| St Giles' Church, Camberwell | |
St Giles' Church, Camberwell
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St Giles' Church, Camberwell
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| OS grid reference | TQ3285376682 |
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| Country | England, United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Website | www.stgilescamberwell.org.uk/ |
| History | |
| Founded | Before 1089 |
| Dedication | Saint Giles |
| Consecrated | November 21, 1844 (present church) |
| Significant events | Old church burnt down 7th February 1841; Rebuilt 1844 |
| Significant associated people | Samuel Sebastian Wesley, former organist |
| Architecture | |
| Heritage designation | Listed Grade II* |
| Architect(s) | Sir George Gilbert Scott (Moffatt and Scott) |
| Architectural type | Parish church |
| Style | Gothic Revival |
| Construction cost | £24000 |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 152 feet (46 m) |
| Spire height | 210 feet (64 m) |
| Materials | Kentish ragstone originally faced with stone from Caen in Normandy and Sneaton in Yorkshire, later refaced with Portland stone |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Camberwell St. Giles with St. Matthew |
| Deanery | Camberwell |
| Diocese | Southwark |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Clergy | |
| Vicar(s) | Rev Nicholas George |
| Curate(s) | Rev Isoline Russell |
| Laity | |
| Organist(s) | Ashley Valentine |
St Giles' Church, Camberwell, is the parish church of Camberwell, a district of London which forms part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is part of Camberwell Deanery within the Anglican Diocese of Southwark in the Church of England. The church is dedicated to Saint Giles, the patron saint of the disabled. A local legend associates the dedication of St Giles with a well near Camberwell Grove, which may also have given Camber-well its name. An article on the church from 1827 states: "it has been conjectured that the well might have been famous for some medicinal virtues and might have occasioned the dedication of the church to this patron saint of cripples".[1]
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The ancient parish stretched from Boundary Lane, just north of the present Albany Road, south as far as Sydenham Hill. The Anglo-Saxon church on the site of St Giles', and recorded in the Domesday book, was almost certainly built of wood and stood amongst fields and woodland. The church was later rebuilt in stone by William FitzRobert, Earl of Gloucester and Lord of the Manor of Camberwell.[2] Numerous alterations and extensions took place over the next three hundred years and by the 18th Century, the church was crammed with box pews.
On 7 February 1841 a devastating fire, caused by a faulty heating system and fuelled by the wooden pews and galleries virtually destroyed the medieval church. The heat was so great that stained glass melted and stone crumbled to powder. Immediately after the fire, a competition to choose the architect for the new church produced 53 designs and was won by the firm of Scott and Moffat. St Giles' was the first major Gothic building by Sir George Gilbert Scott, best known as architect of St Pancras Station and the Albert Memorial.
The new church was consecrated on 21 November 1844 by the diocesan Bishop of Winchester. The church was built to a cruciform shape with a central tower surmounted by an octagonal spire of 64 metres (210 feet). Much of the facing stone was imported from Caen in Normandy, but by the 1870s the majority of this stone was removed due to decay caused by pollution. Appreciating his mistake, Scott paid for the church to be refaced with Portland stone which was more suitable for the London atmosphere.
The church suffered considerably in the Second World War with many of the stained glass windows being destroyed. Just over 100 years after the re-facing, stone began to fall from the spire and major vertical cracks threatened its structural integrity. In June 2000, the top 22 metres of the spire was taken down and rebuilt at a cost of £1,000,000.
St Giles' Church is laid out in a cruciform plan and has gabled transepts. The nave has a clerestory and lower aisles with 5 bays and gabled entrance porches. The interior has and arch-braced roof and a lierne vault at the crossing. The nave is flanked by alternately round and octagonal columns with foliated capitals. The south transept is used as the Lady Chapel, and the north transept hold the organ.[3]
The 19th-Century church features a sedilla and piscina on the south side of the Lady Chapel which date from the 14th Century, both remnants of the mediaeval church.[4] Further remains of the old church are visible in the former vicarage garden on Benhill Road, where a mediaeval porch stands.[5] This originally housed the sedilla piscina which were moved into the rebuilt church in 1916; the mediaeval porch is today used to house bins for the local youth club.[6]
St Giles church also contains notable stained-glass windows. In the chancel is a window by by Lavers & Barraud. The windows in the transepts designed by William Morris were destroyed in wartime bombing, and have been replaced by glass designed by Ninian Comper.[3] The large East Window was designed by the local art historian and supporter of the Pre-Raphaelite art movement, John Ruskin, a resident of Camberwell, and Oldfield. It depicts a wide range of Biblical scenes, from the Creation to the End of Time, in stained glass. Ruskin visited a number of mediaeval French cathedrals such as Chartres to gain inspiration for his stained glass designs for St. Giles'. The glass was made by the English stained glass company Ward and Nixon.[7]
The West window is also a Ward & Nixon, and incorporates some 13th-Century pieces of glass.[3]
Before embarking on his career as a cathedral organist and composer, Samuel Sebastian Wesley was organist for several years in the old church of St Giles'. After the fire, Wesley returned to St Giles to design the present J.C. Bishop organ of 1844 and played it at the opening recital.[8] The organ retains its original mechanical action, has three manuals and pedals and contains over 40 working stops.
St Giles' also has a peal of ten bells cast in 1844 by the firm of Mears at the famous Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The largest, the Tenor, weights 1,220 kilograms (24 cwt)
St Giles' is in the Catholic tradition of the Church of England. There are two services on Sundays, a said service at 8.15am and a sung Parish mass at 10am. There are further said services throughout the week.