According to the Congregational Church Year Book 1971-1972, the Middleton Road Congregational Church, Dalston was founded in 1662.
Haggerston Congregational Church was situated in Pownall Road.
The Reverend Henry John Gamble was a Congregational minister active between 1850 and 1873. He was minister at the Linden Grove Congregational Church, Camberwell and the Upper Clapton Congregational Church. His son died at the age of five, while his daughter Catherine Sarah was married to the Member of Parliament for Scarborough, Sir Joseph Compton-Rickett. On Gamble's death in 1873 his widow, Catherine, gave some 4000 books to the Union Theological College, Belfast, Northern Ireland to form the Gamble Library.
Books by Henry Gamble include Scripture Baptism: a series of Familiar Letters to a Friend in reply to "Christian Baptism" by B. Noel, 1850; Paul the Apostle, or, sketches from his life, 1851; Fidelity recognized and rewarded: a Sermon [on Matt. XXV, 21] preached on occasion of the Death of the Rev. F. A. Cox, 1853; Sermons, 1859; Hymns and Chants for Prayer Meetings and Special Services, with music, 1860; The Special Hymn Book for Week-Day Services, 1860; Work and Rest: a word to the busy and the weary, 1867 and Sermons by the Reverend Henry Gamble. Collected by his sorrowing widow, 1873.
Linden Grove Congregational Church was founded in 1858. it ran a Mission on Howbury Road, Camberwell. The church was part of the London Union South East District. It does not appear to have joined the United Reformed Church when the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches merged in 1972; it may have closed before this date.
Claremont Hall, Pentonville, was the principal mission of the London Union of the Congregational Church. It was founded in 1819.
West Hampstead Congregational church was situated at 527A Finchley Road. It originated in services held in the library of Hackney College in 1894. A building of red brick with terracotta and moulded brick dressings to match the adjacent college, on a central plan and seating 1,125, was designed by Spalding & Cross in 1894. The church also included a school hall and library. Attendance in 1903 was 162 in the morning and 210 in the evening. The church was closed in 1940 and sold to Shomrei Hadath syngagogue in 1946.
Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9: Hampstead, Paddington (1989), pp. 153-158.
Arundel Square Congregational Church had its origins in a temporary chapel in York Place (later Saint Clement Street), Barnsbury, which was founded in 1861. The Arundel Square church and schoolrooms opened in 1863 at the corner of Westbourne Road and Bride Street. Galleries were added in 1865, by 1884 the church seated 1,000 people. The Church ran a preaching station at the Great Northern Railway station on Sundays from 1884. Attendance in 1903 was 170 in the morning and 232 in the evening. The church closed in 1931. The building was used by free Baptists in 1931-1935, before sale to Saint Giles Christian mission.
Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 101-115.
Offord Road Congregational Chapel was founded in 1855 by a group from a neighbouring chapel in Twyford Street. The chapel was built in 1856. Evan Lewis was the minister 1868-1869. The chapel seated 800 in 1884. Attendance in 1903 was 130 in the morning and 138 in the evening. The chapel closed in 1918 and the building was used as a warehouse.
Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 101-115.
Tolmer's Square Congregational Church, Camden, was founded in 1834. It opened a mission church on Drummond Street in 1879. In 1903 the combined membership of the two churches was 206, with 321 Sunday School scholars. The church closed in 1919.
Burdett Road Congregational Church, Stepney, was founded in 1866. It closed in 1940.
Saint George's in the East Congregational Church, Cannon Street Road, Stepney was founded in 1785. It was part of the East London Congregational Mission.
The Stepney Meeting House was founded in 1644. The congregation met at various locations including private houses. They were initially met with hostility, for example, in 1682 troops destroyed the fittings of the Meeting House. However, after the Toleration Act of 1689 the dissenters were able to establish a permament church. This was at New Road and later on Stepney Way.
