St Paul's, Deptford, is one of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

's finest Baroque parish churches, cited as "one of the most moving C18 churches in London" in the ''

Buildings of England The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were publish ...

'' series. It was designed by gentleman

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Thomas Archer Thomas Archer (1668–1743) was an English Baroque architect, whose work is somewhat overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. His buildings are important as the only ones by an English Baroque archit ...

and built between 1712 and 1730 in

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home ...

, which was then a settlement in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

but is now part of South East London. It was one of the 50 churches that were to be built by the New Church Commissioners, although only 12 were ultimately constructed. With

St John's, Smith Square St John's Smith Square is a redundant church in the centre of Smith Square, Westminster, London. Sold to a charitable trust as a ruin following firebombing in the Second World War, it was restored as a concert hall. This Grade I listed ...

, it was one of two churches designed by Archer to be built under the Act.

History

Construction

Anon - Deptford-98089 - St Paul’s Church

With rising urban growth in Deptford (mainly made up of literate, skilled workers tending to dissent from the established church), the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches decided to counter this drift away from the established

Anglican communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

by building a major new Church of England church in the area. To this end they appointed

, one of their fellow commissioners, to design a church in Deptford. Archer also designed St John's Smith Square and Birmingham Cathedral. He began almost immediately, designing it in his usual

Roman Baroque Roman Baroque may refer to either: * Styles in Rome of any form of the arts in the Baroque period, roughly from 1600 to the late 18th century. Rome was a leading centre for Baroque architecture and Baroque painting in particular. * Styles in anc ...

style and completing the fabric and most of the decoration by 1720 (though work continued until its consecration in 1730). The church was built by Edward Strong the Younger a friend of

Christopher Wren the Younger Christopher Wren (1675–1747), of Wroxall Abbey, Warwickshire was a Member of Parliament and the son of the architect Sir Christopher Wren. Life Wren was the second but first surviving son of Sir Christopher Wren and his first wife, Faith Cog ...

. The Rectory also designed by Archer, was demolished, ''ca'' 1886.

Twentieth century

In the 1970s a basement room at the church, known as 'The Crypt', was used as a reggae club. By the mid-1980s it was a regular venue for all-night psychedelic rock revival concerts and club nights. Colin Jerwood of the anarcho-punk band

Conflict Conflict may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Conflict'' (1921 film), an American silent film directed by Stuart Paton * ''Conflict'' (1936 film), an American boxing film starring John Wayne * ''Conflict'' (1937 film) ...

would also put on gigs there. In May 2000 the church was damaged by a fire. The structural damage was confined to the east end, where much of the stained glass was lost and the joinery and decorative finishes were badly charred. The whole of the interior, including the organ case, was blackened by smoke.

Architecture and Features

The church is built from Portland Stone, and, as with most of these churches, it is raised on a crypt that is mostly above ground, thus needing a flight of stairs to enter. The most unusual feature of the building is the cylindrical tower with a steeple, around which is wrapped a semi-circular portico of four giant Tuscan columns; colossal

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s articulate the body of the church facades. The steeple embedded in the plane of the church wall echoes the apse at the east end. It was an afterthought, which required structural strengthening of the underpinnings of the west end. The body of the church is approximately square in plan, with its pedimented roof set transversely. Two additional, liturgically and practically unnecessary side entrances in the middle of the walls, each approached by a grand divided symmetrical staircase, suited to a Palladian villa. The east wall has a projecting

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

St Paul, Deptford High Street, London SE8 - East end-geograph-2076194-by-John-Salmon

St Paul, Deptford High Street, London SE8 - West end-geograph-2076186-by-John-Salmon

The interior has two side aisles each separated by two giant

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

columns, which continue as attached columns on the other walls. There are side galleries supported by the giant columns, with an organ gallery above the entrance. The east window is in the form of a

Venetian window A Venetian window (also known as a Serlian window) is a large tripartite window which is a key element in Palladian architecture. Although Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) did not invent it, the window features largely in the work of the Italian ar ...

but following the curve of the apse, "a very Baroque trait, no doubt indulged in by Archer on the precedent of

Vanbrugh Sir John Vanbrugh (; 24 January 1664 (baptised) – 26 March 1726) was an English architect, dramatist and herald, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restorat ...

's licenses" Sir

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

observed. This is articulated by small Tuscan columns. The tower contains three bells, originally hung for change ringing but long since unringable. These were all cast at various stages, by the

Whitechapel bell foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

: the tenor is the oldest bell, and was cast in 1772.

References

External links

Parish website

St Paul's Deptford Church Development Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul's Church, Deptford

Deptford

Churches completed in 1730 18th-century Church of England church buildings

History of the London Borough of Lewisham English Baroque church buildings Georgian architecture in London Neoclassical architecture in London 1730 establishments in England

Neoclassical church buildings in England