Churches of the British Isles

Christ Apostolic Church, Leyton Assembly, lies just a few doors to the south of the London City Mission, but describes itself as being in Leyton instead of Leytonstone. It started off in 1887 with Free Methodist services in a cottage in Pearcroft Road. A society was formed in 1889 and the small brick Grove Green Road Methodist Church was built in Grove Green Road with the help of Richard Mallinson. The church was enlarged in 1906 and was still Methodist in 1954.

Christ Church is on Francis Road, Leyton. A true urban church, it is almost one with the surrounding terraced housing. It started with the Phillibrook mission in Leytonstone, in connection with Leyton's St Mary's Church, and later with St Catherine's Church on Fairlop Road in Leytonstone. An iron room was built here in 1885, and was enlarged in 1887 and 1892. The present brick church, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield & Sons, was opened in 1902, next to the mission.

To the right of the main doors a foundation stone reads: 'This stone was laid by the Right Honourable Viscount Portman May 31st 1902'. However, funds were difficult to raise in this poor district and only the nave and south aisle were built, with a temporary east wall of iron built in the chancel arch. Christ Church gained its own parish in 1904. In 1959 the east wall (facing out towards the road) was permanently bricked and an east window inserted.

St Eleftherios Greek Orthodox Church is at 113 Ruckholt Road in Leyton. It started in 1901 as an Anglican iron mission building to serve the westernmost parts of the parishes of Holy Trinity and St Catherine's churches. In 1914, the permanent Church of St Luke was built in grey terracotta. The north-west tower remained incomplete. The church was badly damaged in the Second World War but was subsequently restored, and was later passed onto the Greek church.

Leyton Tabernacle Primitive Methodist Church (Second Site) occupies a site on High Road Leyton at the corner with St Mary's Road. The chapel originated in 1883, when a group under Alfred Ives raised an iron church (see 'related links'). A pub opened opposite, so the 1893 permanent Gothic church, designed by James Steed, was opened on the present site. The iron church from the old site was re-erected behind the new building as a lecture hall and school.

In 1940 Leyton gained the remnants of the Leytonstone and Stratford circuit. The tabernacle was badly damaged in the Second World War, but underwent restoration. The Leyton circuit ceased in 1959, so the tabernacle joined the Leytonstone and Forest Gate circuit, while the old building was replaced by a nondescript new one for what is now Leyton Trinity Methodist Church, probably in the 1990s or early 2000s. The tin building was also replaced by a brick hall.

The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Adonai Ambassadors Assembly meets inside the Legacy Business Centre on Ruckholt Road, next to Leyton Library, and is a branch of the same church that operates 'Redemption Parish' from further north in Leyton and a parish in Folkestone. The church was founded in Lagos in 1952 by Pa Akindayomi, a Nigerian who had become disillusioned with Cherubim and Seraphim Church. The church exploded out into Europe from 1981.

Ashville Road's Fountain of Life Church is an International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) branch. It began in 1888 as a mission for Leytonstone's Fillebrook Baptist Church. At first it was the Grove Green Mission, later it was the Ashville Baptist Mission. It gained a hall in 1892 and a new additional Ashville Hall was built in 1923. Membership dropped badly after the war so the mission closed and the hall was sold to the Brethren in 1947, and much more recently to the IPHC.

Christian Hope Ministries lies on Morley Road, midway between Christ Church Leyton and Elim Pentecostal Church. In 1901 a mission in connection with St Mary's was opened in Claude Road. In 1902 a small site was acquired in Morley Road and the mission continued in a tent there and in neighbouring cottages until 1905, when the permanent Church of St Edward was built here. It gained its own parish 1933, but the church was closed in 1968 and the building sold on.

Nine photos on this page by P L Kessler, and one from the History Files Collection.