PARISH OF EAST HAM • ST BARTHOLOMEW’S [Team Ministry - Churches of: St Alban’s St Bartholomew’s St Mary Magdalene]
Parish Warden: Gordon P Owen • MICFM • F Inst D • FIBA Mobile: 0845 0958 225 • Telephone: (020) 8470 0011 e-Mail: gordonowen1@yahoo.com
ST BARTHOLOMEW’S CHURCH & CENTRE • 292B • BARKING ROAD • EAST HAM • LONDON • E6 3BA
- STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE – HISTORY OF ST BARTHOLOMEW’S CHURCH, EAST HAM
History:
Until the latter part of the 19th century, East Ham was a rural Parish. A tidal wave of urban expansion which reached West Ham in the 1830’s had engulfed it in the four decades after the middle century. It did not make any impact on East Ham until 1860 when the population was under 3,000. By the turn of the century the area saw an expansion claimed as the biggest of any compatible area in the whole of the Country.
In 1861 land was found for a new Church to be built in the middle of East Ham village – where a ‘car park’ now stands – and the Church of St John the Baptist was consecrated in 1863, seating nearly 400. In 1881 the vicar of East Ham, (Rev’d S H Reynolds), commissioned a report on St Mary’s from J.T.Micklethwaite, later to be the Architect & Surveyor of Westminster Abbey. “Let new and large churches be built to meet the needs of the growing thousands”. “The presence of this little church must not be reckoned as a matter of accommodation”. Repairs were put in hand for £1,500 to St Mary’s, a not inconsiderable sum at a time when new churches were being built at a cost of £10 per sitting.
Reynolds was succeeded in 1893 by the Rev’d J.H.Ware. The Rev’d Ware in addition to high intellectual attainments, posed a fine bodily presence. Considerably over six feet in height he was broad in proportion, large-hearted and broad-minded. He speedily endeared himself to all sections of the community of the time. It soon became clear that the builders of St John’s had not fully anticipated the phenomenal growth in the population which took place during the last decade of the 19th Century. The Rev’d ware said of St John’s: “A church to hold 380 will not do for 15,000 people and in the immediate future we have to face the difficult task of collecting funds for a large church either on the site, or in close proximity to St John’s”. “Our main difficulty lies in the attempt to work a large town with country machinery”. “Our possibilities of future expansion seem unlimited”.
The Rev’d Ware’s optimism and natural enthusiasm matched the fast-growing Parish and his drive was rewarded when Micklethwaite and is partner Somersmith-Clark had their scheme for St Bartholomew’s approved. An appeal was launched to raise the funds. The Bishop of St Alban’s wrote in support: “The need of the new church in East Ham is one of the most important and most present needs in the Diocese….the population of the Parish has nearly trebled in the last seven years….there is only accommodation in your present church for 76% of your communicants”.
A tender was accepted for about £9,000 which included constructing all the southern aisles of the old church. The building was consecrated in the following year on the 4th October by the Bishop of St Alban’s. The Rev’d Ware wrote of that day in the November magazine: “It was a day to be grateful for both as a consummation of many hopes in the past and as a guarantee, we trust, of bright anticipation for the future”. “The arrangements were not without their difficulties and the great crowd of people present – far greater than I have ever anticipated – did, it must be confessed, some what over tax the provision made for its control.” “I am sorry for any discomfort which may have been experience though I cannot regret the general interest which was taken in the ceremony of Consecration”. “I am very sorry, too, that the crush at the west end of the church brought into undesirable prominence the only bit of paint which was not quite dry”.
Despite the new Church and the Rev’d Ware’s efforts, a survey in 1903 showed that less than 690 of the population were attending Church of St Bartholomew’s. Largely due to his unceasing industry, the Rev’d Ware’s health a length began to fail. To the great sorrow of all who knew him, he died in Minehead in 1907, at the early age of 43. Although, in his memory, the south aisle of the Church of St Bartholomew’s was completed in 1911. “The whole edifice”, said the East Ham Historian, Alfred Stokes, “will always rain the Ware Memorial”.
The Second World War had arrived in 1939 and on the night of the 20th April 1941, St Bartholomew’s was gutted by fire bombs. Services took place within a hut in the shell of the building until the south aisle was restored in 1949. The total re-construction was re-hallowed four years later.
The then Bishop of Chelmsford remarked at the time The Church was something vital to the welfare of the town......... to rebuild a place requires a great deal more courage than to build something new.
In 1975 a survey of St. Bartholomew’s advised against retaining it. Five options were looked at with a clear commitment that, in the end, St. Bartholomew's had to be retained in some form or other. The Architect’s report indicated that a radical solution was called for and his suggestions were based on the understanding that the church should be seeking new ways of establishing itself within the industrial metropolis, an area it has never won over. Simply to hang on to the present methods would surely result in slow death and our descendants would see it as suicide and abdication of the church's responsibility.
