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'Lost' Churches |
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Clapham Park
The Victorian church was demolished as part of the redevelopment of the surrounding estate and replaced by a modern church building, on approximately the same site. Description "The story is that the daughter of Sir James Knowles wanted to marry the Rev George Eastman. Her father would not allow her to do so, so she did the next best thing, and built him a church to her father's designs. She also left her fortune to him. A number of Evangelicals left St Mary's, Balham, where the preaching was not to their liking, and built an iron church in Elmfield Road. When they heard that Eastman was retiring, they bought St Stephen's, and placed the patronage in the hands of suitable trustees. The building - which was consecrated on 22 June 1867 - was completed early in the twentieth century. The faculty was given in 1909. L W Simpson, of Carlton Chambers, Regent Street, completed the north aisle, of which only the west wall had been built. It is one of those Victorian churches of which the outside does not match the inside. The exterior, with the window tracery, is English fourteenth-century: the arcades are French thirteenth-century, with square acabi and stiff leaf foliage. The nave has a rather thin hammer beam roof. The stone reredos, with a relief of the Last Supper, and Commandments, etc, is a 1939-45 War memorial - very old-fashioned for its date. There was slight War damage: the church was restored and redecorated in 1954. The east window is a replacement, by Alfred L Wilkinson. Other glass has disappeared, except for three windows in the north aisle: Ward and Hughes, Lobin of Tours (damaged), and Mayer." (from 'Parish Churches of London', Basil F L Clarke, Batsford, 1966) |
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Diocese of Southwark Last updated: 13/12/04 Webmaster |
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