Christ Church in

Gipsy Hill Gipsy Hill in south London is a hilly neighbourhood spanning the southern parts of the London Boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark characterised for its great views of the City of London and Dulwich. Historically, north of its traditional Wes ...

is an

Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

in the London Borough of Lambeth. The remaining part of the original Victorian church building, the tower, which is now a private dwelling is a Grade II Listed Building and occupies a prominent position, the tower being a notable landmark in the area.

Parish

During the first half of the 19th century, the area around

was sparsely populated, much of it having been part of

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

. The relatively few houses included a mixture of modest cottages and villas for the well-to-do. The opening of the

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

at Sydenham in 1854 and of

Gipsy Hill railway station Gipsy Hill railway station is in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London. It is situated on the Crystal Palace line, measured from . The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by Southern, and it is in Travelcard Zone 3. Ac ...

two years later was followed by considerable residential development in the vicinity. The parish of Christ Church, Gipsy Hill was formed from the south-eastern part of the parish of St Luke's, West Norwood. In 1862, a temporary iron church with seating for 500 persons was opened on the west side of Gipsy Hill opposite Camden Hill Road. This was replaced by a permanent structure a short distance to the north, on a site at the southern corner of Gipsy Hill and Highland Road that had been given by the

Ecclesiastical Commissioners The Ecclesiastical Commissioners were, in England and Wales, a body corporate, whose full title was Ecclesiastical and Church Estates Commissioners for England. The commissioners were authorized to determine the distribution of revenues of the Chu ...

. Construction began in 1866 and the permanent church was consecrated on 5 June 1867. In 1886, the population of the parish amounted to 4,668 and a total of three clergy ministered at Christ Church. The total (morning and evening) attendance as a proportion of the parochial population at that time stood at 33.3%. In 1901, the population of the parish stood at 5,338. In the following year, two clergymen were in post and attendance at services represented 28.0% of the parochial population. For most of its history, there has been a daughter church in the parish. St Jude's mission church was built at Berridge Road in 1880, to a design by Frederic W. Ledger. The building was closed in the 1960s and subsequently demolished. Berridge Road Community Centre, which was opened in 1995, was for some years used for worship. Based on statistics from the

UK census Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the Second World War), Ireland in 1921/Northern Ireland in 1931,https://www.nisra.gov. ...

, the Diocese of Southwark estimates the population of Christ Church parish was 6,200 in 2001 and 6,300 in 2011.

Building

Christ Church Gipsy Hill - Victorian tower

Christ Church is Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

standing in a prominent position on the west side of Gipsy Hill immediately north of its junction with Highland Road. The church that was consecrated in 1867 was designed by John Giles of Giles, Gough and Trollope. A large ragstone edifice with slated roofs, it consisted of a nave, aisles and a short apsidal chancel. Only 40 feet of the tower were included at that stage. Further building work in 1889 completed the tower and added a vestry and porch. The building was listed as of special architectural or historic interest in 1981 and the description on the English Heritage website relates to its condition at that time. The majority of the Victorian building was destroyed by fire in 1982, almost the only fabric remaining from the 19th century being the tower. A new church building, designed by Brian Drury, was erected on the cleared site, providing a hexagonal worship area that connects directly to an entrance lobby and to the Goodliffe Hall, a 1960s structure that also survived the conflagration. The new building is of reinforced concrete structure, with timber roof trusses and is entered from Highland Road. The Victorian church tower is of four stages with a short pyramidical spire and angle turrets. Since the fire in 1982, it has been extended, supplied with a lift and converted into a very unusual detached house called “Highland Tower”. Because of its size and commanding position on the upper part of a steep hill, this tower is a notable landmark.

Notes

External links

'Norwood: Churches', Survey of London: volume 26: Lambeth: Southern area (1956), pp. 173-180.
Date accessed: 23 December 2013. British History Online
History of Christ Church (1862-1967)

Diocese of Southwark - Statistics for Christ Church Gipsy Hill
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christ Church, Gipsy Hill

Grade II listed churches in London Churches completed in 1867 19th-century Church of England church buildings Gypsy Hill