When the Congregational Church and the Presbyterian Church decided to amalgamate to form the new United Reformed Church in 1972, the John Knox Presbyterian Church merged with Stepney Meeting House. For a short while both buildings continued to be used for worship, but in 1976 the Stepney Meeting House building on the corner with Copley Street was sold to the John Cass Foundation for use as a school chapel. The Stepney Meeting House United Reformed Church now meets in a modern building on Stepney Way.
From 1693 to 1783 the Presbyterians had a chapel on a leasehold site off Ferry Lane, Old Brentford. In 1783 they built a new chapel on a freehold site in Brentford Butts (Boston Road). The attendance dwindling greatly, the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church in 1840 invited the Church and Congregation of Albany Congregational Chapel to enter into it [nowhere is there any statement of the precise legal nature of this entering]. Although the Church and Congregation of Albany Chapel, having moved to Boston Road, wished to sell their former chapel, the Trustees were unwilling. Attempts were made to create another Church at the Albany Chapel, which succeeded in January 1854. By 1875, however, this Church was becoming very weak, and in October 1875 it resolved to amalgamate with Boston Road.
The Mitcham Congregational Church was founded in 1818. In 1903 it belonged to the Surrey Congregational Union Eastern District and had 30 members. This had risen to 50 in 1957; however, the Church is not listed in the 1971 Congregational Year Book and it is possible that it had closed or merged with another chapel by this date.
Park Chapel on Crouch Hill was opened in 1855. Alterations increased its seating to 1,017 in 1877 and 1,430 by 1894. After further extensions it had the largest Congregationalist attendances in Hornsey. The chapel and its halls formed a popular social centre, accommodating Hornsey British school until 1877. The Grove mission was apparently established in 1881 and served from Park chapel in 1951.The Chapel amalgamated with Ferme Park Baptist Church to form Union Church, Crouch End in 1974.
Mount View Congregational church was founded to serve Stroud Green. A hall was opened in 1887 and used for worship until the completion of a larger building in 1893. The church was closed and demolished in 1935.
Hornsey British school was built in 1864 and opened in 1865, largely through the efforts of Russell Maynard, a member of Park chapel. The schoolrooms, for boys, girls, and infants, adjoined the chapel. The school was supported by voluntary contributions in 1870 but received a parliamentary grant from 1871. Between 1871 and 1873 the average attendance rose from 94 to 177. Hornsey school board took over the premises in 1875 and later moved the pupils to Park Road school.
Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6: Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey with Highgate.
Earlsfield Congregational Church began as a mission church of East Hill Congregational Church. It became independent in 1892. Earlsfield is a south-west London suburb near Wandsworth.
Upper Clapton Congregational Church on Upper Clapton Road was founded in 1815. When the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches merged in 1972, it became Upper Clapton United Reformed Church.
The first Independent [Congregational] congregation in Isleworth was registered in 1798. A place of worship for Congregationalists is mentioned in 1831, and in 1849 the present chapel at the corner of Twickenham Road and Worton Road was opened. A British school was attached to it from 1840 to the eighties.
From: 'Heston and Isleworth: Protestant nonconformity', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 131-133.
Early in 1910 decline in local membership obliged the congregation of Craven Hill Church, Lancaster Gate, to decide to dispose of the church and school buildings and to erect a new church elsewhere. A meeting was held in the Craven Hill Vestry in March 1911, but in September of the same year was held in the temporary church in Wrentham Avenue, Brondesbury. At the latter meeting the request of 22 members of the Kensal Rise Congregational Church to unite in fellowship was accepted. The church closed in 1971.
Downs Park Road Church in Clapton was registered by the Presbyterian Church of England in 1872. It was situated at the corner of Cricketfield Road. Attendance in 1886 was 111 in the morning and 60 in the evening. By 1903 attendance was 114 in the morning and 143 in the morning. The church was closed but reopened as Lower Clapton Congregational church in 1936, and was later used by the New Testament Church of God.
