PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY.
Two former vicars of Tottenham, Gaspar Hickes and
William Bates, were expelled from their livings at
St. Dunstan-in-the-West, London, and Landrake
(Cornw.) in 1662. At least two other ejected ministers settled in the parish, (fn. 29) perhaps attracted there
by a body of dissenters which numbered 43 in
1676. (fn. 30)
Most of the early sectaries were probably Quakers,
who were strong in eastern Middlesex. (fn. 31) In 1689
Bridget Austell moved her school from Southgate to
Tottenham High Cross, where George Fox often
stayed during the following fifteen months. Fox
preached at large meetings and attributed the size of
one to the attendance of many Londoners. (fn. 32) By 1712
there were two Quaker boarding schools and the
number of Friends was increasing, partly, it was
claimed, because of intemperate attacks by the vicar
and others upon the former Anglican divine,
Richard Claridge, who kept one of the schools and
refused to pay tithe. (fn. 33) After a succession of houses
had been licensed for worship, (fn. 34) the site for a permanent meeting-house was bought, with help from
the Six Weeks' Meeting, in 1714. Quakers continued
to flourish during the 18th century, when Tottenham gradually replaced Enfield as the centre for
the monthly meeting. (fn. 35) Their meeting-house was
apparently the only fixed place of worship for nonconformists in the parish until the 1790s and they
remained the largest sect, with some eminent members, although by 1810 they were said to be diminishing. (fn. 36) During the 19th century there was never
more than one meeting-place, which in 1840 drew
part of its attendance from outside the parish.
Independents were prominent in the general revival of nonconformity in the late 18th century.
They were licensed to use a house near the Black
Bull in 1791 and one at Tottenham Hale in 1798.
Another house at Tottenham Hale, no. 6 Down Row,
was registered in 1828 and an outbuilding near the
tile-kilns in Green Lanes was registered in 1849. (fn. 37)
Thereafter places certified by Independents became
known as Congregational churches. (fn. 38)
Wesleyan Methodists, (fn. 39) who arrived between 1766
and 1790, (fn. 40) registered a place of worship in 1795.
Their numbers rose but slowly, despite the opening
of a Sunday school, the building of a larger chapel
near Bruce Grove in 1818, and an influx of Wesleyans
from Nottingham to work in a new silk-factory. (fn. 41)
Attendance figures in 1851 showed that growth had
remained modest, perhaps because of competition
from the Baptists and other stricter sects.
Baptists (fn. 42) in 1823 were served by itinerant
preachers at a private house. In 1825, with help
from Miss Dermer of Coleraine House and Joseph
Fletcher of Bruce Grove, a large chapel was built in
High Road. Thereafter expansion was rapid:
Baptists certified no. 2 Brook Place in 1830 (fn. 43) and
Fletcher, on behalf of 'Calvinists' or 'Evangelicals',
certified a building at West Green in 1837, as well as
rooms at Wood Green in the same year, (fn. 44) at William
Place in 1838, at Scotland Green and Queen Street
Terrace in 1839, (fn. 45) and at the Lancasterian school in
1851. (fn. 46) Meanwhile Particular Baptists had registered
a building in High Road in 1824. (fn. 47) Despite the
number of places of worship for Baptists, attendance
at Tottenham Baptist church alone in 1851 was more
than double that at the Wesleyan services.
The Brethren (fn. 48) began to meet in Stoneley South
in 1838, shortly before a chapel in Brook Street was
opened by the brothers Robert and John Eliot
Howard. The Brethren were strengthened by
secessions from the Society of Friends and in 1840
both sects were singled out, with the Wesleyans and
Baptists, as the principal nonconformists in the
parish. (fn. 49) Guided by the Howards, Brook Street
chapel played an important part in the Brethren
movement, as did the congregations at Clapton and
Hackney, and included several distinguished members in the late 19th century.
Undesignated dissenters registered houses at
Tottenham in 1807 and at Tottenham Hale, where
Robert Martin styled himself minister, in 1820. (fn. 50)
They also registered rooms at Wood Green in 1829
and in White Hart Lane in 1835 and a house at
Tottenham Terrace in 1844. (fn. 51) Such places were
the forerunners of many halls and lodgings which
became places of worship, often briefly, in the late
19th and 20th centuries.
As the population increased rapidly from the
1860s, the larger sects began to expand, opening new
chapels and often rebuilding existing ones. (fn. 52) In 1867
Wesleyan Methodists replaced their chapel with a
larger one and in 1871, in the newly suburban Wood
Green, they began the first of 50 churches to be promoted by a building fund for the London area. (fn. 53) In
the 1870s it was noted in local newspapers that
Wesleyans, like Presbyterians, erected unusually
grand churches, since they could call on outsiders to
contribute. (fn. 54) Chapels were registered in south
Tottenham in 1882 and near Alexandra Park in 1891.
