St Paul's Church 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 ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history T ...

, London. There has been a church on the site since the 12th century. The current building was completed in 1815 and is

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 Irel ...

. In the grounds, which hold the

Green Flag Award The Green Flag Award is an international accreditation given to publicly accessible parks and open spaces, managed under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a UK Government department, by Keep Britain Tidy, ...

, are some fine tombs including many early 19th century sarcophagi and a community garden, Eden. The

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an official, office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seek ...

is Revd Canon

Jonathan Boardman Jonathan Boardman (born 1963) is a British Anglican priest. He was Archdeacon of Italy and Malta from 2009 to 2016. Boardman was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, Magdalen College, Oxford and Westcott House Cambridge. After a curacy at ...

History

The original parish church of Clapham was St Mary's Church which dated from the 12th century. St Mary's was renamed Trinity Church after the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. It was taken down under an act of Parliament in 1774 and a new Holy Trinity Church was built on

Clapham Common Clapham Common is a large triangular urban park in Clapham, south London, England. Originally common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, it was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878. It is of gr ...

in 1775. The north aisle of the former church was left standing for the performance of burials. St Paul's Church was built at the beginning of the 19th century on the site of the former St Mary's/Trinity Church. The building was completed in 1815 as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

to Holy Trinity, Clapham. It was assigned a separate Ecclesiastical District in 1861.

Architecture

The architect was Christopher Edmonds of Newington, Surrey. The church was built from

stock brick London stock brick is the type of handmade brick which was used for the majority of building work in London and South East England until the growth in the use of Flettons and other machine-made bricks in the early 20th century. Its distinctive y ...

, with a fairly low pitched

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof and is in the

classical style Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...

. The original construction was a plain rectangular building with interior galleries at the west end and sides. In 1875, the church was extended at the

east end The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

Sir Arthur Blomfield Sir Arthur William Blomfield (6 March 182930 October 1899) was an English architect. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in ...

with a transept, a chancel and lower half octagonal

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''. In ...

. St Paul's is a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

church with a west entrance porch and a wide nave with aisles. The Victorian

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. Ove ...

and

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 ...

by Blomfield have round arched windows with roll moulding and pediments at each end of the transept. The side galleries were removed in 1928. The most severe damage caused to the church by the bombing during World War II occurred on the night of 10 May 1941. Incendiary bombs lodged in the roof and burned through before they could be extinguished, damaging the chancel and sanctuary. The building was completely restored and redecorated after the war and on 14 July 1955, the church was designated 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 Ir ...

. Following a further internal reorganization in 1970, the south semitransept is now a

Lady chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British term for a chapel dedicated to "Our Lady", Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chapel or a Marian chapel, an ...

Present day

St Paul's stands in the

central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

tradition A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

of the

. The parish of St. Paul, Clapham is part of Archdeaconry of Lambeth in 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 ...

Organ

The pipe organ at St Paul's was built in 1886 by

Forster and Andrews Forster and Andrews was a British organ building company between 1843 and 1924. The company was formed by James Alderson Forster (1818–1886) and Joseph King Andrews (1820–1896), who had been employees of the London organ builder J. C. Bisho ...

. The organ originally stood in the south semitransept, the current location of the Lady Chapel, before the 1970 reorganisation of the building. A complete, historically congruent rebuild of the organ was finished in 2019 by Andrew Cooper & Co. Ltd.

Community Centre

The East End extension designed by Blomfield was converted into a

community centre Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

in 1970, reducing the church to its original size. The centre is home to a

Montessori The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...

nursery school and a number of user groups including a community choir. The church is used as a performance space by an opera company, a chamber music ensemble and for theatrical productions by Paul's Players.

Churchyard

The churchyard was closed for burials in 1854. Among those buried in the churchyard were

Roundhead Roundheads were the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War (1642–1651). Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I of England and his supporters, known as the Cavaliers or Royalists, who ...

soldiers killed in 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 England's governance and issues of re ...

