St Barnabas with a story few now know about

The church in 2014

Now despite growing up in Well Hall and passing the Church of St Barnabas, year in and year out I had no idea that it was actually built in Woolwich in 1859 and only appeared on our door stop in 1933.

And as we are into amazing revelations I didn’t know that it had been damaged in the war.

Now there are those like George Treadway who remembers it being hit and there will be many more who have fond memories of the church as a place of worship, a youth club and for its scout group.

So I would just like to thank Kristina Bedford* for the picture of the church in 1858, Chrissie Rose for her photograph taken earlier this month and George who remembered "St Barnabas Church by Well Hall roundabout in ruins [and seeing] it a flame from our house that night up by Van Dyke Cross."**

All of which just leaves me to quote from Discover Eltham and its Environs, by Darrell Spurgeon, 2000,

"Church of St Barnabus, 71, Rochester Way.  A Victorian Gothic church in red brick, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott. 

The church in 1859

It was originally built in 1859 as the chapel of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Woolwich; it was dismantled and re-erected, brick by brick, on this site in 1933.  

The exterior is rather stark, with a bold apse, quirky turret and many lancet windows, along the side are four gables, each covering twin lancets.

The interior was transformed by Thomas Ford in 1957 after war damage.  

It is light and spacious with a wagon roof and large flowering mural by Hans  Feibusch on the apse ceiling; but is very strange (‘sickly wedding cake’ Pevsner) with 16 angels perched on the beams above the column in the square arcades.  

 The vicarage next door is a striking red brick house with a graceful ground floor bow.  Adjacent is the church hall, of 1938, renamed the Frankie Howard Community Centre in 1988."

Pictures; New Church Woolwich Dockyard, 1859, courtesy of Kristina Bedford and Church of St Barnabas, 2014, from the collection of Chrisie Rose

*Woolwich Through Time Kristina Bedford, Amberley Publishing, 2014

**Remembering Eltham,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/remembering-eltham.html

****Discover Eltham and its Environ, Darrell Spurgeon Greenwich Guide Books, 1992, revised and updated  2000