Finsbury Park and Wood Green became an independent circuit, formed out of Highbury, in 1875,
and when St. George's chapel, Bowes Park (Edmonton), was bought by the Methodists in 1901, it was
entrusted to Trinity chapel, Wood Green. (fn. 55) Tottenham meanwhile became the head of a large
circuit, stretching from Seven Sisters Road to as far
north as Cheshunt (Herts.) in 1896, and was credited
with one of the most active communities in north
London, despite a lack of wealthy residents. (fn. 56)
Primitive Methodists, after registering rooms in
1854 and 1861, opened four chapels between 1872
and 1900: in Northumberland Park, in West Green
Road, in Station Road, Wood Green, and in St.
John's Road, south Tottenham. In 1903 Wesleyan
Methodists alone formed the second largest nonconformist group in Tottenham with a total Sunday
attendance of 1,287, and the largest in Wood Green,
with an attendance of 1,487. (fn. 57) United Methodist
churches were registered in High Road, south
Tottenham, in 1909 and the Avenue, Bruce Grove,
in 1910.
Baptists, too, spread from Tottenham High Road
over the rest of the parish. (fn. 58) A group which was
meeting at West Green by 1862 opened a chapel in
1865 and became responsible in the 1880s for missions in Dagmar Road (Hornsey) and Avenue Road.
Meanwhile Wood Green Baptist church was
founded by a group formed in 1865 and, in the
extreme south, Woodberry Down church opened in
1883. A second church at Wood Green arose from
meetings begun in 1892 by Baptists from Hornsey,
who in 1902 found a permanent home in Westbury
Avenue. A third church, registered in Palace Road
by seceders from Wood Green Baptist church,
proved short-lived. Strict Baptists began to assemble
near the high cross in 1884 and moved to Napier
Road in 1887. Another group, meeting by 1886,
registered a chapel in Park Ridings, Wood Green, in
1892, seventeen years before seceders opened a
chapel in Eldon Road, off Lordship Lane. Baptists
formed Tottenham's largest sect in 1903, with a total
Sunday attendance of 1,559. (fn. 59)
Although earlier meetings of Independents had
died out, Congregationalists established themselves
in both Wood Green and Tottenham. (fn. 60) Wood Green
Congregational church was registered in 1864, by a
group formed in 1861, and in Tottenham High
Road, previously served by Edmonton, services
began in 1866, two years before the opening of High
Cross Congregational church. Ambitious building
plans at first brought financial crises and changes of
minister, Wood Green in 1873 being held up in the
press as an example of the dangers of too small a
pastorate; both churches, however, were popular and
ultimately successful. In the south a mission hall in
St. Ann's Road was opened in 1880 under the direction of a large church at Stamford Hill. The southwest was served by Harringay church and the north-west by Bowes Park church, both registered in 1902,
and the extreme west by Alexandra Park church,
opened in 1907. Presbyterians, (fn. 61) who had appeared
by 1863, registered a church in Tottenham High
Road in 1866 and a flourishing one at Wood Green
in 1879.
The number of places registered for nonconformist
worship rose steadily between 1850 and the First
World War: four between 1852 and 1859, eight in
the 1860s, nine in the 1870s, 12 in the 1880s, 13 in
the 1890s, and 31 from 1900 until 1915. (fn. 62) In 1903
over half of one Sunday's 16,863 worshippers in
Tottenham were nonconformists, Anglicans accounting for only 5,076 and Roman Catholics for 2,273;
among Wood Green's 11,580 worshippers the nonconformist proportion was still higher, for 3,260
were Anglican and no more than 822 Roman Catholic.
Tottenham, however, had a very poor record of
attendance in general; its ratio of 1 in 6.06 was the
lowest in outer London, below that of Stepney and
comparable with that of Battersea or Shoreditch. (fn. 63)
The Salvation Army appeared in 1884 and was
quickly followed by more groups of Brethren. (fn. 64) In
1903 the Salvation Army drew total Sunday attendances of 1,128 in Tottenham, where it had the third
largest nonconformist congregation, and 1,012 in
Wood Green, where it had the fourth largest. (fn. 65)
Wood Green attracted many sects previously unrepresented in the area, the better-known ones
including Unitarians from 1894, the Catholic
Apostolic Church from 1906, and Welsh Calvinistic
Methodists by 1915. A building at Downhills, West
Green, registered in 1883, proved to be the forerunner of many halls opened by undesignated
Christians. West Green hall was built in 1901 and
run by the Robins Mission, itself later absorbed by
the interdenominational London City Mission
which opened its first Tottenham meeting-place in
1912. Quakers began meeting at Wood Green in
1904 but at Tottenham numbers declined during the
later 19th century, in contrast to the trend among
nonconformists in general and among Quakers
elsewhere.
