Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Saint Matthew's Church was consecrated on 15 July 1848 and a district assigned to it from the parishes of Saint Mark, Kennington, Saint Matthew, Brixton and Saint Giles, Camberwell. It took over the building of the Denmark Hill Chapel which was erected as a proprietary chapel in 1793 close to the village of Camberwell.
On the night of 26 September 1940 the church was destroyed by bombing. Marriages were solemnized in the parish church of Saint Giles, Camberwell, and services were held in King's College Hospital Chapel until June 1941 when a temporary church was set up in the house next door to St Matthew's, number 142 Denmark Hill. In November 1956 the parish was united with Saint Saviour, Herne Hill Road, Saint Saviour's becoming the parish church of the united parish. A new Saint Matthew's Church was built on a site in Lilford Road and was dedicated on 17 May 1961 as a chapel of ease to Saint Saviour's.
Following the bombing, the contents of the church safe were intact, but all other parish records in the church, including the non-current parish registers, were destroyed. For marriage entries before May 1938, the Superintendent Registrar of Lambeth holds a duplicate series of marriage registers. For baptism entries before April 1930, the only surviving record consists of the extracts from the parish registers printed in the parish magazine, copies of which are deposited here for the years 1893-1904, 1909-1914, 1916-1939, reference P85/MTW2/34-64.