The church I just missed on Peckham Road, opened in 1797 .......... closed 1952

Cambden Church, 1904

Now I missed the Camden Church on Peckham Road by less than a decade, although it is just possible that I might have visited what was left of this 18th century building because services continued in what was really just a ruin until 1951.

It had stood on a plot of land just west of what is now Oliver Goldsmith Primary School and has one of those fascinating histories which just make you wish you had been there when a group of evangelical Christians frustrated at the new vicar of St Giles decided to break away and build their own church.

Camden Church, 1872

This they did and work began in1775 and was finished two years later and according to the County Victoria Histories was  "built of stock brick with stone dressings in the Renaissance classic style of the period; it has a chancel and nave with short transepts.

The west front towards the road contains the three principal entrances and has a horizontal parapet. Camden chapel, built in 1795, and subsequently enlarged, is a handsome edifice of brick, with a campanile turret."*

But in the way these things work within just 50 years St Giles just up the road would have the satisfaction of seeing the secessionist usurper become an Anglican chapel of ease and in another fifteen years a parish church.

The message sent on December 5, 1904

It went on to serve the community for almost another full century until the church hall was destroyed in 1940 followed by further bomb damage the following year.

Despite this the vestry and crypt were repaired and services continued until 1952 with baptisms and marriages continuing until 1951.

So it is possible that I could have gone there, but only just.  The church finally closed in the spring of 1952 and was demolished that year.

All of that was a long way into the future when E sent Miss B Strong of Lewes in Sussex this picture postcard with the message that “as far as I know the funeral is to on Saturday,” and an offer to get a wreath for Beatrice.  Adding that “I saw him yesterday, he is quite natural.”

Detail of the church, 1904

I doubt we will ever be able to know exactly who “He” was or the identity of “E” but she sent the postcard in the December of 1904 so just possibly a search of the census returns will lead us to Miss Strong and a a connection with some whose initial began with E.

It’s a long shot but I think I shall go looking and in time I am also minded to find out a bit more about Mr Flint who took the picture and marketed it from his offices at Church Street which was just round the corner.

Just a decade later he was no longer at nu 68 Church Street and his were being sold by Tuck & Son.

All of which begs lots of questions and opens up avenues of research.

Picture; Camden Church Peckham Road, circa 1904, Albert Flint Photographer and Publisher, 68 Church Street, Camberwell in the series Camberwell, marked by Tuck and Sons, and reproduced courtesy of Tuck DB, https://tuckdb.org/ and Peckham Road, 1872, from the OS for London 1872, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

* Victoria County History, History of the County of  Surrey: Volume 4  H.E. Malden (editor), 1912

**Camden Church, Parish Churches - Church of England, http://www.peckhamhistory.org.uk/churchesCofE.htm