St John Horsleydown
Encyclopedia
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
parish church of Horsleydown
Horsleydown
Southwark St John Horsleydown was a small parish on the south bank of the River Thames in London, opposite the Tower of London. The name Horsleydown, apparently derived from the "horse lie-down" next to the river, is no longer used...
in Bermondsey
Bermondsey
Bermondsey is an area in London on the south bank of the river Thames, and is part of the London Borough of Southwark. To the west lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe, and to the south, Walworth and Peckham.-Toponomy:...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
The church
The church built between June 1727 and 1733 in Fair Street (beside the road now known as Tower Bridge Road, just south of the junction with Tooley Street), as one of the last churches built for the Commission for Building Fifty New ChurchesCommission for Building Fifty New Churches
The Commission for Building Fifty New Churches was an organisation set up by Act of Parliament in England in 1711, with the purpose of building fifty new churches for the rapidly growing conurbation of London...
. The new parish was created from part of that of Southwark St Olave
Southwark St Olave
Southwark St Olave was an ancient civil and ecclesiastical parish on the south bank of the River Thames, covering the area around where Shard London Bridge now stands in the modern London Borough of Southwark...
.
The church's design was a collaboration between Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor was a British architect born in Nottinghamshire, probably in East Drayton.-Life:Hawksmoor was born in Nottinghamshire in 1661, into a yeoman farming family, almost certainly in East Drayton, Nottinghamshire. On his death he was to leave property at nearby Ragnall, Dunham and a...
and John James. The most distinctive feature of the church was its unusual spire. This was in the form of a tapering column topped by a weather vane in the form of a comet. The "silly but lovable spire" was considered a landmark of south London by Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
. He described the church as "a stately building, all stone faced, the W front severely bare, without a portico, the N side symmetrical with two outer slightly projecting bays and a central big Venetian window." The church had a peal of ten bells cast in 1783/4.
War damage and reduction to chapel of ease
Parts of the church remained in use after it was severely damaged by a bomb on 20 September 1940 during the BlitzThe Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
. In 1952 only the west, north and east walls were standing. In 1947 the parish was merged with neighbouring St Olave's, (the church there having been demolished) so that the parish and church became known as Southwark, St Olave and St John. In 1956 there was a further amalgamation with the parish of St Magdalen Bermondsey
Bermondsey
Bermondsey is an area in London on the south bank of the river Thames, and is part of the London Borough of Southwark. To the west lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe, and to the south, Walworth and Peckham.-Toponomy:...
, with the church becoming a chapel of ease
Chapel of ease
A chapel of ease is a 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....
in the new parish of Bermondsey St Mary Magdalen with st Olave and St John. In the same year a rebuilding scheme for the church was approved, but never carried out. The last baptism was held in the church in 1960. In 1964 a further amalgamation of parishes saw St Olave and St John's included in the parish of St Mary Magdalen with St Olave, St John and St Luke, Bermondsey.
Closure and demolition
In 1968 the church was closed, and the 1956 rebuilding scheme rescinded. The London City MissionLondon City Mission
London City Mission was set up by David Nasmith on 16 May 1835 in the Hoxton area of east London. The first paid missionary was Lindsay Burfoot.. Today it is part of the wider City Mission Movement....
bought the site from the Church Commissioners
Church Commissioners
The Church Commissioners is a body managing the historic property assets of the Church of England. It was set up in 1948 combining the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners formed in 1836...
in 1974 for £37, 811. Burials in the church's crypt were removed to Brookwood Cemetery
Brookwood Cemetery
Brookwood Cemetery is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in western Europe.-History:...
and the Mission opened its Nasmith House there in 1975, though the church's plinth is Grade II listed and may still be seen from the churchyard (surviving up to 10 ft in places).