Church Of St Mary Magdalene

Church of St Mary Magdalene

A church of special historic and architectural importance, built 1727-39 by Matthew Spray, a Deptford bricklayer. The architect's name is unknown. The east end was rebuilt and extended with transepts in 1893-94 by JO Scott, with some 20th-century modifications added subsequently.

The church stands on a site with documented ecclesiastical use since the 9th century. It was part-funded by the Commissioners under the Fifty New Churches Act of 1711, a scheme intended to build fifty new churches for London's rapidly growing population. In reality, only twelve churches were built anew and five others, including this one, received partial funding from the Commission.

Exterior

The church comprises a west tower with aisled nave, chancel, organ chamber to the south-east, and vestries to the north-east, with a crypt at the east end and a 20th-century extension to the north-east.

The main body is constructed in stock brick with Portland stone dressings, including a heavy stone cornice and gauged red brick arches to all openings. The first-floor windows are round-arched with stone surrounds and keystones within red brick arches. Ground-floor windows are similar but segment-headed. A brick parapet with segment-headed recessed panels conceals the pitched nave roof and hipped vestry and aisle roofs. Brick angle pilasters continue to the parapet coping; the cornice breaks out around these. The aisles partly embrace the west tower.

The tower rises in four stages, two above the roof line. The cornice and parapet follow the pattern of the main body. The top stage contains round-headed louvered bell openings with bulls-eye windows beneath. The west door sits in the tower base with a moulded architrave, console-bracketed cornice and pediment, flanked by round-arched doorways at the west end of each aisle.

The east end, added in 1894 by Scott, is also classical in style. One-bay transepts feature round-arched windows with moulded architraves. The east window is Venetian, with heavy stone surround and dentil cornices at the sides. An aedicule with a bulls-eye window and Latin inscription—"Ne despectetes qui peccare soletis exemplo meo vos reparate deo" (O ye who are accustomed to sin, lest ye look down, by my example make ye reparation unto God)—rises above the parapet line at the east end. A post-World War II extension stands at the east end.

Interior

The nave of five bays has a gallery supported on octagonal piers with Ionic columns above, each carrying an architrave and swell frieze supporting an entablature. Part of the original 18th-century gallery front survives with early 21st-century brass railings and glass panels above. The gallery is accessed through two west front side doors via two original 18th-century staircases with surviving balustrades, handrails and newel posts.

The main entrance passes through the tower base into the nave beneath the gallery, where an oak doorcase of fluted Doric pilasters with triglyph frieze and dentil cornice stands. The segmental vaulted nave roof features paterae in the centres of the bay panels.

Wide one-bay transepts flank the nave—the north serving as organ chamber, the south as Lady Chapel with an early 21st-century timber screen incorporating Edwardian and 1950s stained glass. The segmental vaulted chancel roof displays a geometrical pattern of raised borders and paterae, with a raised marble floor. The nave aisles were partitioned off in 1961, when pews were also removed. The vestries retain their original parquet flooring. A very small crypt was enlarged in 1967.

Fixtures and Fittings

Notable fixtures include the Lady Chapel's original 18th-century oak reredos with attached fluted Ionic columns and similar pilasters. The pulpit, which runs on rails along the floor, is a rare feature. The choir stalls and other furniture, dating from 1897, feature matching wood-inlay design. The monument to Daniel Wisemary, Clerk of the Cheque of His Majesty's Yard at Deptford (died 1738-9) survives, as does a memorial dedicated to Frederick Whomes and other victims of the Princess Alice steamer disaster of 3rd September 1878. The Harrison and Harrison organ dates from 1900. Stained glass of various periods includes work in the east end window dating from around 1900 and in the Lady Chapel window from 1922.