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

On Eltham Green with some fine houses from the 1840s

I will have passed these houses on the bus and never given them much of a thought which is a shame really because they are fine houses dating from the 1840s.

Later I think I shall explore their stories but in the meantime here is a short description from Darrell Spurgeon

“This old piece of common land is now split apart by Westhorne Avenue and its roundabout/  In a pleasant setting fronting the west part of the Green is a varied and attractive group of houses, mostly of the late 840s(some with modern porches and extensions).  

Some are detached houses are in pairs.  The only serious intrusions are a post war block in the grounds of no8. And nos 11/12, a pair c1903; otherwise the whole group is very handsome.”*

Picture; from Discover Eltham and its Environs, Darrell Spurgeon, 2000

*Discover Eltham and its Environs, Darrell Spurgeon, 2000

Discovering Eltham

Cover of the new edition 2000

I am back in Eltham where I grew up in the 1960s on the Progress Estate.

They say you should never go back to the places of your childhood and there is something in that.

Either they look smaller and are just that bit different or whole landscapes have so altered that you begin to question if your memory is serving you well.

Now my bit of Well Hall looks much the same but they have moved the station built a motorway and many of my favourite haunts in the High Street have changed.

All of which is a lead in to Discover Eltham by Darrell Sprugeon.*

It is a “comprehensive guide to Eltham, New Eltham, Mottingham, Kidbrooke and Shooters Hill.”  So it pretty much covers everywhere I went as a child and certainly everywhere I would want to take my own grown children who while they are all Mancunians have a soft spot for where dad lived.

Mr Spurgeon sets out to offer his reader a mix of history, and places to see which are all wrapped up in a series of walks “but only where places of interest are concentrated within an area which makes walking practicable and interesting.”

Tudor Barn, Well Hall, 16th century

So “beside the famous buildings of royal Eltham, the area covered includes Wren’ great almshouse of Morden College, the extraordinary Sevendroog Castle, set amongst the ancient woodland of Shooters Hill, the Tudor remains of Well Hall, many interesting Victorian churches and two striking churches of the 1930s, two remarkable housing estates of the 20th century; sites of industrial archaeology, interesting pubs; many of which remain rural in character, and much more.”

And there is much I didn’t know. So despite living close to the church of St Barnabas on Rochester Way, I had no idea that this red brick Victorian church was originally the chapel of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Woolwich.  It was “built in 1859 and dismantled and re-erected brick by brick on its present site in 1933.”

Nor did I know of the existence of three streams which flow through Kidbrook and feed into  the Quaggy River.  Of course the clue is in the name Kidbrook, which is clearly derived from the Upper, Mid and Lower Kidbrooks.

Now water courses are a particular interest of mine.  Most today are buried underground all but forgotten but they were vital to our rural communities providing water and acting as boundary markers.

Progress Estate, Ross Way, 1915

I have to own up that it is the Eltham walks which fascinate me most.

And here there is plenty to read and see because Mr Spurgeon includes a selection of photographs along with the text and maps.

The first edition came out in 1992 and a second much revised eight years later.  I have both in front of me.  

The earlier version I bought on Amazon and the later one has come courtesy of the author.

And as a historian what I finds particularly interesting are the changes to the area in that eight years. All of which makes the book a fascinating chronicle of how Eltham has developed.

I rather think that I shall take both with me on some of the walks, thereby getting an insight into the Eltham of 1992, 2000 and of course today.

Pictures; courtesy of Darrell Spurgeon

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

A 1930s cinema and a church from Woolwich, more walks in Well Hall

From Kidbrook Lane to the Well Hall roundabout

Continuing a walk through Eltham in the footsteps of Darrell Sprurgeon.  

This is part two of the guided walk in Well Hall taken from Discover Eltham by Mr Spurgeon.

We left the walk at the Tudor Barn and today have wandered up to the Well Hall roundabout.

In the thirteen years the Guide book was republished the changes at this end of Well Hall have continued a pace, and so the description of the cinema is as much a piece of history as the story of Well Hall House.

The Well Hall Odeon

The Former Coronet Cinema, 70, 

The former Odeon cinema of 1936 designed by Andrew Mather has some interesting art deco features – note- the projecting glass staircase tower and the central canopy over the entrance.  

The interior of the foyer is also circular, with a wooden ticket booth and the word Odeon in green and red mosaic set in the floor.  

Unfortunately, the cinema has closed and it may be difficult to find a future use for the building.

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

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.  

Note the anthemium motifs in the arcades.  The Stations of the Cross are of some interest, by Stan Boundy circa 1994.  

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

Next, the Progress Estate.

Pictures; courtesy of Eltham, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eltham/210661675617589?fref=ts

* Discover Eltham and its Environ, Darrell Spurgeon, Greenwich Guide Books, 2nd edition 2000

On Shooters Hill remembering the Great War at Christ Church

I am back on Shooters Hill in the company of Darrel Spurgeon's guide book.*

It is a book I keep returning to because it contains some fascinating history of Eltham and the surrounding areas and a set of first class walks.

So today I have lifted a little bit more of his walk along Shooters Hill and in particular Christ Church which is number two on the map and can be found by walking east up past the old police station as far as Red Lion Lane.