Source: 'Hackney: Protestant Nonconformity', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney (1995), pp. 130-144.
\qjThe Pilgrim Fathers' Memorial Church on Great Dover Street had a traditional origin in a congregation of Protestant Separatists who met in 1592 'in the house of Roger Rippon in Southwark.' It claimed with more likelihood descent from a congregation which existed in 1616, and from which some of the Pilgrim Fathers emigrated. The congregation moved to a chapel in the New Kent Road in 1863-1864, named the Southwark Park Congregational Church.
The Southwark Park Congregational Church was destroyed by enemy bombing during the Second World War. The Church was replaced by a new multi purpose building on Great Dover Street, the Pilgrim Church House.
The Pilgrim Fathers' Memorial Church on Great Dover Street had a traditional origin in a congregation of Protestant Separatists who met in 1592 'in the house of Roger Rippon in Southwark.' It claimed with more likelihood descent from a congregation which existed in 1616, and from which some of the Pilgrim Fathers emigrated. The congregation moved to a chapel in the New Kent Road in 1863-1864, named the Southwark Park Congregational Church.
The Southwark Park Congregational Church was destroyed by enemy bombing during the Second World War. The Church was replaced by a new multi purpose building on Great Dover Street, the Pilgrim Church House.
The Seven Sisters Road Congregational Church, Finsbury Park, was founded in 1864. It was replaced in 1885 by the Finsbury Park Congregational church at the corner of Seven Sisters and Palmerston (later Playford) roads. The church closed in 1939.
Junction Road Congregational Church registered a temporary building in 1865 on the north side of Junction Road, Upper Holloway. In 1866-1867 a new church was built nearby on the corner of Tremlett Grove. In 1972 it was renamed as Junction Road United Reform Church, but was closed in 1978.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 101-115.
Stratford Congregational Church originated in 1861, when the congregation of Brickfields Church started to plan a new church in the centre of Stratford to replace their own. Funds were raised and a site was bought in Grove Crescent Road, but in 1865 Brickfields Church withdrew from the scheme, thinking that the building committee was too ambitious. The committee continued under the leadership of William Settles, a City merchant living at Stork House, Ilford (now Romford) Road, and in 1866-1867 built a church seating 1,600 with ancillary rooms beneath. It cost £11,500, most of which was lent by Settles, interest free. His creation was nicknamed 'Settles' Folly', but at first it flourished. James Knaggs, the first minister (1869-1898), was a powerful figure, well-supported by prosperous local families like the Curwens and Boardmans. By the 1880s membership was about 600, with a Sunday school of 900, and new classrooms had been built. Missions were opened in Chapel Street (1885-1927) and Crownfield Road (1885-1891), and help was given to new churches elsewhere. At this period the church was keenly interested in politics, displaying Liberal sympathies yet opposing the growing Socialism of the East End. In the 1890s the membership began to decline, though for many years it remained among the highest in West Ham. By 1941, however, it had become so small that the main building was abandoned, all activities being transferred to the classrooms behind, approached from the Grove. In 1966 the membership was only 21. 'Settles' Folly' had been sold in 1948, became a furniture factory, was gutted by fire in 1952, and later demolished. It has been called a 'big monstrosity' of white and yellow brick with columned portico, a 115-ft. spire, and 'debased classical' detail. Inside were two galleries, one above the other.
Source: A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6 (1973), pp. 123-141.
Woodford Congregational Church was founded about 1790 at a site in Horn Lane. This Church established a Congregational mission in 1870 in a cottage in Victoria Road, near George Lane, and two years later a temporary iron church was erected at the corner of Daisy Road. The first pastor was appointed in 1876. Though the building was twice enlarged, a bigger one was soon needed. In 1879 land in George Lane was purchased, and in 1886 a new church was completed to the design of Thomas Arnold in the Early English style.
Source: A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6 (1973), pp. 352-358.
