Autumn in St Mark’s Churchyard

St Mark’s Church was built in 1824 on the old gallows corner of Kennington Common, one of four ‘Waterloo’ churches built in south London following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. The church and churchyard was bombed back in 1941 and wasn’t restored until the 1960’s. The gravestones that once dotted the churchyard were moved to the side where the railings enclose the area as the bombing displaced and damaged many of them.

I had a walk around in Autumn 2012 and took some photographs…


Above – the much worn original step into the church from Brixton Road. There was once a large iron gate here, you can still see where the gateposts went into the slab.
 
Above – the view in from Brixton Road
 
Above – Displaced gravestones line the Prima Road side of the churchyard
 

 

The shrine to the dead of WW1 – erected in the 1920’s to replace a temporary wooden cross.

0 Responses to Autumn in St Mark’s Churchyard

  1. Nick Jewitt says:

    In the 1970s I was a committed member of St. Mark’s Kennington under Rev. Nicholas Rivett-Carnac, and got involved in looking after the building and helping towards a renovation of the Crypt (it’s been done again since). I used to know the building like the back of my hand. Anyone know what year the railings were restored? It was chainlink fencing back then. I’ve been back a few times since.

  2. Linda jacobs says:

    I got married in st marks church by the archdeacon on the 21st of May 1961 I was the youngest girt in England to be married in a church my picture was in the Sunday pictoral on the 22nd I lived opposite the church next to the oval station so I walked a crosse the road with my father in my wedding dress if any one embers me I would like to get I touch

  3. Terry Beckwith says:

    I have fond memories of St Marks Church.
    In 1948 I remember the Church choir master coming to our COE primary school which had the same name as the church, he was looking for boys to join the choir.
    None of us lads seemed to interested until he informed us that there would be honorarium of £8.00 per quarter. At that point I immediately stepped forward and joined up.
    I was a chorister for two years, by which time I had acquired a paper-round working from a newsagents at the top of Claylands Rd. My round was mainly around South Island Place. Wages for 7 mornings a week were 12s 6p per week.

    Happy days

  4. Andrew says:

    Thank you for posting the above pictures. As someone that lives on the otherside of the world and has ancesters from the church, it was greatly appreciated to see the photos taken around the ground – not just the customary view from the front.
    It is great to see that some headstones have been preserve pre the WWII bombings.

  5. Wendy Garthon says:

    My great great grandfather, Alfred Chislett, married his first wife, Jane Cornel, in this church on 11 December, 1831.

  6. David Harman says:

    Wonderful to see the pictures of St Marks, my great great grand parents John William Godfrey and Sophia Louisa Allen were married here in 1827.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *