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Modern Britain
Gallery: Churches of East London
by Peter Kessler, 13 September 2009. Updated 1
March 2012
Emmanuel Parish Church, Leyton lies on the
corner of Hitcham Road and the extremely busy Lea bridge Road. The
church originated in about 1902, when mission services were first
held in Sybourn Street school in connection with All Saints Church.
In 1906 a temporary brick church which was designed by Eustace Corrie
Frere was built at the junction of Lea Bridge Road and Hitcham Road,
on the current site which was donated for the purpose by Sir Courtenay Warner.
In around 1920 Emmanuel
became a mission district, and in 1934-1935 the permanent church
was built beside the temporary one, with aid from local Masonic
lodges. The building was very much a product of the thirties, designed by M Travers and T F W
Grant, and is of red brick, in a simple Tudor style on the outside,
while the interior comprises a chancel, aisled nave, Lady chapel, and vestries.
Emmanuel gained its own parish out of All Saints in 1935.
The Bloxhall Institute is on the road of
the same name, just a couple of hundred metres south of Emmanuel
Church. When Sir Courtenay Warner gifted the church their site for
Emmanuel Parish Church, he also donated another site on Bloxhall Road for the
purpose of building the institute, a mission which was erected in
1912 and which was run by Emmanuel in collaboration with All Saints
Church. The Bloxhall institute closed in around 1956 and was sold in
1959.
The Church of St Catherine & St Paul (The
Cornerstone) is in the Forest district of Leyton, wedged between
Leytonstone to the south and Upper Walthamstow to the north, with
the beginnings of Epping Forest to the east in the form of Wansted.
A very modern building which is sited on the corner of Essex Road
and Canterbury Road in the streets behind Whipps Cross Hospital, it
is a little hard to see a church in its multifunctional design.
The Mary Fletcher Memorial Church sat at
the north-west corner of High Road Leyton and James Lane (now
Fletcher Lane), a few metres from Leyton Midland Road Station.
Usually known as the Wesleyan Church and School, it was
erected in 1877. The design was Gothic, by G Marshall, using Kentish
rag and Bath stone. A permanent Sunday school was opened in 1902,
but the church closed in 1969 and the site was cleared in 1971 for a
petrol station and store.
The Barclay Christian Centre is at the
north-west corner of Leyton High Road and Canterbury Road, in front
of the bus garage. It was founded before 1885 by J G Barclay of Knotts
Green, in a small hall built onto the gardener's lodge at Leyton Green.
Around 1896 a London City missioner was placed in charge and in about
1898 the hall was given over to the London City Mission. In 1907 the
present hall opened, designed by E Frere. It is still in use today.
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