Tottenham: Churches

CHURCHES.

In 1086 a priest held ½ hide at Tottenham. (fn. 1) By 1134 King David I of Scotland had given the church of Tottenham to the Augustinian canons of Holy Trinity, Aldgate. (fn. 2) The grant was confirmed between 1163 and 1174 (fn. 3) and again in 1201. (fn. 4) A vicarage was endowed by William of Sainte-Mére-Eglise, (fn. 5) bishop of London from 1198 to 1221, and thereafter a vicar served the whole parish until the creation of the district chapelry of Holy Trinity in the early 19th century. (fn. 6)

Priors of Holy Trinity presented all the known vicars from 1327 until the early 16th century. The patronage was exercised by John Lawrence on behalf of John Jekyll in 1510 and by William Redman and Robert Heynes, by grant of a turn, in 1525, but Holy Trinity again presented in 1526. (fn. 7) After the Dissolution the king granted the advowson, together with the rectory estate, successively to Sir Thomas Audley, to William, Lord Howard, and, in 1544, to the chapter of St. Paul's. (fn. 8) The vicar was presented in 1551 by John Cook and thereafter by St. Paul's (fn. 9) until the Interregnum, when Sir Edward Barkham and others 'approved' the minister. (fn. 10) The chapter regained the patronage at the Restoration and retained it in 1972. (fn. 11)

One half of the tithes of grain at Tottenham was granted by Simon de St. Liz (I) in 1107 to his newly founded priory of St. Andrew, Northampton, (fn. 12) which was confirmed in its right as late as 1329 (fn. 13) but apparently had lost it by 1535. (fn. 14) William of SainteMére-Eglise endowed the vicar with small tithes and with a pension of 20s. from the canon's treasury, in return for a quit-rent. (fn. 15) The vicarage was never wealthy. It was assessed at 5 marks in the mid 13th century (fn. 16) and had risen to £5 in 1291; (fn. 17) it was taxed at a mere 16 marks in 1428 (fn. 18) and was valued at £14 in 1535. (fn. 19) The minister occupied or leased out property worth £17 a year in 1650, by which date the small tithes, owing to the remissness of the parishioners, were estimated at no more than £30. (fn. 20) In the 1660s Dr. Edward Spark complained to St. Paul's that his predecessor William Wimpew had refused any augmentation, that Stephen Beale as farmer of the rectory was obstructive, and that he himself had only £58 18s. 8d. a year, of which £38 18s. 8d. came from tithes. (fn. 21) By 1700 lessees of St. Paul's were paying £10 yearly to augment the benefice, (fn. 22) which was estimated to be worth £100 in the early and mid 18th century (fn. 23) and £300 in 1810, when the vicar received £175 in small tithes, £100 in fees and augmentations, £10 from the farmer of the rectory, and Easter offerings. (fn. 24) The net income was £978 in 1835. (fn. 25) When all the tithes were commuted for £1,685 10s. in 1844, the vicar was awarded a rent-charge of £800. (fn. 26)

On the endowment of the vicarage 2 a. was set aside for the vicar's house. (fn. 27) In 1455-6 the glebe comprised the site of the house with 4 a., an additional 7 a. lately belonging to the rectory, and a small grove. (fn. 28) The same land was probably held by William Bedwell, who reckoned that it covered 10 or 11 a., including 1-2 a. at Wood Green; (fn. 29) in his time the vicarage house stood next to an orchard, with pasture called Vicarage croft to the north-west, and the slip at Wood Green contained a cottage by the New River. (fn. 30) In 1799 the Wood Green property was sold, to redeem the land-tax, and in 1810 the vicar had only his close of pasture adjoining one acre around the house. (fn. 31) The pasture was still glebe in 1844, by which time the grounds of the house had been extended to cover more than 8 a., (fn. 32) but all were apparently sold when a new house was bought in the 1860s. (fn. 33)