Wakefield Street church originated in 1886, when S. W. Patmore opened a mission in the Holme Road Assembly Room. In 1890 this work was taken over by the London Congregational Union, which erected an iron church in Stamford Road, with E. T. Egg as temporary pastor. In 1897 H. G. Brown became the first settled minister, and in 1901 a brick church, seating 800, was opened in Wakefield Street. In 1903 this was the strongest Congregational church in East Ham. A Sunday school was built in 1911, when the church membership was 215. In 1940 the church was destroyed by bombing, and from 1941 to 1945 the congregation worshipped in East Avenue Presbyterian church. The Sunday school, fronting on Myrtle Road, survived, and was later used for worship until 1957, when the church was rebuilt.
Source: A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6 (1973), pp. 31-38.
The Congregational Chapel Building Society purchased an extensive site in Milton Road, South Hornsey, in 1851 and 1855, which was sold to Harecourt chapel, Islington, in 1859. Services and Sunday school began in 1860. An iron chapel seating 560 opened south of the school in 1867. Membership increased from 14 (1861) to 114 (1867). The chapel was declared independent of it parent foundation, Harecourt chapel, in 1872. A permanent chapel of red brick with stone dressings in Gothic style by John Sulman opened on a new site at the junction of Milton Road with Albion Grove in 1880 and was registered as the Raleigh Memorial Chapel in 1881. The Chapel accommodated 1,000 and contained a lecture hall seating 600, Sunday schools, and a library. The Chapel was damaged during the Second World War, and reopened in 1954.
Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 211-215.
The Fulham Congregational Church, Dawes Road was opened in April 1887. It included a lecture room, school rooms and library.
Park Chapel, at the foot of Crouch Hill, was opened in 1855 and registered by Congregationalists in 1856. Alterations raised its seating to 1,017 in 1877 and 1,430 by 1894. After further extensions it had 816 worshippers in the morning and 671 in the evening on one Sunday in 1903, the largest Congregationalist attendances in Hornsey. The chapel and its halls formed a popular social centre, accommodating Hornsey British school until 1877 and later being described as a 'great church'. From 1973 Baptists from Ferme Park shared Park chapel, by then a United Reformed church and still seating circa 1,400.
Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6: Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey with Highgate (1980), pp. 183-189.
The foundation stone of Blackheath Congregational Church was laid on 18 July 1883 and the church, which was designed by the architects Brandon and Ritchie of Greenwich, was opened for public worship on 11 July 1854.
The church was badly damaged during the Second World War. In February 1957 a new building, designed by Dannatt, was erected within the walls of the old church. The ecumenical developments of the 1960s led to the union of the Baptist and Congregationalist congregations in Blackheath, and in 1974 the Blackheath Congregational Church was closed.
The Deptford Congregational Church on Deptford High Street originated in a meeting house of 1702. This was rebuilt in 1756 and then was replaced by a large chapel in 1862. The church was closed in 1969.
Cricklewood Congregational Church, Chichele Road, was founded in 1885. It ran a mission hall on the Edgware Road between 1913 and 1933. In 1980 the church closed and became a mosque and Islamic centre.
Mitcham Congregational Church was founded in 1818 as the Zion [or Sion] Chapel. It was responsible for the local Sunday School which it converted into a British Day School in 1857.
Plumstead Congregational Church was originally built as an iron and wood church in 1899 on freehold land at Viewland Road, Plumstead .
Oaklands Congregational Church, Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush was founded in 1858.
The New Cross Congregational Church was founded in 1894.
The Congregational Church in Kentish Town was first founded in 1807 in Kentish Town Road. Membership grew rapidly and by the 1840s it was necessary to construct a larger building. The foundation stone of a new building on Kelly Street was laid in November 1847. The new chapel was opened on August 15th 1848. The first chapel was converted into a day school and Sunday School. The Church did not join the United Reformed Church in 1972 when the Congregational Church merged with the Presbyterian Church and remains the Kelly Street Congregational Church.
