Open House Festival

Parish Church of St Matthew

religious

David Bush, 1972

Chichester Road, Croydon, CR0 5NQ

The church and community hall is a current 1960's design which replaced the Victorian church originally situated in George Street. The new building was created as a land swap by Wates and situated in the Park Hill estate of Croydon.

Getting there

Train

East Croydon

Bus

433, 64

Access

Facilities

Accessibility notes

There is a small car park next to the church. There are stairs and a ramp down to the church entrance.

What you can expect

Various acitivities may be taking place.

About

Construction

The walls are solid brick supporting a large span of roof. The roof is constructed of plywood in a web design. The roof covering is plywood covered with alumium sheeting, This aluminium sheeting has reached the end of its life and we are in the process of running a project to see the roof recovered using zinc and with the addition of insulation and solar panels.

Stained glass

There are several sections of medieval glass which came from the Croydon Parish church which burnt down in the late 1800's. In the main worship space are six stained glass windows each depicting a parable from St Matthew's gospel. They are designed by John Hayward and incorporate glass from old St Matthew church orignally in George Street. He also design the altar frontals and some of the church furniture.

Architect

David Bush the architect for the building went on to be ordained. He designed in many features which gave special religous significance like the rough hewn boarding used on the ceiling of the worship space to represent the stable. He also design several other churches in the Southwark dioceses.

People who built the building

In the foyer around the top of the walls are small concrete plaques each with the name of those involved with the original construction from the bricklayers, the plumbers and the local cat!

Online presence

stmatthew.org.uk

www.facebook.com/StMatthewCR

www.youtube.com/channel/UC3SSaNDKdsm0hX1EnTLnRaA

x.com/StMatthewCR

Nearby

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