This time we are in West Hampstead and Kilburn and it's St Cuhtbert's Church on Fordwych Road.http://www.stcuthbertschurchhampstead.org.uk/welcome.htm
One of the nicest little churches it's a modern design (more of that later) but it's also quite hidden from the roadside.
The plaque on the wall is a tribute to Walter Watkins the first vicar who took over in 1882 and served for 48 (forty eight!!) years.
As well as the plaque there is the stone below which was clearly the foundation stone/topping off stone which reads
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
THIS STONE WAS LAID ON
AUGUST 23RD 1883
Further, just in front of the church, there is one of the bells from the church which is inscribed
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
GEORGIANA AND MARIAN CHESS
JULY 1906
One of things that always interests me with ecclesiatsical history is the origin of the saint and dedication - I should confess I wrote a history of St Norbert's Catholic Church in Spalding when much younger!
So for those that don;t know St Cuthbert is one of the great English saints from the era of evangelical christian golden age of the 7th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Cuthbert
His feast day is 20th March - perhaps that should be the occasion for a street party in Fordwych Road?
The reason why I mentioned the design is that the architecture for the current church was by a friend of mine Jeremy Allen of West Hampstead.
1 comment:
I wonder what the original church on the site looked like? Why was it pulled down? This new building does not look like a church at all and there is no real sense of spirituality about the place whatsoever!
By the way...did you know that Dusty Springfield was born in Fordwych Road? She was then called Mary Kelly. Good Irish stock.
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