Church Of St Luke

Church of St Luke, Ryfold Road, Wimbledon Park

This church was built in 1909 by the architect T.G. Jackson. It is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and slate roofs, with a timber-framed porch.

The building comprises a nave, an almost continuous chancel, north and south aisles, a south transept, a north-west tower, and a western narthex. The nave extends across four and a half bays, while the almost continuous chancel spans two unequal bays. The aisles contain five bays, defined by stepped buttresses with angle buttresses positioned at the corners.

The paired rectangular aisle windows feature stone mullions, cills and moulded arches, with moulded brick reveals set beneath segmental brick arches. They contain plain rectangular leaded lights, some fitted with iron hoppers. A dog-tooth cornice runs along the elevation.

The timber-framed porch sits on a brick plinth and features shaped bargeboards and a slate roof. A later 20th-century partition and outer doors have been inserted. The inner pair of pine doors displays iron door furniture within chamfered brick reveals, positioned under a segmental moulded brick arch. The east nave window consists of three lights with stone tracery and a moulded stone hood. The clerestorey contains simple three-light windows with stone cills and mullions beneath moulded brick arches.

The chancel receives more elaborate treatment, with a pair of two-light windows displaying stone Perpendicular tracery. The tall easternmost window features stone mullions, transoms and tracery. Stepped corner buttresses are set slightly back from the wall. The east window, derivative of the work of Seddon, contains seven lights with Decorated tracery enhanced by a pair of strongly defined super-mullions. Below sits chequer work brickwork, topped by a stone gable cross.

Two tablets commemorate the stained glass donated in memory of those who died in the Great War, 1914-1919. A memorial stone was laid on 1 May 1909 on behalf of Emanuel Church, Wimbledon.

The west front is dominated by a tower at the north-west angle, rising from the narthex which extends from the aisles and wraps around the corners with hipped slate roofs. Three identical entrances are detailed as the porch entrance, each with a chamfered brick fillet rising from the reveal to the dog-tooth cornice, and stepped buttresses defining the west front as for the aisles. The octagonal tower rises from a square base with stone offsets. Its lower three stages contain simple rectangular lights that diminish as they rise, with louvred ringing chamber openings featuring foiled heads. Above a moulded stone band sit small rectangular openings, topped by a leaded spire. The simple two-light west window features stone mullions, transoms and stone dressings, beneath a stone gable cross.

The interior is lofty, with a four and a half bay arcade of lozenge-plan stone piers carrying moulded brick arches. From each pier rises a slender canted brick shaft supporting alternate roof trusses on stone corbels. These continue in stone at the springing of a shallow brick blind clerestorey arcade. A slim horizontal moulded brick band runs at clerestorey level. The nave and chancel are covered by a continuous barrel-vaulted roof with curved ribs above king post trusses, the chancel arch defined by slender braces. A west-end gallery of timber construction sits on square timber piers with stone bases.

The chancel is slightly stepped and features panelling with an organ loft of 1909; the organ was installed around 1930, while the reredos and sanctuary panelling were completed in 1925. Original seating dates to 1909. The pulpit features a tester and comprises a truncated octagonal moulded stone base with steps to a timber superstructure with traceried panels and a timber tester embellished with floral emblems and drop finials. The north aisle terminates in a two-bay arcade leading to St Margaret chapel; to the south are a pair of unequal door openings under a segmental brick arch. The furnishings include a brass eagle lectern and an octagonal stone font with foliated upper panels and timber cover on a plain stone base. The nave seating post-World War Two is later; no seating was previously installed.