. The churchyard has largely been cleared of gravestones but the Revd TC Dale made a record in the 1920s of all gravestones and monumental inscriptions existing at the time. The churchyard is home to "Eden at St. Paul's", a popular community garden. It is one of Lambeth's longest standing

-winning sites. Atkins tomb

Tombs

* The Hibbert family, George (1792-1795) first child of

George Hibbert George Hibbert (13 January 1757 – 8 October 1837) was an English merchant, politician, slave-owner, ship-owner, amateur botanist and book collector. With Robert Milligan, he was also one of the principals of the West India Dock Company which ...

and Elizabeth Margaret Hibbert * The Atkins family, Sir Richard Atkins 1st Baronet of Clapham

Notable clergy

* Helen Cunliffe, later Archdeacon of St Albans, served as the church's first female vicar from 1994 to 1995, having been deacon-in-charge since 1989. *

Justine Allain Chapman Justine Penelope Heathcote Allain Chapman (née Chapman; born 30 June 1967) is a British Anglican priest, academic, and former teacher. Since 2013, she has served as the Archdeacon of Boston in the Diocese of Lincoln. She was previously a religi ...

, later Archdeacon of Boston, served as vicar from 1997 to 2004 * Deborah Matthews, now vicar of the Parish of

Verwood Verwood is a town and civil parish in eastern Dorset, England. The town lies north of Bournemouth and north east of Poole as the crow flies. The civil parish comprises the town of Verwood together with the extended village of Three Legged Cro ...

, served as the parish's third consecutive female vicar from 2004 to 2017 (Area Dean 2013 - 2017)

Memorials

* Atkins baronets, memorial attributed to

William Stanton (mason) William Stanton (1639–1705) was an English mason and sculptor. He is known particularly for monumental masonry. He is often ferred to as Stanton of Holborn. Life He was son of Edward Stanton (d.1686), and nephew of the mason Thomas Stanton (d ...

* Bartholomew Clerke, Lord of Clapham Manor *

John Hatchard John Hatchard (1769–1849) was an English publisher and bookseller, in Piccadilly, London. The Hatchards bookshop there is still in business. Early life Hatchard had a trial at the works of the printer Thomas Bensley. He then served on appren ...

, publisher and bookseller *

William Hewer William Hewer (1642 – 3 December 1715), sometimes known as Will Hewer, was one of Samuel Pepys' manservants, and later Pepys's clerk, before embarking on an administrative career of his own. Hewer is mentioned several times in Pepys' diary an ...

, large, unsigned Baroque memorial, attributed to

Francis Bird Francis Bird (1667–1731) was one of the leading English sculptors of his time. He is mainly remembered for sculptures in Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral. He carved a tomb for the dramatist William Congreve in Westminster Abbey and ...

and modelled on the

Memorial to Maria Raggi ''Memorial to Maria Raggi'' is a sculptural monument designed and executed by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, started in 1647 and finished in 1653. The monument is attached to a pillar in a nave of the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerv ...

by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome *

Martin Lister Martin Lister FRS (12 April 1639 – 2 February 1712) was an English naturalist and physician. His daughters Anne and Susanna were two of his illustrators and engravers. J. D. Woodley, ‘Lister , Susanna (bap. 1670, d. 1738)’, Oxford Dic ...

, physician to Queen Anne * Henry Thornton, leading member of the

Clapham Sect The Clapham Sect, or Clapham Saints, were a group of social reformers associated with Clapham in the period from the 1780s to the 1840s. Despite the label "sect", most members remained in the established (and dominant) Church of England, which ...

* Henry Venn (Clapham Sect) * John Broadley Wilson (1764-1835), Treasurer of the Baptist Missionary Society, by

Francis Leggatt Chantrey Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (7 April 1781 – 25 November 1841) was an English sculptor. He became the leading portrait sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts and statues of many notable figures of the time. Chantrey's most notable w ...

Contested heritage

A review commissioned by

Lambeth Council Lambeth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, and one of the 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council meets at Lambeth Town Hall ...

, following the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

protests during 2020, to identify locations in Lambeth with historic direct and indirect links to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism, included both the memorial plaque to William Hewer and the Hibbert family tomb as having proven associations. The incumbent vicar of St Paul's is an ex officio trustee of the Hibbert Almshouse Charity, which manages the Hibbert Almshouses which stand within the parish boundary.

In popular culture

St Paul's was the filming location for the funeral scene in the 2003 Richard Curtis film ''

Love Actually ''Love Actually'' is a 2003 Christmas romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. It features an ensemble cast, composed predominantly of British actors, many of whom had worked with Curtis in previous film and television proje ...

''.

References

Bibliography

*Lush, Sarah. ''St. Paul's, Clapham''. London: PCC of St. Paul's Church Clapham *Dale, TC. ''Our Clapham Forefathers''

External links

* {{Official, http://www.stpaulsclapham.org
A Church Near You entry

Eden Community Garden

History of the London Borough of Lambeth Clapham Churches bombed by the Luftwaffe in London