St Bartholomew's Church, Sydenham

St Bart's featured in Camille Pissarro's painting of 1871. This was bought for the nation for £650,000 and hangs in the National Gallery. St Barts is a thriving Church in the Diocese of Southwark and the South London Borough of Lewisham. Ring our bell by clicking on the picture - or see what we look like today.

Welcome

We are 200 or so souls whose worship combines all the main traditions of the Anglican Church. We also welcome all Christians and communicant members of other churches are invited to take Communion with us. Everybody is very welcome to take tea, coffee and squash with biscuits after our main Service to make new friends.

We have:

• Creche and Children's Church during the Sunday 10am Service
• Pre-School Playgroups meet in the Crypt
• Link Groups meeting monthly for discussion, friendship and study
• Brownies and Guides meeting in the crypt
• 'Sydenham Life' - our monthly magazine deliverered free to every home in the parish
• 'Saints and Sinners' - our youth group
• St Bartholomews Primary School with a growing roll of over 300 pupils between 4 and 11

Many of the congregation were active in the Movement to Ordain Women - although not everybody agreed! We are also, by special permission of the bishop, preparing our children to take communion when they are seven. We had active Traidcraft Group promoting 'Fair Trade for the Third World' and selling crafts, fine teas and foods until the recent arson attack. We are blessed with a good organ, some rising instrumentalists and a hard working Choir.

The Church building is a perennial problem. It is a listed building - mainly because it was featured in a famous Pissaro painting. This helped us to persuade English Heritage to pay towards keeping the roof over our heads. We are now setting about sorting the floor.......

We work closely with three other local churches:
- The Grove Centre (URF/Baptist)
- The Church of the Resurrection (RC)
- St Phillip the Apostle (CoE)

St Bart's is in the West Lewisham Deanery and the episcopal area of Woolwich within the Diocese of Southwark.

Our History

The Church lies on Westwood Hill - a reminder of the great West Wood that covered the area. Much of the oak was used to build Navy ships in 16th century leaving Westwood Common a popular place for Londoners to come and enjoy the local spa waters. The first chapel was built by the Presbyterians in 1760 who had broken away from the Church of England. Anglicans had to walk or ride to Lewisham or Beckenham - an arduous journey. However unrest following the end of the Napoleonic Wars caused the government to sponsor church building in the hope that religion might quiet the revolutionary spirit of the age.

In 1824 the 500 inhabitants of Sydenham resided in the Parish of St. Mary Lewisham. Since the cutting of the Croydon Canal in 1801 the population had gradually increased and now an effort was made to have a church built in Sydenham by a grant from the Million Pounds Waterloo Fund.

Nothing could be done for three years while the choice of site was negotiated. At last in 1827 work began but, owing to the nature of the soil the architect, Mr Vulliamy had to take the foundations down to twenty feet below the surface, so increasing the cost by £4,000.

Because of further delays through parochial disagreements, the Church was not completed until 1832. The total cost was £10,311.15s.4d. which was paid from the Waterloo Fund. The Church was consecrated by Dr. Murray, the Bishop of Rochester, on 30 August 1832, which was in the Octave of the Feast of St. Bartholomew.

The inside of the finished Church looked very different from its present appearance. It had a plain ceiling, with tiny clerestory windows and the pillars were of brick and plaster. There were old fashioned high pews with doors. (A pew opener was employed to open them). There was a small gallery over the western entrance containing the organ. There was no chancel and no choir, and the singing was led by the children of the National Schools who were seated in the gallery. The Parish Clerk's desk, the Clergydesk and the Pulpit rose one above the other in a form known as "three-decker". The Church was lighted by candles.

The first Curate-in-Charge was the Rev Thomas Bowdler MA; "a man of unostentatious piety, with a most highly refined and elegant mind." He became a Prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral and when he died was buried with his wife and three of his daughters, who had predeceased him, beneath the east window of the South Aisle.

