Church Heritage Record 637057

Rectangular plan. West tower with access to lobby in base level, in east elevation. Nave with partitioned area to west beneath west balcony and south porch. North chapel beneath parish room (former balcony). Chancel with north organ chamber and south chapel. Stairway to north side. Vestry, choir vestry and parish office on several levels accessed from stairway in north-west corner.

Archaeology: Clapham Road, a short distance to the north, follows the route of a Roman road. The Stockwell area was settled in Anglo-Saxon times. The first record of a chapel in Stockwell is in 1351. The plentiful supply of water around Stockwell Green made it a suitable site for a brewery. The earliest reference found to a brewery at Stockwell Green occurs in 1801. Hammerton’s was a successful nearby brewery, hence the name of the hall. No burials but some ashes interred at west end. No previous known buildings on this site. There are a substantial number of records on the Greater London HER and this should be referred to in advance of any development work.

History: Stockwell Green goes back to the C13th when Stockwell was granted manorial status. Legend links Thomas Cromwell with the manor which was demolished c. 1756. Stockwell Green was known for its ‘stoc’ or woods (which disappeared around the C17th) and for its supply of water from springs and wells. The area remained largely rural into the early C19th but developments were taking place between the late C18th and late C19th. Development accelerated following the construction of Westminster bridge in 1750. 1860s main boom in population. Nearby railway stations opened in 1864 and 1866.

An initial petition to build a church in 1711 on land owned by Sir John Thorney-croft was never realised. In 1767 a piece of land was obtained from the Duke of Bedford’s estate, and Stockwell Chapel was built, with costs met by voluntary subscriptions. In 1788 that land, which had been part of Stack Yard Field, was conveyed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Winchester and the Rector of Lambeth for use as a chapel of ease.

The chapel is recorded as being able to seat 800 in 1844 (church leaflet records first galleries inserted in 1810). The church was remodelled in 1867 including the addition of a bay to the west and the insertion of galleries (just new ones?) to all but the east sides, which increased seating to 1,043 to meet the demands of an increasing local population. A tower was also built at the southwest corner. The works, by the architect Henry Edward Coe (1825-85), were executed in an Italian Romanesque style, at a cost of £2,500. The church reopened in November 1867 and was consecrated in 1868. The grey brick exterior was rendered in the 1880s (as stated in Survey of London, perhaps 1890?). In 1890-1 the church was enlarged by the addition of 2 new vestries to the north side, and the rebuilding of the east gable as well as general repairs, by the architect A J Pilkington (with a grant from the ICBS). The side galleries were removed in 1924. Repairs made in 1960s included retiling the roof, treating wood beetle and redecoration.

Hammerton Hall was built to the north side in 1906, paid for and named after the local brewer, turned temperance campaigner Charles Hammerton.

The church lies within a Conservation Area so relevant controls apply including protection of trees.

A tall south-west tower with short pyramidal spire has prominence in the local streetscape. The eaves are corbelled, a motif which continues around the church building. It has single light windows in the first stage on each side, two-light louvred openings in the upper stage, with a clock face on each side. In the east elevation, at ground level, is a porch beneath a single light.

The west elevation has a triangular gable with two two-light windows.

The south elevation, a 3-bay nave, is of two-storeys. Two-light segment-headed windows mark the lower floor and two-light round headed windows above (indicative of earlier gallery) with a shallow pitched roof. Windows are simply detailed with stone mullions and surrounds.

A buttress towards the east end marks the separation of the nave and chancel, with a further bay of windows to the east. A large circular east window with plate tracery punctuates the gabled east elevation. The large rose window appears to break up through the entablature and dominates the elevation which faces onto the corner of the road junction. Beneath the rose window are 3 lights (one must be obscured internally by the reredos). Two tiers of lights to north and south are also no longer visible inside.

Along the north elevation a gabled north transept (contains vestries) has a lean-to vestry (east facing door up steps) to the east in the angle between the transept and chancel, and a flat roofed vestry in the north-west corner.

Accessed through the base of the tower opening into the west vestibule, an area beneath the west gallery that is used for weekday worship, and which is rudimentarily screened from the nave between the square wood pilasters supporting the balcony above. A tiered gallery across the west end (accessed from the tower) with wood panelled front.

The interior is quite plain and aisleless. Walls are plastered and painted. Seating is provided in the nave by fixed pine pews on raised boarded floors, with numbers still visible on the pew ends. Centrally suspended metal chandeliers are fitted with energy saving bulbs. Side aisles are paved in stone flags. A row or 2 of pews appears to have been removed from the front, with the frontals remaining.

There is a small Lady Chapel on the north side of the nave with square wood pilasters between the nave, and 3 filled in arches in the wall above. There is a 20light window in the west wall into the stairwell, and another similar window in the north wall. There is an altar at the east end. The walls and flat panelled roof above it have been painted blue. A Jacobean style screen to the south of the altar. A plaque records its erection in 1894. Memorial tiles along the north wall.

The sanctuary and nave are separated by an arcade of three simple round arches, the centre arch being of wider span. The chancel is raised by a step, and there is a temporary platform inserted as an extension into the nave. The fittings in the chancel – pulpit, readers’ desks, choir stalls and reredos – form a high quality ensemble. The altar is raised on three steps. The roof over the chancel is formed by a boarded wagon ceiling, stencilled with starburst, with an angel at the sill level on either side holding a crest with the letters ‘IHS’. The organ fills an arch to the north side of the choir. An arch on the south side (where the organ was once located) accesses the sacristy chapel.