St George's Church, Beckenham is the

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 Britai ...

parish church of

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and E ...

, Greater London (until 1965,

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 ...

). It is Grade II* listed. St George's Church is the principal parish church, and is in the centre of Beckenham. Originally medieval, it has been extensively rebuilt. It has a 13th-century timber

lychgate A lychgate, also spelled lichgate, lycugate, lyke-gate or as two separate words lych gate, (from Old English ''lic'', corpse), also ''wych gate'', is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style ch ...

that is said to be the oldest in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

.''Brewer's Britain and Ireland'', compiled by John Ayto and Ian Crofton,

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld a ...

, 2005,

History

The church was originally built in the twelfth century and survived as a humble medieval church until it was rebuilt between 1885 and 1887 as a “confident town church” by local architect W. Gibbs Bartleet in ragstone with ashlar dressing. The pinnacled southwest tower is the focal point of the High Street and was completed in 1902–1903. The church sustained damage in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

as a result of two

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...

s, on 2 July and 27 July 1944. The modern stained glass was created between 1963 and 1966 by Thomas Freeth.

Building

The church is built in the

Decorated style English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed a ...

of the early 14th century. The most prominent feature is the tower, built in four stages with angle buttresses and terminating in an embattled parapet with pinnacles at the corners and also in the middle of each side. South Face of the Church of Saint George, Beckenham (01)

South Face of the Church of Saint George, Beckenham (01)

Across the West end of the nave is a

narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex ...

with a gabled head in the centre. In the west wall of the nave is a very large window filled with a circle of intricate flowing

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

has a clerestory with pairs of two light windows in each bay with flowing tracery while the lean-to aisles have three-light windows with varied Decorated tracery. The

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

s have large windows with a transom: each has a different design in the tracery but in both cases based on a circle. At the east end the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

has a low parapet pierced with trefoils, a five-sided apse and crocketed pinnacles at the angles of the

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''. ...

. The roof over the nave has hammerbeams and that over the chancel is a keel shape. The oldest feature is a much-damaged square 12th- or 13th-century baptismal font. It had originally been in the old church (taken out c1801 and returned 1876). The font in use today is a conventional octagonal Victorian one. In the apse of the Lady chapel is a

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...

with credence shelf that also came from the previous church. Extensive amounts of the Victorian pewing and stalls remain. The pulpit is polygonal, has open sides and stands on a stone base of 1906. There is Victorian stained glass in a number of windows, notably the large west window and that in the south wall of the south transept. Much was lost in World War II and extensive replacement took place from c1960. The artist was Thomas Freeth, an art teacher at Beckenham Art School. His first work was the west window in the former baptistry and his designs fill the apse windows and thirteen other windows throughout the church. The numerous monuments, many of outstanding quality by monumental masons such as Thomas Adye, John Hickey,

John Flaxman John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several ye ...

, Sir Frances Chantrey, Henry Weekes and Gaffin, were transferred from the old church to the new, as was the church plate. William, Lord Auckland has his memorial within the church and was buried in the churchyard, which features a number of good eighteenth-century gravestones.John Newman. ''West Kent and the Weald.'' The "Buildings of England" Series, First Edition, 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 ...

and Judy Nairn, eds. (London: Penguin, 1969), pp. 141-142

Notable clergy

* John Newey, later Dean of Chichester, was a curate from 1692 to 1693 *

Peter Bishop Peter Bishop is a fictional character of the Fox television series ''Fringe''. He is portrayed by Joshua Jackson. Fictional character biography Peter Bishop was born in 1978, in the alternate universe, to parents Walter Bishop, also known as " ...

, later Chaplain-in-Chief of the RAF, was a curate from 1971 to 1975 * Anne Dyer, later Warden of Cranmer Hall, Durham, was a NSM from 1988 to 1989 * 2nd Baron Milverton, curate from 1957 to 1959 * David Silk, later Anglican Bishop of Ballarat and then a Roman Catholic priest, was Rector from 1975 to 1980

Gallery

Lych gate, St George's church Beckenham.jpg, Lych gate St George's Parish Church, High St, Beckenham - geograph.org.uk - 1947530.jpg, Church sign St. George's Church - churchyard (2) - geograph.org.uk - 1928325.jpg, Churchyard St. George's Church - churchyard - geograph.org.uk - 1928316.jpg, Churchyard St. George's Church - porch - geograph.org.uk - 1928128.jpg, Porch St. George's Church - tower - geograph.org.uk - 1928119.jpg, Tower detail St. George's Church - nave and chancel - geograph.org.uk - 1928135.jpg, Chancel St. George's Church - pulpit and organ - geograph.org.uk - 1928140.jpg, Pulpit and organ St. George's Church - royal coat of arms - geograph.org.uk - 1928143.jpg, Royal arms St. George's Church - rose window, west end - geograph.org.uk - 1928169.jpg, Rose window at west end St. George's Church - stained glass window, chancel - geograph.org.uk - 1928208.jpg, Windows at east end

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Georges Church Beckenham

Churches completed in 1885 Rebuilt churches in the United Kingdom 19th-century Church of England church buildings History of the London Borough of Bromley

Diocese of Rochester Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Bromley Grade II* listed churches in London