An Historical Tour
The church was not always as it appears today and before progressing round the building, a few notes on the history of St Peter’s may be of some interest.
In 1877 the Revd Fitzwilliam Bowyer, Rector of Clapham and Lord of the Manor of Clapham, gave the land between Clapham Manor Street and Little Manor Street (now Prescott Place), on which, subsequently, this church was built. A visitor to Clapham a year or so later would have seen on the site, as a result of many prayers and a liberal response to the Rector’s appeal, a small brick building, covered with a corrugated iron roof, consisting of what are now the three western bays of the Nave, up to the base of the Clerestory.
At that time Clapham was in the Diocese of Rochester. St Peter’s was set apart for Divine Worship by the Bishop of Rochester (Bishop Thorold) on the Wednesday before Advent Sunday 1879. By the end of 1880 a fourth bay had been added and fitted with a raised platform to serve as Choir and Sanctuary. The total cost of this part of the church was about £2,500. By 1902 the Chancel, Lady Chapel, Organ Transept and Gallery, and new Priest’s Vestry were completed. The designer was JEK Cutts. Only two years later saw the building complete as you see it today. (There are links on the Some Links page to drawings of the Church from the exterior and the internal floor plan.)
Over the next 15 years or so much of the interior was added to the building including the wrought iron Chancel (Rood) Screen with gates surmounted by a carved wooden Rood with attendant figures carved by Hitch.
- The East End, with Hitch's Rood Screen at the Chancel steps
The Pulpit was installed in 1913 and replaced the previous one which was placed in the Church of the Holy Spirit, Narbonne Avenue, Clapham.
- The Pulpit