I’ve been photographing churches for several years, especially since my retirement in 2011. In December 2012 as I had a number of photos of churches in London it seemed a good idea to share them, especially as there seemed to be no comprehensive site for Greater London churches. From a fairly casual state it is now growing into a reasonably systematic coverage of the city.
I do all the visiting without using a car, making use of public transport and my own two feet. In London this allows me to use many short cuts and to get a much better appreciation of the area and environment in which the church sits.
Rather than building a new website I decided to use the WordPress blogging software that seemed to offer a very quick and efficient way to build what is basically a reference directory, even though the software is designed to produce an online diary. Each page is built using a simple template into which text, pictures can easily be added. Using the category feature it is also easy to add some indexing for each church, enabling simple pages for a location or architect to be displayed at a click.
Andrew
London Churches in photographs 
I was head choirboy in St Catherines from 1949-54
Happy memories
Now live in France
Many happy stories to tell,
Bill Johnstone
Dear Andrew
I am working with Patricia Ward on a small book about the history of our town – Tolworth, in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Pat wrote a history of the Tolworth Parish of St. Matthew’s, published privately, 25 years ago. This new book is to some extent an extension of that earlier work.
We want to have more illustrations in the new book, and one of the roles I am performing for Pat is to help with that side of the publication.
There are two of your photographs that we would like to use as illustrations: the one of the spire of St. Matthews (the third photograph on the page on St Matthews) and the plaque to Mabella Coulthurst (below thhe spire photo, on the page).
This is probably going to be a privately published book, again, with a very small circulation around the Tolworth area.
I presume you are the holder of the copyright in these images. Can I ask you for permission to use the images in our book? How would you want the acknowledgement of copyright to be sytled?
Thank you in anticipation of your help. If you could communicate directly with my email below and thus give me an email address to write to, that will probably make things easier.
Bob Phillips
Bob, I replied directly to you as suggested, I hope the message reached you.
Your comments about St Augustine’s Queens Gate are inaccurate. We are still a strong Anglo- Catholic congregation and the 11 am High Mass is exactly as it is before except that the congregations have tripled. They average 100 people and we still have our wonderful professional choir. It was never a church plant it was a parish merger. There are other services in our building and we are delighted. HTB have been wonderful to us.
I was the former Churchwarden before the merger.
Mike
Thanks for your comments regarding my interpretation of HTB’s role at St Augustine’s. It was written a couple of years ago when I visited briefly, hence the poor interior photos currently shown. It’s a church I need to revisit.
Andrew, Like Bob Phillips I would like permission to use one of your picture of St Peter’s Church Norbiton. I’m writing up my family history and wish to include images of where life events took place. Helen Coan
I have sent you a direct email, please let me know if it does get to you
I have found much to delight the eye in your collection of photographs of London Churches. An Australian resident of Casablanca, I shall attempt to visit a number of the churches I have so enjoyed viewing on my computer screen
St Michael R.C., Tilbury Road, Eadt Ham has been restored after a fire. Interior added ceiling removed. Lovely lofty space. Worth a re-visit?
Indeed it is worth a revisit. I see that the architects have linked to my pictures as a before view. http://mcessex.co.uk/portfolio/st-michaels-church-refurbishment/
Hi Andrew
Just a quick clarification about OneStonegrove/St Peter’s Church: it is a JOINT church and community centre building, so not just a community centre and not just a church (building).
It is an innovative joint initiative between the local church and other stakeholders including council, housing association and more importantly local residents through a Community Trust. Instead of 2 separate buildings standing oppposite each other, one single bigger and better facility provides more opportunities for blessing the local area. OneStonegrove was deliberately designed to respect the heritage of the old 1962 church building (and help transform the reputation of the area). It retains the same distinctive shape, roof, windows. wooden ceiling and floor plan of the old St Peter’s so that effectively everything is under the ‘mantle’ of the church. The chapel actually houses the original bell which had been taken down over 20 years ago and was one of the last (re)installations by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
The building has been shortlisted for awards by National Churches’ Trust, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, Royal Institute of British Architects and the Civic Trust as well as winning the innaugral Barnet Architecture award for best civic project in the borough and the Best Commercial Project award at the Structural Timber Awards 2017.
Andrew,
What a wonderful discovery! Next year I will be returning to London at the start of a holiday exploring the UK and Ireland (at least that’s the initial plan.) My obsession is specifically with cathedrals, and I found you as I was searching for street addresses for the 19 in London that I’ve managed to pull from Wikipedia, all part of a list of 120 before I start working the Irish set. I expect to see some expansion as I find ruins and former cathedral sites, so this winter will be busy.
How I’m manifesting my passion is by taking pictures – similar, I guess, to what you do. I live in Florida, a USA native, and I have about 300 photo’d temples. They will be self-published in a “coffee table book” around years end.
What I’m wondering is if you would be interested in guiding me about when I get to London – perhaps for a day or two? No dates set yet, but your site will be a valuable resource for my research, and as I’m also retired, I’d like to meet you if you’d allow.