The first recorded vicarage house stood in 1610 on the north side of White Hart Lane, close to the junction with High Road. (fn. 34) Bedwell, then in occupation, considered it a small thing, of less note than the glebeland, (fn. 35) and Edward Sparke, pleading poverty, complained that the buildings were ruinous. (fn. 36) The house had been refaced by 1810, when the White Hart Lane front was of brick with sash windows while the other sides were tile-hung and described as ancient; it was then of two floors, the upper one having 7 bedrooms, and a garret. (fn. 37) In the 1860s the vicar moved from White Hart Lane to no. 776 High Road, (fn. 38) an old house which remained the Vicarage until the purchase of the Priory (fn. 39) in 1905. (fn. 40) The oldest part of the original Vicarage was pulled down in 1873 (fn. 41) and the rest was used by the stationmaster at White Hart Lane in 1913, when the premises in High Road served as the Working Men's Tariff Reform club. (fn. 42)

The Priory, so called by the 1860s because it was thought to occupy the site of a residence of the priors of Holy Trinity, (fn. 43) apparently replaced Awlfield farmhouse, (fn. 44) which stood immediately south of the church in 1619. In that year the farm was leased out with demesne lands totalling 179 a. to Joseph Fenton, a barber-surgeon of London and the most substantial of the demesne tenants. (fn. 45) Thereafter the farm was presumably leased, as in 1785, until in 1789 the house and 132 a. were bought by the tenant, Edwin Paine. (fn. 46) The estate stretched westward across the Moselle, along the north side of Lordship Lane, thirty years later (fn. 47) and was sometimes known as Church farm. (fn. 48) After its acquisition by the L.C.C., the Priory was saved from demolition by the Revd. Denton Jones, since whose time it has served as the vicarage-house. (fn. 49)

In 1973 the Priory, (fn. 50) a two-storeyed building with cellar and attics, was largely screened from Church Lane by a brick wall, containing an early-18th-century wrought iron gate from the old Vicarage in High Road. (fn. 51) The north wing is partly timberframed and it probably survives from an earlier hall and cross-wing house which Joseph Fenton remodelled. Fenton's name and rebus occur in the plasterwork of the hall ceiling and on panelling in a bedroom, with the dates 1620 and 1621. More alterations took place in the early 18th century, when the framed projection of the south wing was removed and the main front was renewed in brick and provided with a wooden doorcase. Inside an elaborate wooden overmantel was put into the hall and a new staircase was built behind the main range. During the 19th century there were extensions to the south wing and when the house was converted into a vicarage further alterations were made at the back and to the fittings.

A chantry was founded under the will of John Drayton, dated 1456, a goldsmith who left his lands in reversion to St. Paul's for the support of two priests to say masses at Roger Walden's tomb in the cathedral and St. Katharine's altar in Tottenham church severally. Masses were also to be celebrated twice weekly at the chapel of St. Ann called the Hermitage. (fn. 52) Drayton's chantry was worth £6 13s. 4d. a year in 1535 (fn. 53) but was not included with other properties valued in 1547. William Courtman otherwise Clark, a London vintner, by will proved 1528, left land in trust, the rent from which primarily was to pay for Easter expenses, including bread and wine at communion; the residue was to go to Courtman's heir for 20 years and thereafter to the poor. (fn. 54) In 1547, when Courtman's benefaction was somewhat differently defined, 66s. a year was also paid by the keepers of 33 cows which had been given by various benefactors for the support of a chantry priest. (fn. 55) The lands left by Courtman were sold by the Crown, with many others, to Thomas Bourchier and Henry Tanner in 1548. (fn. 56)