The Rev Charles English MA, the second Curate-in-Charge, enlarged the Church by building the Chancel and the Vicar's Vestry. It was dedicated to the memory of his predecessor and was consecrated by Dr. Tait, the Bishop of London, on 9 August 1858. In the same year the Crystal Palace Gas Company installed gas to light the Church.

In 1839, the Croydon Canal had been drained and replaced by the railway line. The opening of stations at Forest Hill, Sydenham and Penge had led to extensive house building. This had been increased by the building of the Crystal Palace.

To provide for the rapidly growing population, Mr. English had led a movement which resulted in the building of Christ Church, Forest Hill in 1854 and St. Philip's, Taylor's Lane, in 1866. Mr. English was "very fond of children" and built a Church school in Kirkdale in 1863. For ten years Mr English was worried by the Church Rates controversy and "had it not been for his great discretion and un-ruffled temper, we should have come to a state of lawlessness". He died at the Parsonage in 1867 and was buried beneath the unusual red sandstone grave near the east gate.

He was succeeded by the Rev. Augustus Legge, who later became Bishop of Lichfield. In his time, the nave roof became unsafe and was replaced by the present open timber roof. At the same time larger clerestory windows were put in; the three-decker pulpit was replaced by the present one and new pews were installed. The choir stalls and Clergy desks were added with their carved figures of St. Bartholomew and the four Evangelists. The gallery was dismantelled and the organ was re-built at the East end. New nave columns and arcades were built with carved heads placed on the capitals.

The restoration and improvement was completed in 1874 at a total cost of £7,883 and the Church looked similar to its present appearance.

Canon Legge was succeeded in 1879 by the Rev. Huyshe Yeatman, later to become Bishop of Southwark and later Bishop of Worcester. He enlarged St. Bartholomews by adding the short North Aisle, the Choir Vestry, the South Porch and closed off the South door of the Chancel.

The next Vicar, Canon Walter Moberley, was installed in 1892, and during his incumbency a thousand pounds was raised for the decoration of the Chancel. Erected in stages between 1901 and 1910, the new Reredos was greeted with mixed feelings. The centre panel shows the Epiphany scene depicting the Wise Men offering their gifts. In addition there are children bringing their gifts and an Angel leading a scribe carrying scrolls of Holy Scripture. There is a poor man bringing sacrificial pigeons and a shepherd with some sheep. Above the picture is a vine branch bearing grapes, to show that Jesus called himself "the true vine' and us "the branches".

After Canon Moberley's death in 1905, the Rev. William Peromo Holmes became Vicar and stayed during the period including the First World War, when the Crypt was first used as an air-raid shelter. In 1917 Mr Holmes exchaned ed livings with the Rev. William Boyne Bunting. While he was Vicar, in 1919, the end the South Aisle was furnished as a Memorial Chapel to the men who died in the War. In 1924 the oak panelling was added.

During the Second World War the Church suffered war damage. The old stained glass was shattered and, once again, the Crypt was used as a shelter. In 1944, the Parsonage was demolished by a V1 flying bomb. The Rev. Joseph Hunter was rescued from the rubble. He died in 1947.

A year later, the Rev. Arthur Perry was installed and took in hand the restoration of the Church. Some of the remaining old glass was composed into a small window high up in the east end of the North Aisle. The other windows were replaced by modern designs in time for the Easter of 1953. These were the work of Mr. Francis Spear.

The Rev. Arthur Perry left St. Bartholomews in 1957 to become Vicar of St. Barnabas, Dulwich, and Chaplain to Dulwich College. In 1958 the Rev. Maurice Garton became Vicar of St. Bartholomews until his retirement in 1970. After a long interregnum of over a year the Rev. Frederick Pinder MA was installed. Mr. Pinder died in 1979 and the Rev. Bernard Mobbs arrived in April 1980. Mr. Mobbs left to become Vicar of St. John's, Dormansland, in January 1987. The Rev. David Jackson BDS who came to the ministry from dentistry served from 1987 to 1993. The present Vicar is Michael Kingston.

Our Future.....

Vicar

The Rev Michael Kingston
The Vicarage, 4 Westwood Hill, London SE26 6QR
Telephone 020 8778 5290