The Paddington Chapel was a Congregational Chapel built in 1813. The building of the church was funded by businessman Thomas Wilson, who supported the building of several churches across the United Kingdom. The church was situated in Saint Marylebone. In 1815 a Sunday School was opened. The Sunday School began to include Writing Classes which developed into a full time Day School, which was open between 1828 and 1874. An attempt was made in 1919 to change the name of the church to "Saint Marylebone Congregational Church" to clear up misunderstandings that it was situated in Paddington, but the decision was made to retain the old name. In 1941 the church was hit by an incendiary bomb but it sustained little damage. The church was closed in the late 1970s and the building was demolished in 1981.
In 1880 the church opened the Earl Street Mission in Lission Grove. By 1907 the Mission was so successful that another hall was purchased in Carlisle Street, although this had to be demolished in 1920. The Mission ran various evangelical and social welfare activities including a Sunday School, Mother's Meetings, Burial Club, Men's Meeting, club for the unemployed and Youth Centre. The Hall was destroyed in an air raid in 1940 and subsequently closed in 1953.
Lyndhurst Road Congregational Church, Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead, originated in services held in an iron building on Willoughby Road in 1876. A church with around 60 members was formed in 1880. By 1883 membership had risen to 220 and the iron church often held 600 in a space designed for 440. 4 members of the church bought land on Rosslyn Grove estate, keeping part of the land to build a new church and selling on the remaining land to finance the construction. Theologian Robert F. Horton became the full time minister in 1884, remaining until 1930. He was an influential writer and preacher, whose Sunday night lectures drew many working men. The new church, seating 1,500, was opened in 1884. A lecture hall and school were added later. Membership was 1,276 in 1913 but fell to 1,000 during the First World War and to 613 in 1939. In 1972 the church became United Reformed when the Presbyterian and Congregational churches merged. The church was closed in 1978.
Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9: Hampstead, Paddington (1989), pp. 153-158.
Plumstead Congregational Church was originally built as an iron and wood church in 1899 on freehold land at Viewland Road, Plumstead.
The Vine Congregational church, formerly known as Ilford High Road church, was founded in 1892 by the Metropolitan District Committee of the London Congregational Union. Services were held in the Thompson Rooms and later in a house in Oakfield Road. Edward T. Egg, a veteran minister, became temporary leader at Ilford, and in 1894 opened an iron church in High Road. In 1895 a large hall was opened, with A. G. Spears as minister. He was succeeded in 1897 by Charles H. Vine, who remained until his death in 1930.
Under Vine's leadership High Road became one of the strongest churches in Essex. Soon after his arrival the hall was enlarged, and in 1901 a new church was opened, with seats for 1,400. In 1910 an adjoining site was purchased and additional buildings erected. One of Vine's most important enterprises was the Men's Meeting, founded in 1901 and rising to a membership of 2,000. This organization undertook social work of many kinds. As early as 1904 it had a labour exchange for its members, and it also ran a sick benefit society, a holiday savings club, a hospital savings group, a horticultural society, a benevolent fund, and clubs for swimming and tennis.
From the first Vine was active in fostering new churches in the Ilford area. After his death the High Road church incorporated his name in its title, being known as the Vine Memorial church and later as the Vine church. During his ministry church membership rose from 110 in 1897 to a peak of 979 in 1927. During and after the Second World War membership declined.
In 1960 the High Road part of the site, including the church of 1901, was sold for redevelopment. A new, smaller church in a simple mid-20th-century style was built in 1961, facing Richmond Road, and the church hall, facing Grosvenor Road, was renovated.
The church is now part of the Vine United Reformed Church on Riches Road.
From: A History of the County of Essex: Volume 5 (1966), pp. 249-266.