Edward Mariner, vicar 1474-83, was licensed to hold Tottenham with one other living in 1478. (fn. 57) Dr. Geoffrey Wharton, a canon of St. Paul's, resigned the living after a year in 1526 on becoming archdeacon of London. (fn. 58) William Bedwell, vicar 1607-32 and author of the first local history, was an Arabic scholar and one of the Westminster translators of the Bible. (fn. 59) William Wimpew, displaced from 1644 until the Restoration, (fn. 60) also secured a prebend of Lincoln in 1664. (fn. 61) Dr. Edward Sparke, who continued as vicar of Walthamstow for a short time after his institution to Tottenham in 1666, was a royal chaplain and theological writer. (fn. 62) Samuel Pratt, appointed in 1693, became minister of the Savoy and a canon of Windsor in 1697 and dean of Rochester in 1706; he resigned Tottenham in favour of his son Daniel in 1707. (fn. 63) Thomas Comyn, vicar 1771-98, was second chaplain of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, from 1782 and chaplain there from 1787. (fn. 64) Thomas Newcome, vicar 1824-51, was also rector of Shenley (Herts.). (fn. 65) The living was often bestowed as a reward by St. Paul's: John Husband, vicar 1714-38, his successor Christopher Morrison, and William John Hall, vicar 1851-62, were minor canons and Alexander Wilson, vicar 1870-98, was a canon. (fn. 66) There was a resident assistant curate in the time of Samuel Pratt (fn. 67) and, if not earlier, from the time of John Husband, who himself stayed in the parish from Easter until Michaelmas. (fn. 68) John Rotheram (1725-89), the theologian, was curate from 1757 to 1766. (fn. 69) The curate's stipend was recorded in 1774, 1807, (fn. 70) and 1835. (fn. 71)

In 1650 Tottenham was said to be served by an able minister, William Bates, and to possess a church which could conveniently hold all the worshippers. (fn. 72) Edward Sparke, however, declared that ignorance and faction threatened unless his parishioners should become as concerned for their souls as for their bodies; he had vainly suggested that the congregation should support an evening sermon with £40 a year, of which half should go to himself and half to a reader, which would still be below the rate of the meanest lecturer. (fn. 73) In 1685, when Sparke was still vicar, it was ordered that the communion table should be placed under the east window and railed in, as formerly. (fn. 74) Sparke's successor, Samuel Pratt, first allowed the vestry to choose a lecturer in 1693. (fn. 75) Attacks on Pratt, perhaps as a pluralist, were condemned in 1695 by the vestry, which hinted at dissenters' malice and declared that the parish could never desire to be better served than by the vicar and his assistant curate. (fn. 76) When John Husband was vicar, services were held twice on Sundays and the sacraments were administered once a month and on three feast days. (fn. 77) In the 1770s there were still two Sunday services, as well as a monthly communion attended by 50-60 people. Two Sunday schools had been started by 1790. (fn. 78) In 1851 there were attendances of 613, including 161 children from Sunday school, in the morning and 525, including 150 children, in the evening. (fn. 79)

The church of All Saints now called ALL HALLOWS was so dedicated by the 15th century. (fn. 80) It stands on the west side of Church Lane, separated from housing to the east and north by Bruce Castle's grounds and Tottenham cemetery and to the south by the Priory. The building, after many alterations, comprises a chancel with north-east vestries and north and south transepts, an aisled nave of 6 bays, a south porch, and a 4-stage west tower. (fn. 81) A contrast of textures and colours is provided by the materials: flint rubble, ragstone, varied brickwork, and dressings of stone. By the end of the 14th century the surviving tower and arcades suggest a building with an aisled nave of 4 bays and a chancel with north and south chapels. During the 15th century both aisles were rebuilt, probably to a greater width, and that on the south side was continued beyond the rood screen into the rebuilt chapel. The two-storey south porch, of red brick with dark diapering and stone dressings, was added c. 1500. A north-east vestry over a burial vault for the Hare family was erected in 1696; a circular structure with a leaded dome surmounted by an obelisk, it was demolished in 1875 on the reorganization of Lord Coleraine's charity. (fn. 82) The fourth stage of the tower, in brick and battlemented, was added during the 18th century. At a restoration in 1816 the church was probably again extended eastward, by one bay, and the north aisle was rebuilt in yellowish-brown brick. A further restoration in 1875 included the addition of a chancel, transepts, and vestries to the east; the work, by William Butterfield, was carried out in a Geometrical style but in materials similar to those of the porch. The many changes and slight 20th-century war damage have left few of the architectural details unaffected, although much original stonework has been reset. A western gallery for children was altered to accommodate more parishioners in 1741, when a new children's gallery was built over the south-west door. A north gallery, for the use of nine subscribers and their households, was added in 1821. All three galleries were subsequently removed, the first being the north one c. 1862. (fn. 83)