Thanks, and God’s blessings,
Ken
[…] by Andrew who runs Londonchurchbuildings.com, a fantastic resources for images of Greater London […]
Dear Andrew (if I may),
I am an academic based at Queens’ College, Cambridge. Very many thanks for your wonderful posts, and in particular for the images of St John’s, Friern Barnet. I have a strong research interest in the glass of Clayton and Bell and in particular in that church’s scheme. Wondering whether you might have further images, I would welcome the chance to exchange emails, if possible.
All best wishes,
Dr Gareth Atkins
All best
Dear Gareth
I replied directly to you but as I’ve not had a response I thought I would reply publicly through the site.
Dear Gareth
I’m very happy to exchange emails and, yes I do have some further images. It’s not the easiest church to take images in owing to the cramped ambulatory behind the sanctuary but I did get images of all of the glass as far as I recall.
Regards
Andrew
Andrew,
Sorry we didn’t connect up in early June when I was in London on my cathedral photography visit. As it turned out, I lost my camera somewhere between visiting the Bishopric of the Forces in Aldershot and Guildford train station, which contained 5 days of photos. While I revisited all but one of the cathedrals I’d seen, I lost my interior shots of St Paul’s, Southwark, St George RC as well as one church you don’t seem to have in your collection: Pro-cathedral Church of All Saints, 205c Upper Richmond Rd in Putney SW15 6SQ. Liberal Catholic. It’s between a church-converted-theater on the corner and the old city burial grounds.
Ken Cook
Ken
I was wondering what had happened, a real pain about your photos and camera, sorry to hear about that. The Liberal Catholic cathedral is not on my site, although I am familiar with it, as it covers only Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox buildings, not those of other Christian groups – who knows one day maybe…
Andrew
I was christened in St. James church in Edmonton, attended St.James school with my two sisters and my parents were married in St. James so out roots go back a long way in that church. It was lovely to see a picture and remember Harvest Festival services and summer fetes there. Unfortunately every time it rained at school the roof leaked so badly we had buckets everywhere. I now live in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada. Last one of my family alive at 74.
I was wondering if anyone recognises this churchyard, used for the filming of ‘The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes’ in 1969 – the only clue I have is that it was “1 hour from London”
https://www.britmovie.co.uk/forum/projection-room/film-locations/92228-private-life-of-sherlock-holmes-1970
May I suggest the
street name in Anerley for St Antony of Padua is corrected to GENOA Rd
Done, thanks!
Dear Andrew,
A quick note to say thank you for this endeavour — I spend a great deal of time cycling almost at random around London, ‘collecting’ interesting or odd buildings, and your site has been very useful many times.
All the best,
Jago
I’ve only just found your site after it was mentioned in the joint Newsletter of the Ancient Monuments Society and Friends of Friendless Churches. It’s very interesting; thank you for all your hard work.
Particularly interested to see the pictures of St Paul and St Stephen, Old Ford. That’s where my wife’s parents were married in 1941. We have never before seen any internal pictures.
Thanks very much for your comments. I didn’t realise it had received that mention.
Hello Andrew, I really like your website and well done. I am interested in the history of Catholic Churches, and wondered if I could send you a private message? Many thanks Saragh
Please visit our new Website – https://stpeterandtheguardianangels.com/
I am involved, with others including English Heritage (owners of Eltham Palace https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/eltham-palace-and-gardens/) in raising awareness and appreciation of the architectural partnership of John Seely and Paul Paget. Please contact me if you would be interested to know more.
** Please could ‘Seeley and Paget’ on this website be corrected to ‘Seely and Paget’? Thanks!!**
Typos corrected, thanks!
Hello Andrew,
Thank you for your hard work, you will be pleased to know that you saved me quite a few day’s work when I chanced upon your St Osmund’s Barnes images of their Stations of the Cross. We have an identical set from the same moulds and I had been searching for many months to confirm the heresay evidence that another set existed somewhere, I had not expected to find them in London. If you email me your contacts I can send to a composite shot of all 14 of ours!
regards
Mike McNamee
Digital Heritage Team Leader – Restoration of English Martyrs’ Church, Wallasey, Wirral by FX Velarde.
Hello Mike
I’m really pleased that my site has helped your research. I will reply offline too.
Andrew
Hello who now owns the St Swithuns Church ( former ) Kellino street
Tooting
Thank you
See this planning application:
https://planning.wandsworth.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/Generic/StdDetails.aspx?PT=Planning%20Applications%20On-Line&TYPE=PL/PlanningPK.xml&PARAM0=982342&XSLT=/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/SiteFiles/Skins/Wandsworth/xslt/PL/PLDetails.xslt&FT=Planning%20Application%20Details&PUBLIC=Y&XMLSIDE=&DAURI=PLANNING
Google Streetview for July 2022 shows it to be a building site.
Regards
Andrew
What a truly wonderful site – where has it been all my life? I stumbled across looking for interiro photos of St. Mark’s Hamilton Terrace, tragically burnt out overnight. A terrific site and a wonderful resource – thank you so much and keep up the good work. Stephen