| Notes about the Church |
St Edmund’s is a large late Gothic Revival church built in 1937-8 and was designed by J. O’Hanlon Hughes, who also designed the furnishings and fittings. The Buildings of England volume states that without the vault ribs and ‘other fusinesses’ the church ‘would … be worthy of Sir Giles Scott himself’. A major reordering took place in about 2000. The tower has townscape value and the church is locally listed.
The mission was founded in 1891, with Fr W. H. Kirwan the first priest. A piece of freehold land was purchased in Overbury Avenue. On 27 October 1891, Bishop Butt laid the foundation stone for a church dedicated to the Transfiguration and St Benedict. The first part of the church was opened in March 1892. Due to a lack of funds it was intended to build it in phases. The first section for £1,500 comprised the sanctuary and part of the nave, with an attached presbytery. The architect was R. A. Boase, and the style was classical, executed in brick. It had three stained glass windows by Westlake. It seems unlikely that the second phase was ever executed.
In 1920, Beckenham became an independent parish. Land was acquired in Village Way, where on 24 April 1927 a new temporary church dedicated to St Edmund of Canterbury was opened. By 1935 the presbytery was at 35 The Avenue, and plans were in hand for a new church and presbytery at the corner of Village Way and the High Street. In 1937 the estimated costs were: £15,500 for the church, about £1,000 for the furnishings, and £3,400 for the presbytery. Funds were raised by the sale of church land in the High Street and elsewhere. A ‘club hall’ was to be converted for use as a parish hall, on the site of the current hall. |
Those periods with zero data may span several decades. The first may include pre 1530 records.