Fittings include French glass of c. 1600, (fn. 84) presented in 1807 by John Eardley and later moved from the chancel to the north aisle, and an early-17thcentury communion table. There is a brass inscription to Geoffrey Walkeden (d. 1599) and there are figured brasses to Elizabeth Burrough (d. 1616) and Margaret Irby (d. 1640). An imposing marble wallmonument displays the kneeling figures of Richard Candler (d. 1602), his son-in-law Sir Ferdinando Heybourne (d. 1618), and their wives, and another portrays Sir John Melton and his wife (d. 1640). (fn. 85) A third, in black and white marble, of three stages and advanced in style, has busts by Edward Marshall of Sir Robert Barkham, his wife Mary (d. 1644), and their 12 children. Other monuments include a slab to Bridget Moyse (d. 1626) and, in the churchyard, headstones commemorating Rebecca Angell (d. 1682) and Mary Hobby (d. 1708), as well as many table-tombs of the early 19th century.

The church possessed 4 bells in 1552 (fn. 86) and a great bell, weighing 2,011 lb., which was recast in 1612. Presumably they were the 5 bells which were recast in 1696, when a sixth was added. In 1972 the tower held 8 bells: (i) and (ii) 1881; (fn. 87) (iii) to (viii) 1696, Philip Wightman. A sanctus bell mentioned in 1552 may have been the one replaced in 1801, when Dr. Humphrey Jackson gave a French bell of 1663, said to have been taken from the Quebec garrison in 1759. A chalice and some other pieces, kept in private houses, were said in 1552 to be the only valuables to have survived two burglaries. (fn. 88) Communion vessels were again stolen in 1818 (fn. 89) and in 1897 there was no plate dating from before the late 19th century. (fn. 90) The registers date from 1558 and are complete. (fn. 91)

HOLY TRINITY chapel, on the north side of Tottenham Green, was built 1828-30 out of public subscriptions and a Parliamentary grant. (fn. 92) A district chapelry, taken from the parent parish, was assigned in 1844 (fn. 93) and perpetual curates were thereafter appointed by the vicar of Tottenham. (fn. 94) There was seating for about 800 but attendance was poor in 1851 (fn. 95) and was denounced as scandalous for so respectable a community in 1879, when many letters to the local newspapers attacked the vicar, W. C. Howell, for using the Gregorian chant. (fn. 96) The church was designed in yellow stock brick with stone dressings by James Savage. It is a plain building, comprising a nave, sanctuary, and aisles; when new it was highly praised, although the crocketed pinnacles were condemned as Perpendicular blemishes on an otherwise austere work in the Early English style. (fn. 97) A school, between the church and High Road, was built in 1847. (fn. 98)

A chapel of ease, dedicated to ST. MICHAEL, was consecrated at Wood Green in 1844. (fn. 99) It was paid for by subscriptions and a grant from the Church Building Society and could seat 200, although attendances of no more than 48 in the morning and 85 in the evening were recorded in 1851, when there was no Sunday school. (fn. 100) The building, when erected, stood amid fields in the fork between Bounds Green Lane and Green Lanes (later Bounds Green Road and High Road). G. G. (later Sir Gilbert) Scott and W. B. Moffat designed it, in Kentish rag and Brownhill stone, in the Decorated style. It consisted of an aisleless nave and a short chancel. Damage from subsidence caused temporary closure in the 1850s and presumably prompted a complaint in the press in 1863 that Wood Green, with its rapidly growing population, was served by 'a little crippled church on crutches'. In 1865 the building was reconstructed in an early Decorated style, with an aisled nave designed by Henry Curzon. A new chancel, also by Curzon, was built in 1869-70, a south-east tower was added in 1873-4, largely at the cost of Samuel Page of Chitts Hill, and a spire in 1887. (fn. 101) St. Michael's became a district chapelry, taken from the parent parish, in 1866, with the vicar of Tottenham as patron. (fn. 102) A church hall, designed by J. S. Alder, was built on the south side of Bounds Green Road in 1911. (fn. 103)

In 1973 the church, which had seating for c. 450, (fn. 104) was unusual in being served by a vicar and three assistant curates and in having charge of two mission churches. The church of St. John, Brook Road, was dedicated in 1898 and the iron church of the Good Shepherd, formerly at Neasden, was erected in Berwick Road in 1916.