After the First World War most of the established
denominations concentrated on improving their
existing premises, although the building of the
White Hart Lane estate brought the Wesleyans to
Gospatrick Road in 1931. The London City Mission
continued its work, with three new halls in 1930,
and took over the Robins Mission's rebuilt West
Green hall in 1938. (fn. 66) Spiritualists, who were to
flourish during the Second World War, were again
recorded from 1926, and newcomers included the
Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance by 1929 and
Jehovah's Witnesses by 1938. In the 1930s the movement of many inhabitants to more modern suburbs
eventually led to the closure of Tottenham's
Presbyterian church.
Since 1945 many of the older churches have been
rebuilt or altered to accommodate smaller numbers,
while others have closed. Wood Green's Presbyterians amalgamated with nearby Congregationalists
in 1950, preceding the general union of their denominations by 22 years. Congregationalists also gave up
the oldest nonconformist church in Wood Green a
few years later and the Unitarians closed their premises in 1966. Methodists, after rebuilding St.
Mark's, sold three churches between 1969 and 1971.
The London City Mission opened a new hall in
1951 but the most striking progress was made by
newcomers, often American based, or, in the 1960s,
by sects which appealed to West Indian immigrants;
they included Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day
Adventists, Assemblies of God, and several Pentecostal groups.
Society of Friends.
Tottenham meeting-house,
the first permanent meeting-place for dissenters in
the parish, was built in 1714, (fn. 67) although the project
had been considered in 1706. (fn. 68) Various houses had
previously been licensed for worship: one of Francis
Clare near the pound in 1698, (fn. 69) one belonging to
Richard Claridge in 1707 and 1712, and one belonging to Alice Hayes in 1714. (fn. 70) The meeting-house
occupied a plot with a frontage of 50 ft. along High
Road, immediately north of Sanchez's alms-houses,
and was enlarged in 1777. Prominent local Quakers
included Thomas Shillitoe (1754-1836), an evangelist who travelled much abroad, Mrs. Priscilla
Wakefield (1750-1820), author, philanthropist, and
one of the first promoters of savings banks, (fn. 71) and the
Forster family, particularly active in education. (fn. 72)
Part of an adjoining orchard was bought from
Shillitoe in 1803, as an addition to the burial ground,
and building repairs in the 1820s were followed by
substantial reconstruction in 1833, (fn. 73) which raised
the number of seats to 600. About 60 Tottenham
families attended in 1840, as well as Quakers from
neighbouring parishes. (fn. 74) The meeting-house was
registered in 1854 as no. 594 High Road (fn. 75) and
further altered in 1880; a schoolroom was built over
a verandah along its main front and railings replaced
a wall which had screened it from the road. (fn. 76) Attendance figures, however, declined from 156 in the
morning and 101 in the afternoon in 1851, (fn. 77) to 27 and
78 in 1903 (fn. 78) and to an average of 32 in October
1914. (fn. 79) New first-floor premises on the same site,
behind offices and over a supermarket, were opened
in 1962. They were designed in yellow brick by H.
M. Lidbetter and comprised a roof-top forecourt,
schoolrooms, and a kitchen, as well as a large room
for worship. (fn. 80)
At Wood Green, small meetings were held in
Bradley hall, Station Road, from 1904 until 1922. (fn. 81)
Methodists. (fn. 82)
St. Mark's (W) church originated
in Wesleyans' erection of a place of worship, opposite
the George and Vulture, which they registered in
1795. (fn. 83) A Sunday school was opened a few years
later (fn. 84) but there were no more than 37 declared
Wesleyans by 1810, (fn. 85) when services were thinly
attended. (fn. 86) A new building was paid for by voluntary
subscriptions and registered in 1818, when the membership was 64. It stood behind a burial ground on
the east side of High Road, nearly opposite Bruce
Grove, and had over 400 seats, although attendance
averaged only 150 in the morning and 160 in the
evening on Census Sunday in 1851. (fn. 87) A larger chapel,
dedicated to St. Mark, was opened in 1867, whereupon the old building, to which a hall and classrooms had recently been added, was used solely as a
Sunday school until 1880. It was then put to commercial uses and the burial ground built over. In
1904 it was almost completely burnt down. The
new chapel (later church) of St. Mark, occupying
land on the west side of High Road acquired from
the Forster family, was built of undressed stone in
'modernized Gothic', with a tower and steeple.
