Canning Town, Former St Luke's Church - geograph

St Luke's Church, Canning Town or St Luke's Church, Victoria Docks is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

church, originally housed in a building on Boyd Road in the

Royal Docks Royal Docks is an area and a ward in the London Borough of Newham in the London Docklands in East London, England. The area is named after three docks – the Royal Albert Dock, the Royal Victoria Dock and the King George V Dock. They are ...

area of

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancien ...

in east London. Planned by Henry Boyd, vicar of St Mark's Church, Silvertown, St Luke's was consecrated in 1875, with a parish split off from St Mark's. Built 1873-5 by Giles and Gane, its

neo-Gothic architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

imitates the medieval Early English style and has a

flèche Flèche or Fleche may refer to: *Flèche (architecture), a type of church spire *Flèche (cycling), a team cycling competition *Flèche (fencing), an aggressive offensive fencing technique *Flèche (fortification) A flèche ( Fr. for "arrow") is ...

rather than a tower. It later took on St Matthew's Church, Custom House (previously a mission of St Mark's itself). It also created a mission church of its own, the Church of the Ascension (1887–1905), a mission to

lascar A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland, or other land east of the Cape of Good Hope, who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of the 2 ...

seamen from 1887 and a mission in Ford Park Road by 1890. It is a

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 ...

, having been listed in 1994. It was badly damaged in 1940 during the

London Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

, though services continued in a garage and then in the church hall. Temporary repairs to the church in 1949 were followed by permanent reconstruction by 1960. The area was also redeveloped in the postwar period as the Keir Hardie Park, meaning that in 1961 the parish of St Matthew's Church, Custom House and parts of the parishes of

Holy Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

and St Gabriel's were added to that of St Luke's. Deconsecrated in 1985, threatened with demolition in 1993 and closed in 1997, it is now a community centre and health centre. The parish still exists and now worships at a modern building on Ruscoe Road.

References

Luke's 1875 establishments in England 1997 disestablishments in England Luke's 19th-century Church of England church buildings {{London-church-stub