St Luke's Church, West Norwood
St Luke's Church in West Norwood is an Anglican Church, currently with an Evangelical emphasis. The parish is currently without a vicar. A new vicar is expected September 14th 2008.
The Parish of West Norwood
The Parish of West Norwood lies within the Lambeth-South Deanery, in the Lambeth Archdeaconry, in the Kingston Episcopal Area of the Diocese of Southwark, in the Southern Province of the Church of England.
According to the 2001 UK census, the parish now includes about 15,000 people.
When St Luke's church was first built, the parish catchment area was sparsely populated and mainly comprised meadows cleared from woodland. By the time the church was finished, there were already some new houses built along the road. They were a mixture of modest cottages and villas for the rich. Then the only significant public buildings were the Independent (later Congregationalist) chapel in Chapel Road, which was completed in 1821, and a House of Industry for the Infant Poor along Elder Road.
The Building
St Luke's is a Grade II listed building, which stands on a prominent triangular site at the south end of Norwood Road, where it forks to become Knights Hill and Norwood High Street.
It was designed by Francis Bedford in 1822, as a result of the Church Building Act of 1817, in response to the end of the Napoleonic wars and the growing urban population[1]. The builder was Mrs Elizabeth Broomfield of Walworth and the foundation stone was laid by the Archbishop of Canterbury on 14 April 1823. It was constructed along with St. Matthew's, Brixton, St. Mark's, Kennington and St. John's, Waterloo-road. These four Waterloo churches were named after the first gospels of the New Testament, and were specified to have 1800-2000 sittings, vaults for burials, be constructed of brick with stone dressing and cost no more than £13,000 each[2][3]. In 1825, The Bishop of Winchester dedicated the church. Not only is it similar to St John's, Waterloo, but the exterior of the building also resembles two other churches that were designed by the same architect, namely St George, Wells Way, Camberwell, and Camberwell Holy Trinity, Southwark.
The building was at first endowed with box pews, galleries and a triple-decker pulpit, and provided seating for a total congregation of about 1,800. Between 1870-1872 the premises were extensively changed by G E Street, who dramatically rearranged the interior. The galleries were also removed, reducing the seating by more than half. Over the years, different stained glass windows have also been added.
In 1976 a floor was put into the chancel, making a small hall above. Both rooms are now used for Sunday school. Toilets and a kitchen were later added. The pews were replaced in 2005 by red chairs, which are arranged to face the front.
Building Restoration
The building is currently undergoing restoration works. English Heritage announced in March 2006 that the church would receive £25,000, and a further £113,000 in 2007, to repair stonework and replace iron fittings which are rusting. The rusting ironwork is expanding and causing large lumps of stone to fall to the ground. Leading in some of the stained glass windows is being restored, funded by a grant from Veolia.
Churchyard
In 1945 the Churchyard was given to Lambeth Council and changed to a memorial garden to remember those who died in the recently ended Second World War. Lambeth Council has used money from a Section 106 agreement to refurbish these gardens, but this has taken many years due poor project management.[4][5][6] To this day, an ugly temporary fence still surrounds the memorial gardens. (Work is due to commence soon, but could take up to six months to complete)
References
- ^ Gilley, S. Stanley, B., The Cambridge History of Christianity World Christianities c1815-1914, p106, Cambridge University Press, 2007
- ^ Revd F Lambert & K HoldawaySt Luke West Norwood 1825-1975
- ^ Series of architectural plans of the Lambeth Waterloo churches Survey of London: volume 26 English Heritage 1956
- ^ Findings of St Luke’s Memorial Garden working group Norwood Area Committee, 21 September 2006
- ^ Minutes of Norwood Action Group 13th June 2006
- ^ Thread on VirtualNorwood.com Community Forum