St. Mary's Church (in full, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin), Putney, is an Anglican church in

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient pa ...

, London, sited next to the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...

, beside the southern approach to

Putney Bridge Putney Bridge is a Grade II listed bridge over the River Thames in west London, linking Putney on the south side with Fulham to the north. The bridge has medieval parish churches beside its abutments: St Mary's Church, Putney is built on the so ...

. There has been a centre of Christian worship on this site from at least the 13th century, and the church is still very active today. It is also noteworthy because in 1647, during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of Kingdom of England, England's governanc ...

, the church was the site of the

Putney Debates The Putney Debates, which took place from 28 October to 8 November 1647, were a series of discussions over the political settlement that should follow Parliament's victory over Charles I in the First English Civil War. The main participants we ...

on the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

. It has been

Grade II* listed 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 I ...

since 1955. The building itself has seen many changes; parts of the existing church have survived from medieval times, such as the 15th-century tower and some of the nave arcading, and the early 16th-century Bishop West Chapel, built by Bishop

Nicholas West Nicholas West (146128 April 1533), was an English bishop and diplomatist, born at Putney in Surrey, and educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1486. He also had periods of study at Oxford and Bologna.

. Most of the building, however, dates from the substantial reconstruction of 1836 to the designs of

Edward Lapidge Edward Lapidge (1779–1860) was an English architect, who held the post of county surveyor of Surrey and designed Kingston Bridge. Life and career Edward Lapidge was the eldest son of Samuel Lapidge, the head gardener at Hampton Court Palace ...

. He largely rebuilt the body of the church in yellow brick with stone dressings and

perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

windows. Some of the medieval pillars and arches in the nave were retained, but both the north and the south arcades were widened. In 1973 an arson attack resulted in the gutting of much of the church. Rebuilding was not completed until nearly ten years later, when the church was rehallowed by Rt. Revd. Michael Marshall the

Bishop of Woolwich The Bishop of Woolwich is an episcopal title used by an area bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Southwark, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after Woolwich, a suburb of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Tw ...

, on 6 February 1982. Since the restoration, the altar has not been positioned, as is usual, in 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. ...

or even at the eastern end of 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-typ ...

, but instead halfway down the northern side of the nave, with the seating arranged to reflect this. The architect of the restoration was

Ronald Sims Ronald Sims (1926–2007) was a distinguished ecclesiastical architect who redesigned many English church interiors. His style combined modernism with a respect for tradition and particularly the Arts and Crafts movement. He graduated in 1952, w ...

. The pipe organ is by the Danish firm of

Marcussen & Søn Marcussen & Søn, also known as Marcussen and previously as Marcussen & Reuter, is a Danish firm of pipe organ builders. They were one of the first firms to go back to classical organ-building techniques, and have been producing mechanical-actio ...

. Inscribed on a wall of the church is a quote from the Putney debates (1647) by Colonel

Thomas Rainsborough Thomas Rainsborough, or Rainborowe, 6 July 1610 – 29 October 1648, was an English religious and political radical who served in the Parliamentarian navy and New Model Army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. One of the few contemporaries wh ...

: In 2005 a new extension to the church, the "Brewer Building", built at a cost of £1.7m was opened by the Bishop of Southwark. St. Mary's is one of the two churches in the Parish of Putney, the other being

All Saints' Church, Putney Common All Saints Church is a Grade II* listed Anglican church located on Putney Common, London. All Saints is one of the two churches in the Parish of Putney, the other being St Mary's Church, Putney. The parish is within the Wandsworth Deanery, the ...

. The parish is within the Wandsworth Deanery, the Kingston Episcopal Area and the

Diocese of Southwark The Diocese of Southwark is one of the 42 dioceses of the Church of England, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. It was created on 1 May 1905 from part of the ancient Dio ...

. From 2000 to 2009, the Rev.

Giles Fraser Giles Anthony Fraser (born 27 November 1964)Team Rector A rector is, in an ecclesiastical sense, a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations. In contrast, a vicar is also a cleric but functions as an assistant and representative of an administrative leader. A ...

of St. Mary's, where he campaigned to raise the profile of the

(1647).

Notable people associated with St Mary's

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no marit ...

mentions St. Mary's in his diary for 1667. He attended a service where he heard 'a good sermon'. He saw the girls of the school, 'few of which were pretty'. *

(1461 – 28 April 1533),

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

and

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

, was born at Putney, and educated at Eton and at

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, of which he became a fellow in 1486. He built two beautiful chapels, one in St. Mary's and the other in

Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral has its origins in AD 672 when St Etheldreda built an abbey church. The prese ...

, where he is buried. *

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as List of English chief ministers, chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the kin ...

, born in Putney, was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1533 and 1540. *

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

made St. Mary's the setting for

David Copperfield ''David Copperfield'' Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work, see is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from inf ...

's marriage to

Dora Spenlow Dora Spenlow is a character in the 1850 novel ''David Copperfield'' by Charles Dickens. She is portrayed as beautiful yet childish. David, who is employed by her father, the lawyer Mr Spenlow, falls in love with Dora at first sight and marries her ...

References

The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Putney, Window - geograph

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's Church, Putney 1973 fires in the United Kingdom

Grade II* listed churches in London Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Wandsworth

Rebuilt churches in the United Kingdom Religious buildings and structures in the United Kingdom destroyed by arson Putney Churches on the Thames