built: 1888 - 97
Architect: George Fellowes Prynne
Listing: grade 1

The church was totally gutted by fire on the morning of Friday 9th June 2000 - the church has been restored and redeveloped and reopened for worship in April 2006.

Description (before the fire):

The church was built between 1888 and 1897 and is an important example of the work of G H Fellowes Prynne, a pupil of G E Street. The building is vast in scale even though incomplete. The nave was intended to be 3 bays longer with an apsidal western baptistry. A flèche was intended over the chancel arch, flanked by a tall slender tower. Only the base of the flèche exists and the present simple bell turret by J B S Comper of 1952 is a modest substitute. The plain west porch is another post-war addition.

The church comprises a 4 bay nave, the west bay being incomplete with no clerestory and "temporary" slated gable end. It is flanked by narrow aisles and porches (now used for other purposes). The nave is flanked by the Lady Chapel in the north Aisle and All Souls Chapel in the south aisle. The apsidal chancel is enclosed by a narrow ambulatory. To the north the Lady Chapel has its own arcaded chancel with ambulatory. To the south of the chancel the space is occupied by the organ chamber and vestries.

The site slopes dramatically down from Lovelace Road to Rosendale Road. The east end is therefore dramatically lofty and the whole church, with the exception of the incomplete west bay, is poised over huge crypt spaces, which are extensively used by the wider community. The north-east corner of the building has 4 storeys of accommodation. A fine enclosed staircase rises to church floor level across the east elevation.

The church is brick built with stone dressings and steep pitched slated roofs. The aisles have individual double pitched roofs with deep valley gutters alongside the nave's clerestory.

Architecturally the contrast between the dramatically lofty east end facing Rosendale Road and the prosaic, obviously unfinished, west end onto Lovelace Road could hardly be greater.