So the vision began to be created. Approaches were made to the London Borough of Newham, the Health Authorities Springboard Housing Association, other churches within the area, with a view of creating a centre for the whole community and a new church for the continuing work of Christian outreach within East Ham. On this site, a Day Centre, general practitioners centres, Luncheon Club and housing for the elderly, counselling facilities, coffee bar, exhibition area, meeting rooms for the whole community, a centre for the continuing musical life of St. Bartholomew's and a new place of worship more suited to the needs of the day, are now to be built. For the duration of the redevelopment the congregation moved from this building into Fellowship House, confident that the Holy Spirit was guiding the work and plans.
The old St. Bartholomew's Church no longer stands. The large Church was built to the glory of God with massive stature and presence. With-in its walls many events in the life of the community took place. Although this building has gone, the life and the wit-ness of St. Bart's Church and all that it stood for remains. The work of Christ is contin-uing through those who gathered close to the building for worship in Fellowship House in St. Bartholomew's Road.
The mid-week services and daily prayer took place in a small chapel on the first floor which was always open for prayer.
The Sunday services and major festivals of Christmas and Easter were held in the main hall.
Call to Service: St. Bartholomew's is engaged in many aspects of social outreach into the community of East Ham.
The Future — The design for the present St Bartholomew’s:
Church design is one of the most intriguing aspects of architecture, and has inspired, frustrated and often con-founded its exponents for centuries. Almost everyone knows what a church looks like: an imposing building with columns, arches and sometimes a tower and spire. Such certainly however has been seriously challenged by recent developments in Christian understanding, and these changes are now influencing the size into shape of the building which the Church required to attract its community as part of its Christian outreach work.
The nineteenth century belief that churches should be imposing and yet rather remote shrines reaches its peak at the time of greatest urban expansion. This movement was to fill the inner areas of London and other cities with church buildings designed from a different understanding of Christian Mission than that normally accepted today. Such churches are often large, inflexible in use and difficult to maintain. St. Bartholomew's was such a building, built and cared for with devotion, yet increasingly a millstone, hampering creative expression of the Gospel.
Work to define the future needs for church buildings within the Parish of East Ham began in 1977, and attent-ion was focussed upon St. Bartholomew's the largest and most difficult issue, in 1976. Initially the task was to identify the requirements of the Parish and then see how these could be accommodated, either within the existing structure or in a new building. It was imperative for St. Bartholomew's to remain in some forms as a major centre for Christian worship, but it was also considered important that the complex should contain facilities for social, educational and leisure activities and residential accommodation for the elderly. Any such major building should provide for the whole person, beneath an umbrella of Christian care and concern.
Initial feasibility studies were prepared in the summer of 1977. First to test the ability of the existing shell to accommodate all the needs and secondly an ideal scheme of new buildings. These studies helped to focus attention upon the practical issues. It was soon apparent that the old building could not be easily converted, and also that any new church should be relatively modest in scale, drawing in other partners to share and sponsor the proposals.
The idea for a new building moved towards reality when the London Borough of Newham supported the scheme and generously pledged to provide, through the Joint Financing programme, the Day Care element of the project. Springboard Housing Association shepherded the housing portion through their procedures and those of the Housing Corporation and Department of the Environment and when the original hope of a full Health Centre proved impossible, a local doctors' general practice were happy to be invited to acquire new, purpose built practice surgeries.
A number of different design developments were produced between the autumn of 1977 and the spring of 1979. The drawings may have appeared to show considerable changes, but the underlying ideas have remained. In April 1979 a design was finally approved, containing the four elements of Church, Day Care, Health and Housing with a building which contains some hint of civic Scale, but which is also humane in proportion. The architects job was to see that these parts were put together in the most useful manner and in such a way that the building's function is apparent to it's users and build-ing but must not appear aggressive or grandiose. The complex is concerned with unity, so its different parts must have a sum which embraces the individual elements. A large proportion of the financing came from public money or private bequests, so the building was not only subject to strict cost controls but also had to express a responsible use of resources without appearing mean or ill considered. Such criteria are very different from those facing the medieval church builders or even those of the last century, but a church must emerge which can carry its message into this third millennium.
Unity within the design was achieved by using the same form, profiles and materials throughout the complex. The church faces Barking Road the largest and most public space fronting the outside world. The flats are on upper levels looking away from the potential source of noise to face the sunnier aspects east, west and south. The surgeries have an entrance onto the front, yet the consulting rooms face across a small garden to the quieter St. Bartholomew's Road. The main entrance, coffee bar and foyer lead directly from the street in Barking Road, but the Luke rooms look south towards the garden.
The building replaced within its street setting the general mass of the old church, but it is much more accessible than the former structure and contains facilities for so many varied activities. The appearance may not be the traditional one for a church, but the changes which have brought about the demolition of the old St. Bart's, and its replacement with a new building was soon appreciated as positive one, allowing the Church to maintain a vital presence within the changing community.
The present St Bartholomew’s Church & Centre was Dedicated by the Bishop of Chelmsford & Consecrated by the Bishop of St Alban’s in 1983, and officially opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II in the same year.
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St Bartholomew's Church (Pre 1901 St John's Church) • History - [In Acrobat .pdf format]:
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