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 State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

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

Royal Docks Royal Docks is an area 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 more corre ...

area of

West Ham West Ham is a district in East London, England and is in the London Borough of Newham. It is an inner-city suburb located east of Charing Cross. The area was originally an ancient parish formed to serve parts of the older Manor of Ham, a ...

in east London. Planned by Henry Boyd, vicar of

St Mark's Church, Silvertown St Mark's Church, Silvertown or St Mark's Church, Victoria Docks is a former church building in Silvertown in east London, located on North Woolwich Road. It takes one of its names from the nearby Royal Docks. It was listed as Grade II* in 1971 a ...

, 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 or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

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 defensive work *, ships of ...

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 lands east of the Cape of Good Hope who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the mid-20th centur ...

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 is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

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

London Blitz London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...

, 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 Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three ...

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-Anglican-church-stub