In north Tottenham services were held in an iron building, on the site later occupied by no. 125 Northumberland Park, from 1855 until land for a permanent church in Park Lane was given by Miss Jemima Holt, of Marie House, High Road. (fn. 105) The church of ST. PAUL was begun in 1858 (fn. 106) and consecrated in 1859, (fn. 107) when a district chapelry was assigned out of All Hallows parish, (fn. 108) with the vicar of Tottenham as patron. (fn. 109) Much of the money was raised by the first incumbent, D. J. Harrison. (fn. 110) The building, of Kentish ragstone, was designed in a Decorated style by William Mumford. It consisted of aisled nave, sanctuary, north and south transepts, west gallery, and north-west tower with spire, (fn. 111) and could seat 750. The fabric had been little altered by 1972 but in 1973 it was demolished, with the near-by vicarage, to make way for a new church, hall, and flats. (fn. 112)

Assistant curates from Holy Trinity held Sunday afternoon services at the Hermitage school, opened in 1858 on the north side of Hanger Lane (later St. Ann's Road). (fn. 113) A few yards farther east the church of ST. ANN was founded in 1860 and dedicated in 1861, whereupon a district was assigned from Holy Trinity parish. Both school and church were chiefly paid for by Fowler Newsam, a City merchant who lived in High Road opposite the junction with St. Ann's Road, on behalf of his daughter Mrs. E. M. Robins, whose house was on the site of the later St. Ann's hospital. Fowler Newsam became the first patron and was succeeded by Mrs. Robins (d. 1895), who in 1891 devised the patronage to the chapter of St. Paul's. (fn. 114) Of the 625 sittings only 100 were free. The church was attended by rich businessmen's families, which led a newspaper correspondent to complain in 1872 that an iron church in West Green or Tottenham Hale would have been more beneficial than Newsam's lavishly favoured St. Ann's, in rural surroundings and catering largely for outsiders. The building cost as much as £11,000, with a vicarage to the north-east (demolished 1962), and was much praised for the richness of its detail, both internal and external. (fn. 115) It was designed by Thomas Talbot Bury in the Decorated style, of brick, faced with Kentish ragstone and with dressings of Bath stone, and comprised an aisled nave, north and south transepts, apsidal chancel, and south-west tower and spire. A single vestry served both clergy and choir until 1897, when a separate one for the choir was consecrated; the original vestry was converted into a memorial chapel in 1921, when a new clergy vestry was added. The steeple, damaged in the Second World War, was repaired in 1954-5, and other parts of the fabric were restored in 1958 and 1961. Fittings included an organ on which Mendelssohn had played at Crosby Hall (City of London), whence it was brought by Mr. and Mrs. Robins. There was seating for about 480 in 1972.

A rise in the working-class population of south Tottenham led to the hire of rooms as a soup kitchen before the opening of the Newsam Memorial House, with a resident mission woman, on the south side of St. Ann's Road. A hall was added at the back, with help from the Bishop of London's Fund, and dedicated in 1914; it was pulled down in the 1960s, when a new parish hall was built north of the church. The same fund contributed to a parish hall in Braemar Road, opened as the Mission of the Good Shepherd in 1906 and bombed in the Second World War. It also helped to build a hall in Blackboy Lane, dedicated as St. Andrew's church in 1908 and thereafter served by a curate-in-charge until the Second World War; St. Andrew's was used as the headquarters of the Church company of the Boys' Brigade from 1947 until it was burned down in 1970.

