A modern building of little historical or architectural significance in itself, though containing some fragments of stone from Merton Priory.

The site of the present church was given as early as 1908 by Miss Frances Ellis, a great benefactress to the diocese, but funds were not available for building, and a scout hall was built on the site, followed later by a public air raid shelter. The mission was founded from St Boniface, Tooting, by Canon Thomas Clifton in 1963 and a timber  church  replaced  the former building. Plans for the present church/hall were prepared in 1975 by Paul Michelmore of Sanders & Michelmore but were not immediately implemented. The timber church was badly damaged in the 1987 hurricane and the present nave with a small hall at the rear was erected very rapidly in 1988 and consecrated in 1990. The front part of the church with its vestibule between two squat square towers was added in 2005.

Description

The church is a modern building of simple and economical construction, with a steel portal frame and walls of breezeblock faced externally with red brick laid in stretcher bond. The overall pitched roof is covered with concrete tiles. On plan the church consists of a single worship space, with a vestibule at the west end flanked by square towers which contain small rooms and the stairs to the west gallery.  North and east of the nave are the sacristies and a small hall.

The west front has two low flanking towers with broad round-headed blind arches in the brickwork and pitched tiled roofs. The right hand tower has a small timber bellcote. Between the towers is a single-storey vestibule with a wide timber and glass entrance door and a monopitch tiled roof which slopes back to the wide west gable of the main building which has a large round window with timber glazing bars. The side walls are single-storeyed and have straight-headed windows with obscured glass.

Internally the vestibule leads to the area under the west gallery which has a glazed front to the nave.  The nave itself is a rectangular space with plastered and painted walls and with the steel members of the roof exposed. The benches came from the former church. On either side of the altar are three panels of rubble stonework which came from Merton Priory, the site of which was being excavated in the 1980s when the church was being built. The small font is made from reconstituted stone, also from the Priory site; on the front of the rubble stone altar is a piece of stone from the Priory with a mediaeval mason’s mark.

Heritage Details