The church's website [visit link] tells us of
the history of churches on this site:
"Origins
Lewisham people have
worshipped here for at least a thousand years. The site of the church is close
to, and almost certainly linked with, the ancient well at nearby Ladywell.
Although the foundation date of the church is not known a tenth century charter,
confirming the gift of Lewisham and the surrounding area to the Abbey of St.
Peter’s in Ghent, refers to “churches.” The ownership by St.Peter’s Ghent
continued from the tenth century to 1414.
The Medieval Church
Rebuilt
probably in the 15th century the medieval church was a small vernacular building
with its floor some 10 feet lower than that of the present building. There was a
double roof over the nave and aisle, a decorated ceiling and a tiled floor. A
few monuments from the old church survive in the present church notably those to
Margaret Valentine (the wife of Rev. Abraham Colfe), Rev. George Stanhope, and a
small brass to George Hatteclyff who died in 1514.
Two very strong and impressive
priests: John Glyn and Abraham Colfe led their congregations through the
disruption and bitterness of the 16th and 17th centuries. Both were to be
involved, at separate times, in the establishment of a grammar school (Colfe’s
School) in Lewisham.
The tower
The tower, made of
flint, rubble and Kentish Ragstone, was a later addition to the medieval nave
and chancel. Built between 1471 and 1512 it was funded by bequests from members
of the congregation.
The rebuilding 1774-1777
Serious
structural problems arising from the church’s proximity to the River
Ravensbourne led to the commissioning of a structural survey in 1773. Instead of
remedying the faults it was decided to build a new church to the designs of
George Gibson, a local architect. The floor level of the new, and much larger,
Georgian church was 10 feet above that of its predecessor. The interior was
plain and unadorned – a “preaching box” – except for the addition of a few
fine memorials: Maria Lushington (by the sculptor John Flaxman), two monuments
to the Petrie Family by Thomas Banks and Van Pook, and Joseph
Innes.
John Wesley preached here in 1777 on
one of his many visits to Ebenezer Blackwell who lived in “The Limes” in
Lewisham High Street. A monument to the Blackwell family is in the
churchyard.
The Fire, 1830
A fire seriously
damaged the church on Boxing Day in 1830. The interior and structure of the
church was seriously affected and many of the early records were destroyed or
damaged. Despite the damage a full restoration of the building was completed.
The photograph below probably taken c.1876 shows the interior just prior to the
re-ordering in 1881. The ceiling can just be glimpsed and the small rounded apse
is clearly shown, as are the box pews, and the original position of several of
the large and important monuments.
The 1881 Restoration
The
development of Lewisham from a large eighteenth century village to a London
suburb was one of the factors in deciding to enlarge and alter the building. The
nave was completely re-ordered and a large chancel, designed by Sir Arthur
Blomfield, was added. George Parker of the adjoining Lewisham House paid for the
nave, and the Earl of Dartmouth for the chancel. The great Victorian civil
engineer Sir John Aird commissioned some of the mosaics in the
chancel.
1995 re-ordering
An extensive
programme of building work began in 1995. The beautiful, re-ordered chancel with
its new altar was consecrated in 1996. Since then further work has been
completed: a ramp for people with disabilities, a new Sacristy, an office in the
south gallery, a kitchen in the south porch, and the creation of a meeting room
with separate kitchen and toilets in the crypt. Further building work in the
crypt is planned."
The church is Grade II* listed and the
entry at the English Heritage website [visit
link] tells us:
"DATES OF MAIN PHASES, NAME OF
ARCHITECT: Base of late medieval tower (recorded building dates of 1498 and
1512). Top of tower and body of the church 1774-7 by local architect George
Gibson junior. Interior remodelled and chancel built 1881-2 by A W Blomfield.
Chancel interior remodelled 1995-6.
MATERIALS: Coursed Kentish ragstone
with freestone dressings. The chancel stonework is rock-faced. Slate
roofs.
PLAN: Nave, chancel, S portico, W
tower, chancel, N vestry, N transept, S chapel, crypt.
EXTERIOR: The principal façade is
that to the S, facing Lewisham High Street. The most striking and a very unusual
feature is the large tetrastyle portico in the centre of the nave and which is
approached up six steps. The columns have stylised leaf decoration and the
portico terminates in a plain pediment. The windows of the nave are in two tiers
(expressing the interior galleries) and are arranged symmetrically about the
portico. Either side of this on the ground floor are small openings under
segmental heads while the upper tier has large, plain round-headed windows. None
of these windows have tracery. The W tower has, below the clock and belfry
stages, work from the medieval church. This has diagonal buttresses, and a plain
W doorway. Above this is a three-light Perpendicular window - the `grete new
wyndowe' which was glazed under a bequest of one Robert Cheseman in 1498. The
medieval tower was of two stages and the now-redundant and blocked belfry
windows are still visible. The tower was heightened under the 18th-century
building works, given a narrow clock stage and a taller one for the belfry whose
openings are single, plain and round. The top of the tower is crowned by an
ornamental band with swags above which is a small plain parapet with balls at
the corners. The E end of the church is the work of A W Blomfield in 1881-2. It
is very tall and uses round-arched motifs, presumably to mirror the simple
Georgian openings of the nave but the overall effect is more of a heavy
Romanesque character. The E wall has four openings to a crypt and set above a
stringcourse halfway up are three tall equal height windows: above these is a
round window breaking into a pediment and which has a central circle surrounded
by eight part circles. On the S of the chancel is a tall transept with a
pediment broken by three equal-height round windows. On the N side of the church
is a two-storey pedimented vestry dating from the 1770s campaign: it has windows
of the same design as those mentioned on the ground floor of the nave. Against
the S wall of the churchyard is a stock brick chimney which presumably is a
remnant of a former heating system for the church.