In the populous Stamford Hill area an iron church, dedicated to ST. JOHN THE DIVINE, was opened in Franklin Street in 1880. It was replaced by a church in Vartry Road six years later, when a parish was created out of St. Ann's, whose vicar became the patron. Lord Amherst gave the site and the Bishop of London's Fund contributed. The church, of red brick with stone dressings, was designed by S. W. Grant in the Early English style; it had seating for 650 and consisted of aisled nave, chancel, north-east sacristy, and south-east organchamber. A mission house was opened in Harefield Road in 1891 and a parish room was built in 1894. (fn. 116) Despite repairs to the church itself in 1953 (fn. 117) the fabric became so dilapidated that from the late 1960s 120-150 worshippers met in a large hut within the nave. In 1973 it was planned to demolish the church, with its adjoining clergy-house and hall, and to rebuild on part of the old site. (fn. 118)

Services were started by a mission from Marlborough College (Wilts.) at the new Coleraine Park board school in 1881. The church of ST. MARY THE VIRGIN was consecrated in 1887, Marlborough College having contributed over one third of the cost of the site, on the south side of Lansdowne Road, and of the building. (fn. 119) A consolidated chapelry, taken from the parishes of All Hallows, Holy Trinity, and St. Paul, was created in 1888, (fn. 120) with the bishop of London as patron. (fn. 121) The church, designed by J. E. K. Cutts, was of red brick with stone dressings, in the Early English style; it seated 720 and comprised a western vestry, an aisled nave, an apsidal chancel with the altar raised unusually high, a north-east chapel, and a south-east organchamber. (fn. 122) A mission hall in Mitchley Road, Stoneleigh South, was opened in the 1890s and later halls were built in Kemble (fn. 123) and Lansdowne roads. The Kemble hall was used by the parish in 1973, when the other halls were leased out. (fn. 124)

At West Green, where residents hitherto had been faced with a difficult journey to St. Ann's, services began in the Willow Walk school in 1882. (fn. 125) Two years later an iron church, which had served the parishioners of All Souls', Clapton, was erected, with help from the London Diocesan Home Mission, on land in West Green Road leased from W. Hodson of Downhills. In 1888 the permanent CHRIST CHURCH was consecrated, at the junction of Stanmore and Waldeck roads, and in 1889 a consolidated chapelry was formed out of Holy Trinity, All Hallows, St. Michael's, and St. Ann's, (fn. 126) with the vicar of Holy Trinity as patron. (fn. 127) The church was designed by Hodson and Whitehead, of red brick with some stone dressings, in the Early English style. It seated 700 and comprised an aisled nave and a chancel; the roof was relaid with pantiles after the Second World War. The iron building was retained for Sunday school classes until 1893, when a parish hall was opened in Waldeck Road, where successive vicarage houses later separated it from the parish church.

In 1884, a year after work had started on the Noel Park estate, services and Sunday school classes were held over a shop in Park Road South, later no. 9 Lymington Avenue. (fn. 128) A site for a church at the centre of the estate had already been bought by Richard Foster and extended, to include a hall and vicarage, by the Bishop of London's Fund; money also had been raised in Shrewsbury to erect a mission hall, which would be supported by the Shropshire Mission to East London. The hall was dedicated in 1885 and the church of ST. MARK consecrated in 1889, when a district was assigned from St. Michael's, Wood Green, (fn. 129) with the bishop of London as patron. (fn. 130) In 1902-3 St. Mark's had the largest Anglican attendance in the parish, with a congregation twice that of any other church in Wood Green. (fn. 131) The church, of red brick, seated 850 and consisted of aisled nave, transepts, chancel, north-east chapel, and south-east vestry; it was designed by Rowland Plumbe in Venetian Gothic and was intended to have a lofty bell-tower. The mission hall was retained for parish meetings and formed, with the church and vicarage, an island site between Gladstone and Lymington avenues.