Lower Street (now Essex Road) Congregational Chapel was built in 1744 on the south corner of Greenman's Lane. It was the first dissenting chapel in Islington. During the ministry of John Gawsell, 1761-1768, seceders met in Ward's Place, an old house just south of the chapel, but the congregation was reunited when their minisiter left. Numbers rose after 1768 and galleries were built to provide added accommodation. The church was known as Islington Meeting House in 1800. The Chapel was much enlarged in 1820, when the front was brought forward. A schoolroom for 200 was also later added. Attendance in 1851 was 476 in the morning and 560 in the evening. The lease expired in 1865 and a new chapel in River Street (later River Place) was registered in 1864. A lecture room was added by 1872. However, attendance in 1903 was 19 in the morning and 86 in the evening, and the church closed in 1909.
Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 101-115.
The Congregationalists registered a temporary church in Upton Road (later part of Belsize Road) in 1856, and formed a church in 1858. A permanent building in Greville Place, Kilburn, was opened in 1859.
The Southgate Road Chapel was built adjoining a school at the north corner of Balmes Road. It was registered Congregational in 1860-1869. Attendance in 1886 was 204 in the morning and 237 in the evening. By 1903 attendance was 57 in the morning and 205 in the evening. The church closed between 1935 and 1938. It is likely that the Southgate Road Chapel was founded when the congregation of the Pavement Chapel, Hoxton, found it was too small for their needs and decided to construct a larger church.
White's Row Congregational Chapel was built, probably in about 1755, by a congregation of Independents [Congregationalists] under Edward Hitchin, which had met previously in Artillery Lane Chapel. Hitchin died in 1774 and was succeeded by Nathaniel Trotman. The congregation was then large, drawing most of its members from within a mile of the chapel: Trotman's reception service was attended by 1,200 persons. He died in 1792 and was followed by John Goode, who served the chapel until his resignation in 1826, by which time the congregation had dwindled considerably. The Reverend Henry Townley became minister in 1828. In 1836 the congregation left White's Row, the lease having nearly expired, and after a short stay in Bury Street Chapel, built Bishopsgate Chapel in the City of London.
From: Survey of London: volume 27: Spitalfields and Mile End New Town (1957), pp. 127-147.
The Park Crescent Congregational Church, Clapham, was founded in 1819.
Sydney Street Chapel had origins in a group which met under Reverend Josiah Viney at a schoolroom in Bonner Street in 1844. They moved to Morpeth Street in 1845 and Sydney Street, Globe Town, in 1850. Worshippers were entirely 'working people' and included most of the women at the industrial home in Homerton, to which minister Benjamin Woodyard was attached. The Chapel was registered for Congregationalists in 1861 and again when rebuilt to seat 370 in 1865. The church closed in 1901.
From: 'Bethnal Green: Protestant Nonconformity', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green (1998), pp. 228-240.
Victoria Park Congregational Church was registered in 1865 at an iron chapel opened in 1864. A new building was constructed at the south-west junction of Approach and Bonner Roads, seating 2,000, in 1869. The church had the highest Congregational attendance in Bethnal Green in 1886, when 885 attended morning service and 953 attended in the evening, and in 1903, when 412 attended in the morning and 625 in the evening. The Church life was vigorous, including Sunday schools at Victoria Hall and Twig Folly, free concerts, and work among poor, missions, and ragged schools. Labour leader Benjamin Tillett (d. 1943), was librarian in the 1880s. The building was damaged in 1940 and closed in 1953. The site was acquired by neighbouring Parmiter's school.
From: 'Bethnal Green: Protestant Nonconformity', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green (1998), pp. 228-240.
In 1926, Linden Grove Church, Peckham Rye, being without a minister, joined together with Christ Church Congregational Church, Peckham High Street, the new combined church taking the name Church of the Strangers. This arrangement came to an end in 1927; the church in Linden Grove reverted to its former name, and that in Peckham High Street became the Church of the Strangers. Marriages of the combined church were performed in the Linden Grove Church.