INTERIOR: The interior is the product
of a major remodelling campaign in 1881-2 which was grafted on to the Georgian
building. The volume of the nave is as it was previously and the gallery fronts
were retained but the most striking change is the complex new roof and support
arrangements to it and the galleries. Whereas the Georgian church had a plain,
flat plaster ceiling, Blomfield placed flat, panelled ceilings over the gallery
areas on both N and S, and inserted a low-pitched roof over the area of the nave
in between. The cast-iron supports to the galleries were removed and replaced by
wooden posts which rise through two storeys to support the roof at the junction
between the flat and the pitched areas. The posts are used as the uprights for
seven-bay arcading along the nave and have round-arches placed between them. The
pitched area of the roof has tie-beams above which there are arch-braces to the
principal rafters. The galleries are supported on tie-beams between the outside
walls and the vertical posts. The exterior and interior rhythms of the nave do
not correspond because the exterior has four bays whereas the interior, as
divided by the timber arcading, has seven. There is a tall round arch to the
chancel with a moulded head and rectangular responds. There are similar arches
to the N transept and the S chapel except that the arches rise from corbels. The
roof over the chancel is semi-circular and divided into square and rectangular
panels. The present appearance of the chancel is due to a remodelling in 1995-6.
A new altar stands under the chancel arch on newly-inserted steps. Behind are
further steps and behind these a wall. The space between the wall and the E end
is used as a small chapel. The floor level of the entire interior is
considerably above the level of the churchyard and was raised during the
18th-century building works: this accounts for the flight of steps at the W end
down into the base of the medieval tower.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: Apart from the
monuments (see below) the most important survivals of the 18th-century building
are the panelled gallery fronts. The seating in the galleries has been removed:
that in the nave was installed in 1881-2 and has shaped ends. The most ornate
work from this restoration is that at the E end of the chancel. The E wall has a
tripartite arrangement of a gabled central recess flanked by pairs of two-light
arches while the N and S walls have four bays of arcading. The recesses and the
dado of the E wall have mosaic decoration (e g with Old Testament figures in the
N recesses) which dates from some years after the opening of the chancel in
1882. The E end is laid with encaustic tiles. The pulpit is late 19th-century
and is very tall being placed on four granite shafts: the main panels have pairs
of round-arched openings and figures set in the chamfered corners. The font is
richly decorated with tendrils of its square bowl, diagonal moulding and beading
on the central drum and coloured marble shafts at the corners. An attractive
wrought iron screen of 1881 has been resited on the low wall at the E end of the
church. The church has many wall monuments some of them of exceptional interest.
That on the W wall of the nave N of the tower arch is to Anne Petrie (d 1787)
and is by Van Pook of Brussels, in a simple frame and shows a woman reclining on
a couch with children at her feet and an allegorical female at her head. S of
the tower arch is another simply framed monument to Margaret Petrie (d 1791)
carved by Thomas Banks which forms a companion piece to the last monument: a
dying woman lies on a couch attended by allegorical figures in Greek-style
dress. On the N wall is John Flaxman¿s monument to Mary Lushington (d 1797) with
two figures in a tympanum over a long inscription. Flaxman's pupil E H Baily
carved the monument to John Thackeray (d 1851) in which an angel pulls aside
drapery to reveal an inscription which is pointed out a woman seated on the
right.
HISTORY: A church has existed here
since the late 11th century but the earliest surviving fabric dates from the end
of the 15th century (base of the tower). Problems of damp and the need for
increased accommodation led to a rebuilding in 1774-7 under a local architect
George Gibson junior. He lived in Lewisham in a house he designed for himself in
1773. He was well connected with City merchants and in 1774 the banker John
Julius Angerstein employed him to design Woodlands House, Greenwich. The
rebuilding work was funded by church rates, loans and the letting of vaults and
seating. The next major change was just over one hundred years later when Arthur
Blomfield was called in. The small round projection at the E end of the Georgian
church was swept away by a large, tall, serious-minded chancel in a round-arched
style which has little relation to the previous building. The cost of the
chancel was borne by the earl of Dartmouth. Blomfield also recast the nave with
the complex new timber arcading and new treatment for the roof. Arthur William
Blomfield (1829-99) who was the fourth son of Bishop Charles J Blomfield of
London (bishop 1828-56). He was articled to P.C. Hardwick and began independent
practice in 1856 in London. His early work is characterised by a strong muscular
quality and the use of structural polychrome often with continental influences.
He became diocesan architect to Winchester, hence a large number of
church-building commissions throughout the diocese. He was also architect to the
Bank of England from 1883. Blomfield was knighted in 1889 and was awarded the
RIBA's Royal Gold Medal in 1891. A further century would elapse before the next
major alterations. In 1995-6 the E end was reordered, new steps put in for a
forward altar, and a small chapel created at the E end behind a low stone
screen."
Church service times are listed in the
church's website [visit
link] and are currently:
"Sundays
Parish Mass 10.00
AM
Sung Evensong 6.30 PM
1st Sunday in the month
Thursdays & Saturdays
Mass
9.30 AM"