A mission hall, holding 250, was built by the Drapers' Company of London in 1884 to serve the poor and populous area between Page Green and Tottenham Hale. A permanent building was planned ten years later but was not consecrated, as the church of ST. PETER, Broad Lane, until 1900, (fn. 132) when a district chapelry was formed out of Holy Trinity parish. (fn. 133) The bishop of London became patron. (fn. 134) The church, of red-brick with stone dressings, was designed in an early Gothic style by J. S. Alder; it seated 800 and consisted of aisled nave, transepts, chancel, and south-east chapel. The building was restored after war damage in 1955 (fn. 135) but closed c. 1970. (fn. 136) It awaited demolition in 1973, when the parish was divided between the churches of Holy Trinity and St. Bartholomew. (fn. 137)

The detached portion of the parish of St. James, Clerkenwell, which lay to the north-east of Muswell Hill in Hornsey parish, became a mission district in 1899. (fn. 138) For a year services were held at the Norwegian House, a wooden building, formerly used as a restaurant in the grounds of Alexandra Palace, which stood near the junction of Alexandra Park Road and the Avenue. The iron church of ST. ANDREW, a little to the east on land which had been bought by the Bishop of London's Fund, was dedicated in 1900, when a new parish was created out of the outlying portion of Clerkenwell and part of St. Michael's, Wood Green, with the bishop of London as patron. (fn. 139) A permanent church of red brick with stone dressings, designed by J. S. Alder in a Decorated style, was consecrated in 1903; it seated 800 and was not orientated. It consisted of aisled nave, transepts, chancel, south-east chapel, and western spire. A hall, to the west, was opened in 1923 and was used for worship after the church had been gutted by an incendiary bomb in 1944. St. Andrew's was dedicated again in 1957, having been remodelled by R. S. Morris to incorporate the shell of its predecessor. The new church seated 414 and was set back from the road, with a bellcot instead of a spire; it contained a bronze tablet which was all that survived of a memorial to the first vicar by Sir Ninian Comper, which had been placed above the altar in 1938.

A red-brick hall, dedicated to St. Alban, was built on the east side of Stonebridge Road in 1899. (fn. 140) It became a parish hall (fn. 141) after the church of ST. BARTHOLOMEW, Stamford Hill, had been built on the north side of Craven Park Road in 1904, with funds from the sale of the City church of St. Bartholomew, Moor Lane, London (demolished 1902), (fn. 142) which itself had replaced St. Bartholomew by the Exchange, London. A consolidated chapelry from St. Ann's, Hanger Lane, and St. Thomas's, Stamford Hill, was created in 1905 (fn. 143) and the patronage was vested in the Crown. (fn. 144) The church, of red brick with stone dressings, was designed by W. D. Caroë in the Perpendicular style; it comprised aisled nave, north and south aisles and transepts, chancel with a crypt chapel and vestries underneath, south-east chapel, and west gallery. The 17th-century pulpit sides and font-cover, attributed to Grinling Gibbons, came from St. Bartholomew by the Exchange, as did the font itself and the later altarrails. (fn. 145) The plate included several early Victorian pieces from St. Bartholomew's, Moor Lane.

The corrugated iron church of ST. SAVIOUR, (fn. 146) at the highest point reached by Palace Gates (later Alexandra Park) Road, was dedicated in 1900. It accommodated 300 and was used for services until the consecration of part of its successor in 1904, shortly before a district chapelry was formed out of St. Michael's, Wood Green, (fn. 147) with the bishop of London as patron. (fn. 148) The iron building then became a parish hall and was moved farther south in 1907, to make way for the west end of the permanent church, which was completed two years later. The new church, designed by J. S. Alder, was of red brick with stone dressings, in the Decorated style, and was not orientated; seating 700, it consisted of aisled nave with transepts, apsidal chancel, and north-east chapel. In 1926 a memorial hall was opened, on an adjacent site to the west which had been bought five years earlier.

