Churches of the British Isles

Enfield Cemetery Chapel is hidden away on the southern side of Carterhatch Lane, opposite Layard Road and behind high walls and houses. This Jewish cemetery is more formally known as the Adath Yisroel Cemetery, which is run by the Adath Yisroel Synagogue & Burial Society, Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, which is based in Stamford Hill, Hackney. It was opened in the 1920s, along with a sister site in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. Both remain active.

Beacon of Light Christian Spiritualist Church sits on the north-west corner of Carterhatch Lane and Layard Road in the Forty Hill district of Enfield. The church, at 331 Carterhatch Lane, was registered in 1949 and remains in use today. It consists of a simple square, plain red brick frontage with wooden doors which open onto a small hall with a peaked roof (the edge of which can be seen on the right-hand side of this photo). A small, well-tended garden completes the picture.

Jesus Church Forty Hill is on the eastern side of Forty Hill, midway between Goat Lane and Turkey Street. The church was built in 1835 and gained a perpetual curacy in 1845, with a district formed out of the parish of St Andrew's, Enfield. The church, designed by Thomas Ashwell in imitation of Holy Trinity, Tottenham, is a plain aisled grey-brick building with lancet windows and turrets at the west end. A south-east vestry was added in 1889 and a chancel in 1926.

Enfield Crematorium Columbarium lies at the southern end of the cemetery's central complex, while the crematorium itself lies on the eastern side of the Great Cambridge Road, approximately three hundred metres south of the junction with Turkey Street. Although in Enfield, the crematorium is managed by the Borough of Haringey. It was opened in 1938, with two plan red brick chapels ('North' and 'South') built into the main complex (on the far left of the photo).

St John Methodist Church is on the northern side of Yews Avenue on the edge of the Elsinge Estate where it abuts the eastern side of the Great Cambridge Road. In 1954, a wooden hut was erected on this piece of ground, becoming known as 'The Hut'. This served for five years before the present brick church was erected in 1959-1960 as a dual-purpose building. The congregation grew from there, and various local community groups now also meet in the church.

Turkey Street Mission (London City Mission) occupies the north-east corner of Turkey Street and Elsinge Road in the Turkey Street district of Enfield. The London City Mission held services in Baker Street in 1873, and in 1955 the mission registered the plain brick hall in this photo. By 2010 the brick hall had been abandoned and a wooden Scouts hut at the south-western side of the junction between Turkey Street and Dendridge Close was its replacement.

Albany Church lies on the eastern side of the Hertford Road, immediately north of Connop Road in the Enfield Lock district. In the 1890s a small group of Brethren began meeting in a small house near Enfield Lock railway station. This house had once belonged to a butcher and was known as the 'Slaughter House'. Albany Hall, a music hall at the top of Albany Road, was acquired as a replacement before the present, now-Evangelical hall opened in March 1898.

St George's Church Enfield Wash, Freezywater, Enfield, is on the western side of the Hertford Road, midway between the junctions for Putney and Totteridge roads. In 1898 there was an iron church in the Hertford Road which was still in use as a hall in 1973. Construction of the present church took place in 1900-1906 and an ecclesiastical district, taken from the parishes of Jesus Church, Forty Hill (above), and St James, Enfield Highway, was annexed to the church in 1901.

In 1908 the living was described as a vicarage, in the gift of the bishop of London. The church is a large, gaunt, red-brick building in the early Gothic style, designed by J E K and J P Cutts. It contains an aisled nave and chancel and the base of a south-west tower which was not completed. St Giles Mission Church, Bullsmoor Lane, a little to the north, was built in 1954. Still in use in 1971, the plain brick building with a wooden bell turret had been cleared away by 2010.

Nine photos on this page by P L Kessler and one kindly contributed by M Kessler. Additional information by Ian Sawyer.