The Diocese of Southwark website (visit link) tells
us:
"St Mary's Church stands an the end of a spur of high
ground which reaches out Northwards towards the Thames. The churchyard has been
taken over by the Borough as public gardens.
The church was built between 1727 and 1739. The builder
was Matthew Spray, however the designer is not known.
The church originally consisted of a nave with galleried
aisles and a western tower. The chancel, sanctuary, organ chamber and Lady
Chapel were added in the 19th century. The chancel by J O Scott dates from 1894.
The galleries and aisles were closed off to form offices and cafeteria by Thomas
Ford in 1961. New vestries were added and the crypt was converted into a Youth
Club, by Thomas Ford in 1965 and 1967 respectively.
The walls are constructed in stock bricks in line
mortar. Copings, cornices, window surrounds and plinth cappings are Portland
stone. The buttress cappings and band courses in the newer work at the east end
are in Bath stone. The roofs are covered in clay plain tiles."
The church is Grade II listed and the entry at the English
Heritage website (visit link) tells us:
"Also Known As:
CHURCH OF ST MARY MAGDALENE, ST MARY MAGDALENE CRESCENT Church, 1727-39 by
Deptford bricklayer, Matthew Spray. The architect's name is unknown. East end
was rebuilt and extended with transepts in 1893-94 by JO Scott. Some C20
modifications.
PLAN: west tower and aisled nave with chancel, organ
chamber (to SE) and vestries (to NE). Crypt at E end. C20 extension to NE.
EXTERIOR: the main body of church is a stock brick Georgian building
comprising nave and aisles, the aisles partly embracing the west tower. The
church has Portland stone dressings, including a heavy stone cornice, and gauged
red brick arches to openings. The first floor windows are round arched with
stone surrounds and keystones, within red brick arches. The smaller ground floor
windows are similar but segment-headed. The brick parapet with segment-headed
recessed panels conceals the pitched nave roof and hipped vestry and aisle
roofs. There are brick angle pilasters which continue up to parapet coping; the
cornice breaks out around these. The tower has four stages, two above the roof
line. The cornice and parapet are similar to those on the body of church and
there are round-headed louvred bell openings in top stage with bulls-eye windows
beneath. The west door in tower, with moulded architrave, console bracketed
cornice and pediment, is flanked by round arched doorways at the west end of
each aisle. The east end was added in 1894 by Scott and is also in a classical
style. The one-bay transepts have round-arched windows with moulded architraves
and the east window is Venetian, with heavy stone surround and dentil cornices
at sides. An aedicule with bulls-eye window and Latin inscription, 'Ne
despectetes qui peccare soletis exemplo meo vos reparate deo' (O ye who are
accustomed to sin, lest ye look down, by my example make ye reparation unto God)
rises above the line of the parapet at the east end. There is a post-World War
II extension at the east end.
INTERIOR: the nave of five bays has a
gallery supported on octagonal piers with Ionic columns above, each carrying an
architrave and swell frieze supporting an entablature. Part of the C18 gallery
front survives with early C21 brass railings and glass panels above. The gallery
is accessed through the two west front side doors, via two original C18
staircases with surviving balustrades, handrails and newel posts. The main
entrance leads through the tower base into the nave beneath the gallery where
there is an oak doorcase of fluted Doric pilasters with triglyph frieze and
dentil cornice. The segmental vaulted nave roof has paterae in the centres of
the bay panels. There are wide one-bay transepts, the north as organ chamber,
the south as Lady Chapel with early C21 timber screen incorporating Edwardian
and 1950s stained glass. The segmental vaulted chancel roof has a geometrical
pattern of raised borders and paterae. This area also has a raised marble floor.
The nave aisles were partitioned off in 1961, at the same time the pews were
removed. The vestries retain their original parquet flooring. What was a very
small crypt was enlarged in 1967.
FIXTURES & FITTINGS of particular
note are: the Lady Chapel's original C18 oak reredos with attached, fluted Ionic
columns and similar pilasters; the pulpit which runs on rails along the floor, a
rare feature, and the choir stalls and other furniture in a matching wood-inlay
design all of 1897; the monument to Daniel Wisemary, Clerk of the Cheque of His
Majesty's Yard at Deptford, died 1738/9; the memorial dedicated to Frederick
Whomes and other victims of the Princess Alice steamer disaster on 3rd September
1878; the Harrison and Harrison organ of 1900. There is also stained glass of
various periods: in the east end window of c1900; in the Lady Chapel window of
1922.
HISTORY: The church was paid for in part by funds raised following
the Fifty New Churches Act of 1711. The Commission established under the Act
intended to build fifty new churches for the rapidly growing conurbation of
London. In fact only twelve churches were built anew and a further five, of
which this was one, were part-funded by the Commissioners. The Georgian church
replaced an earlier structure and there is thought to have been a church on or
near this site since the C9.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Church of St
Mary Magdalene is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: *
special historic interest as one of the few churches built with funds from the
Fifty New Churches Act of 1711, on a site where there has been a church since
the C9 AD; * special architectural interest as a well-surviving Georgian church
complete with interior galleries and original fittings such as the two C18
doorcases, two staircases and a finely-carved oak reredos; * interesting work of
the late Victorian period, including the east end by JO Scott of 1893-94 and a
pulpit on rails, choir stalls and other items of chancel furniture of
1897."
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