St Paul's Church is a Church of England parish church in Clapham, London. There has been a church on the site since the 12th century. The current building was completed in 1815 and is Grade II* listed. In the grounds, which hold the Green Flag Award, are some fine tombs including many early 19th century sarcophagi and a community garden, Eden. The incumbent is Revd Canon Jonathan Boardman.
History
The original parish church of Clapham was St Mary's Church which dated from the 12th century. St Mary's was renamed Trinity Church after the Reformation. It was taken down under an act of Parliament in 1774 and a new Holy Trinity Church was built on Clapham Common in 1775. The north aisle of the former church was left standing for the performance of burials. St Paul's Church was built at the beginning of the 19th century on the site of the former St Mary's/Holy Trinity Church. The building was completed in 1815 as a chapel of ease to Holy Trinity, Clapham. It was assigned a separate Ecclesiastical District in 1861.
Architecture
The architect was either C. Edmonds or Christopher Edwards. The church was built from stock brick, with a fairly low pitched slate roof and is in the classical style. The original construction was a plain rectangular building with interior galleries at the west end and sides. In 1875, the church was extended at the east end by Sir Arthur Blomfield with a transept, a chancel and lower half octagonal apse. St Paul's is a cruciform church with a west entrance porch and a wide nave with aisles. The Victorian chancel and transept by Blomfield have round arched windows with roll moulding and pediments at each end of the transept. The side galleries were removed in 1928. The most severe damage caused to the church by the bombing during World War II occurred on the night of 10 May, 1941. Incendiary bombs lodged in the roof and burned through before they could be extinguished, damaging the chancel and sanctuary. The building was completely restored and redecorated after the war and on 14 July 1955, the church was designated a grade II* listed building.. Following a further internal reorganization in 1970, the south semitransept is now a Lady chapel.
The pipe organ at St Paul's was built in 1886 by Forster and Andrews. The organ originally stood in the south semitransept, the current location of the Lady Chapel, before the 1970 reorganisation of the building. A complete, historically congruent rebuild of the organ was finished in 2019 by Andrew Cooper & Co. Ltd.
Community Centre
The East End extension designed by Blomfield was converted into a community centre in 1970, reducing the church to its original size. The centre is home to a Montessori nursery school and a number of user groups including a community choir. The church is used as a performance space by an opera company, a chamber music ensemble and for theatrical productions by Paul's Players.
Churchyard
The churchyard was closed for burials in 1854. Among those buried in the churchyard were Roundhead soldiers killed in the English Civil War. The churchyard has largely been cleared of gravestones but the Revd TC Dale made a record in the 1920s of all gravestones and monumental inscriptions existing at the time. The churchyard is home to "Eden at St. Paul's", a popular community garden. It is one of Lambeth's longest standing Green Flag Award-winning sites.
Tombs
The Hibbert family, George first child of George Hibbert and Elizabeth Margaret Hibbert