The mission church of St. Peter, in the charge of St. Michael-at-Bowes (Southgate), was established in 1883, on the corner of Bounds Green and Brownlow roads. (fn. 149) A brick building in the Early English style, with chancel and nave, it later became the church of ST. GABRIEL and was turned into a parish hall in 1906, on the consecration of part of a new church on the south side of Bounds Green Road. In that year a consolidated chapelry was formed out of St. Michael's, Wood Green, St. Michael-at-Bowes, and St. Paul's, New Southgate. (fn. 150) The new church, designed by E. B. Carter, was of red brick with stone dressings, in a late Gothic style, and was not orientated; after the 'east' end had been consecrated in 1915, it accommodated 600 and consisted of undivided aisled nave and chancel and south-east chapel, all plastered internally. Fittings included a 19th-century pulpit, lectern, and choirstalls from St. Paul, Great Portland Street, and an ancient processional cross, of Russian design but unknown origin, which had been given to St. Peter's mission. A church hall to the west, on the corner of Durnsford Road, was opened in 1937.

In 1899 the London Diocesan Home Mission established a district which was served by an iron church in Philip Lane. A permanent church, dedicated to ST. PHILIP THE APOSTLE, was founded in 1906 on the east corner of Clonmell Road and Philip Lane. (fn. 151) A consolidated chapelry, from the parishes of Holy Trinity and Christ Church, was formed in 1907, (fn. 152) and the bishop of London became patron of the living. (fn. 153) The new church, of red brick with stone dressings, was designed by J. P. Cutts in the Perpendicular style; it was not orientated and consisted of an aisled nave, a chancel, which was finished in 1911, and a south-east chapel, and seated 800. There were plans for a north-west tower, of which only the first stage was completed. The organ came from St. Philip, Clerkenwell. (fn. 154) A yellow-brick church hall was built to the west, near Spur Road.

In 1902 the London Diocesan Home Mission established a district at Chitts Hill, with an iron church near the top of Wolves Lane to serve the new housing estates on the slope to the south. A permanent church, dedicated to ST. CUTHBERT, was consecrated in 1907, (fn. 155) when a consolidated chapelry was created out of the parishes of All Hallows and St. Michael, Wood Green, the patron being the Church Pastoral Aid Society. (fn. 156) The church, of red brick with stone dressings, was designed by J. S. Alder in a Decorated style; its west end was completed in 1930, leaving a church shorter than the one originally planned and consisting of an aisled nave with arcades of stone, chancel, north-east chapel, (fn. 157) and transeptal vestry and organ-chamber. There was seating for c. 300 in 1973. A hall was built to the east in 1923 and, although intended to be temporary, was remodelled in 1965. (fn. 158)

Services for residents around Walpole Road were held in a priest's house from 1908 and afterwards in an iron church, until the consecration of ST. BENET FINK in 1912. The new church was designed by J. S. Alder and paid for by funds from the sale of the City church of St. Peter-le-Poer, London (demolished 1908) which itself had replaced St. Benet Fink, London (demolished 1844). (fn. 159) A consolidated chapelry, taken from the parishes of All Hallows, Christ Church, and St. Mark, was formed in 1912, (fn. 160) and the patronage was vested in the chapter of St. Paul's. (fn. 161) The new church, near the junction of Walpole Road and Lordship Lane, was built of brick with stone dressings, and was not orientated; it had seating for 750, and consisted of aisled nave, double transepts, chancel, and chapel. The rosewood organ case came from St. Peter-le-Poer, as did the communion plate. (fn. 162) A brick hall was built to the north-west c. 1924. (fn. 163)

The mission church of St. Hilda, on the corner of White Hart Lane and Great Cambridge Road, (fn. 164) was established by the London Diocesan Home Mission in 1926. It was replaced in 1939 by the church of ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, Great Cambridge Road, designed by Messrs. Seely and Paget and largely paid for by the sale of St. John the Baptist, Great Marlborough Street (demolished 1937). (fn. 165) The church, which has an aisled nave, chancel, and north-west chapel, is of red brick and concrete, with some copper cladding and tiled roofs. The complex west front, centred on a semi-circular portico enclosing a statue of the Baptist, conceals a shed-like main building. A pantile-roofed hall was built behind the church, in Acacia Avenue. (fn. 166) The patron was the rector of St. James's, Piccadilly, London, who had earlier been patron of the Great Marlborough Street church. (fn. 167)