Reasons for Designation
The church hall at St Hilda's, Crofton Park (built 1899-1900) is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is an intact freestanding mission church associated with the Church of St Hilda of 1905-08 (Grade II), both built by JE Newberry
* It forms a strong group with the church, as illustrated in 1908
* It has architectural quality not normally associated with mission churches which were commonly built as the precursor to a parish church.
Details
779/0/10162 BROCKLEY ROAD
17-DEC-09 Church hall of St Hilda's, Crofton Park
GV II
Parish hall, 1899-1900 by JE Newberry, built as a mission church as the precursor to the Church of St Hilda (Grade II) of 1905-08 by FH Greenaway and JE Newberry. The hall was extended after 1908 to provide Sunday schools.
MATERIALS: red brick with tile dressings and roofs.
PLAN: a large single hall laid out gable to the road, has lower rooms attached to the south east and in a cross wing at the rear.
EXTERIOR: main ranges have battered brick buttreses, and the lower range has a swept roof with deep eaves set lower than the main hall roofline. The south gable is gambrelled. The main hall has a symmetrical roadside elevation with a porched entrance flanked by two-light windows beneath a tile-hung gable with a five-light window with a moulded transom, and a small opening at the apex. Side elevations have three-light windows at lower level and half-hipped three-light dormers. Windows have shaped heads and rectangular leaded lights and those at lower level are set in cambered openings beneath an arched hoodmould. Midway along the roof is a timber lantern with a pitched tile roof. The southern range has a four-light east window similar to that over the entrance.
INTERIOR: the main hall has a slender crown post roof supported on long wall posts which rise from a panelled timber dado. The northern wall, flanking the stage has exposed framing. The sanctuary stairs survive under the stage. Later C20 additions to the rear of the hall are not of special interest.
HISTORY: the mission church was built by JE Newberry, who with FH Greenaway was architect of the church. It was built quickly and cheaply as a precursor to the church. Unlike many mission churches which were absorbed into the later church, or replaced, this hall was clearly seen as part of the group, as illustrated in the Builder magazine in 1908. The Church of St Hilda was the first of a group of churches built by the partnership for the Diocese of Southwark and is well regarded among Arts and Crafts Gothic churches in London.
FH Greenaway (1869 -1935) was articled to Sir Aston Webb; JE Newberry (1862-1950) likewise to Edward Hide. They went into partnership in 1904. The work of both architects reflects the rich diversity in later C19 church architecture. Other early C20 church work by Greenaway and Newberry includes the church hall at St Faith, Herne Hill, 1907; the enlargement of the medieval church of St Nicholas, Plumpstead, 1907-08, (Grade II); All Saints, Hampton, 1908 but completed later; St Peter Haydon's Road, Wimbledon, 1911-12 but incomplete; and St John the Baptist Sutton, 1915. After Greenaway retired in 1927 Newberry entered into partnership with CW Fowler and retired in 1946.
SOURCES:
The Builder, 28 March 1908
B Cherry and N Pevsner, Buildings of England, London 2: South,1994, p414
Gavin Stamp, The church of St Hilda Crofton Park, Ecclesiology Today, July 2008, p77
http//www.croftonpark.com/sainthildas/archive, 19 June 2009
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church hall at the Church of St Hilda, Crofton Park is listed for the following principal reasons:
* It is an intact freestanding mission church associated with the church of St Hilda, both designed by JE Newberry
* It forms a strong group with the church, as illustrated in 1908
* It has architectural quality not normally associated with mission churches which were commonly built as the precursor to a parish church.