The church is opposte.

“Christ Church. A small Victorian Gothic church of 1856, the east end added in 1869.  

The exterior in unexceptional, but the interior is interesting with the atmosphere of a village church.  Note the fine east end and stained glass window of 1869 and a series of unusual roofshields.  

In 1900 Temple Moore added a coloured chancel screen, two large figures of winged angels in the chancel and decorated cornices.

In the churchyard is a graceful Great War Memorial cross of granite and in front of this the Ypres milestone, an 18th century milestone converted to a First World War memorial.  It reads: ‘130 miles to Ypres, in defending the salient our casualties were 90,000 killed, 70,500 missing, and 410,000 wounded.’ 

Note the modern milestone on the opposite side of the road, with replicas of 19th century iron plates reading ‘8 miles to London Bridge and 7 miles to Dartford’, which used to be on the Ypres milestone.

To the east is Christ Church School.  The small central building is the old village school of 1857; the extension on either side is post war.”

*Discover Eltham, Darrell Spurgeon, 2000

Pictures; map and photograph courtesy of Darrell Spurgeon

The Library on the High Street

© Chrissie Rose

Now the Library is a special place for me.

It was where I spent many happy hours in the reference room and later where our Stella worked.

And it is also a pretty impressive building.

It was built “with funds from the Carnegie Trust to a design by Maurice Adams.  The classical frontispiece is recessed and on either side are oriel windows and tile hung gables flanked by urns.”*

Next door at nos 183-5 “is the old electricity showroom which was built in the early 1930s by the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich; upstairs at that time was the office of the Council’s Registrar [and] behind it was a building used from the early 1900s as the electricity works, Woolwich being the electricity supply authority at the time.”*

Now the electricity offices may have gone but the Library remains and looks no different from the building I can see in pictures from 1910 and 1971.

So some things remain the same although since I left they have sneaked in the new swimming baths just behind the place but that is for another story.

Picture, the library in 2014 courtesy of Chrissie Rose

*Discover Eltham and its Environs, Darrell Spurgeon, 2000

Looking down the High Street ....... revealing clues about the past

Down the High Street, 2015

This is one of those scenes of the High Street which will be so familiar as to warrant not even a second glance and give or take a few of the businesses along this stretch it is not so different from the one I remember, over fifty years ago.

But there are a few clues to an even earlier period and one helps tell the story of how this bit of Eltham developed during the last century.

It starts with that white fronted building which today is occupied by the pawnbrokers and Costa Coffee.

It dates from the 1720s and was Cliefden House which according to one source retains a fine carved staircase from the 17th century but long ago lost its front garden to a road widening scheme.*

It may have lost much of its more elegant past but at least it is still here unlike the even older and grander house just a bit further down the road.

This was Sherard House and I guess bits of it may still be there under the Nat West bank and in the just as  there might be the odd lumps of masonry from the Congregation Church which was replaced by Burton’s.

Sherard House, circa 1909

All of this I knew although I have to say in the time I have been away more than a few changes have broken cover and surprised me.

So I was unprepared for the news that the Greyhound pub had been partially rebuilt in 1978 or that Mr Burton had walked from the High Street to be replaced by a battery of people selling Big Macs assorted fries and apple turnovers.

Even more of a shock was the disappearance of Payne’s the outfitters, the demise of the Post Office on Passey Place and the demolition of the ABC cinema.

Such sneaky things seem to go on when you leave home.

That said the parish Church is still there its spire just visible on the sky line in the distance.

And if I wanted to be a show off I can reflect that what was Payne’s and is now delicio was occupied by Mr George F Benjafield, clothier in 1918.

His near neighbour at the the Greyhound Ernest Elms and across the road Mrs Dobell was stillliving comfortable in Sherard House.

Picture; looking west down the High Street, 2014, from the collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick and Sherard House, 1909 from The Story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 

*Discover Eltham and its Environs, Darrell Spurgeon, 1992

Back visiting that old station on Westmount Road nine months later

Now they say you should never go back to your childhood haunts, especially if you have been away for a long time.

It is a rule I break all the time and as a result I am often disappointed at the mismatch between what I remember and what I see now.

And Eltham Park station is just such a place.

Back in February my friend Chrissie had visited the place and photographed the building, and today she went back.

I had hoped that in the months since her visit someone had breathed new life into the place.

But sadly not so, and it is a shame.

It was never a station I knew well.

Living on Well Hall Road I got off at the station by the Pleasaunce so I never really knew Eltham Park but for those who did this must be a sad ending.

According to Discover Eltham* this was the original station building for what was Shooters Hill and Eltham Park “having between the wars become a parade of shops; no 96 with its distinctive upper floor was the original entrance to the booking hall.”

The station’s name was changed to Eltham Park in 1927 and was closed in 1985.

Since then it has been a series of retail units overshadowed by the shops further along Westmount Road.


Pictures; courtesy of Chrissie Rose 2014

*On Westmount Road with ST TIO PARADE in January 2014, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/on-westmount-road-with-st-tio-parade-in.html

**Discover Eltham and its Environs, Darrell Spurgeon, 1992, revised edition 2000