Extensive school buildings were put up at the rear in
1880. Over 500 people attended both Sunday morning and evening services at St. Mark's in 1903. After
the steeple had been found unsafe in 1937, shops
were built along High Road, with an entrance to the
church in the middle of the parade beneath a square
tower. During the Second World War land-mines
almost destroyed the schools and damaged the
church, where the seating was reduced from 750 in
1940 to 662 by 1960. (fn. 88) New schoolrooms were
opened in 1956 and a reconstructed church, of
yellow brick, was opened in 1963. St. Mark's had
seating for 244 in 1973. (fn. 89)
Trinity (W) church, Wood Green, (fn. 90) arose from
open-air services which had begun in 1864. In
1868 worshippers occupied a mission room in
Finsbury Road and in 1869 they acquired a site on
the north side of Southgate (later Trinity) Road,
where Trinity chapel was dedicated in 1872. The
building was designed by the Revd. J. N. Johnson,
a steward of the Highbury circuit; it was of greyish
brick with stone dressings, in the Early English
style, and prompted a press comment that at Wood
Green the Wesleyan chapel looked like a church and
the church like a chapel. (fn. 91) Seating was increased in
1880, when a new school was built at the rear, and
in 1900 three halls were opened. In 1903, with
nearly 700 worshippers on Sunday morning and
800 in the evening, there was a larger attendance
than at any other nonconformist church in Tottenham or Wood Green. The former Baptist chapel of
St. George, Bowes Park (Edmonton), was placed
under the care of Trinity church, which contributed
to its purchase by the Methodists in 1901. (fn. 92) Trinity
church itself was sold to the Greek Orthodox Church
in 1970. (fn. 93)
Northumberland Park (P) church, on the north
side of the road almost opposite Worcester Avenue,
was founded in 1870 (fn. 94) and registered in 1872. (fn. 95) The
building was of greyish-yellow brick, with redgranite pillars by the main door, in a mixture of
Byzantine and later styles. Sunday attendances of
101 and 139 were recorded in 1903. It was used by
Methodists until its sale to the Calvary Church of
God in Christ in 1971. (fn. 96)
West Green Road (P) church presumably began
as a temporary building, registered in 1877 but no
longer used by Primitive Methodists in 1896. (fn. 97) A
new chapel of yellow brick, with red-brick dressings,
on the south side of West Green Road opposite
Belmont Road, was founded in 1888 (fn. 98) and registered
in 1894. (fn. 99) It had Sunday attendances of 122 and 76
in 1903. The building, which seated 176, was sold in
1969 and used by immigrants as the Derby Hall
Christian Assembly room in 1972. (fn. 1)
Stonebridge Road (W) church, south Tottenham,
a red-brick chapel at the corner of Stonebridge and
Highwalk roads, was built and registered in 1882. (fn. 2)
Sunday attendances of fewer than 100 were recorded
in 1903. Sale of the premises was sanctioned in
1936. (fn. 3) The building was registered as St. Andrew's
Collegiate church by undesignated Christians in
1954 and was bought by the Church of God in
1967. (fn. 4)
Station Road (P) church, Wood Green, was registered in 1882 and had attendances of 44 and 62 in
1903. It was replaced by the Bourne temple, registered in 1908 but no longer used in 1939. (fn. 5)
Earlsmead (U) church originated in meetings over
a shop in St. Ann's Road, which led to the building
of Earlsmead Bible Christian hall, registered in
High Road in 1886. (fn. 6) Later the hall was also used by
Methodists, calling themselves Gospel Christians,
from the nearby Westerfield Road hall. (fn. 7) The congregation, after joining the United Methodist Free
Churches, opened a second chapel in High Road in
1909, whereupon the old one became a schoolroom.
Earlsmead United Methodist church was recertified,
as Central hall, in 1935. (fn. 8) It had seating for 750 and
was closed in 1953. (fn. 9)
The Avenue (W) church, Alexandra Park, was
registered in 1891 but had closed by 1912. (fn. 10)
St. John's Road (P) church, south Tottenham,
was registered in 1900 and had Sunday attendances
of 88 and 106 in 1903. It had closed by 1950. (fn. 11)
Miller Memorial (U) church (fn. 12) was constituted in
1904, although members met in private houses until
the erection of a corrugated iron building in 1905.
Three or four years later an appeal was launched for
a permanent church in memory of the Revd. Ira
Miller, late president of the London Church
Extension Committee, and the Revd. Marmaduke
Miller, editor of the Connexional Magazine. There
were ambitious plans for a building in the Renaissance style, with a horseshoe-shaped chapel to seat
800 and nine Sunday school classrooms, at the
corner of the Avenue and Mount Pleasant Road.
Eventually a stone church in the Gothic style,
seating 350, (fn. 13) was begun on that site in 1925 (fn. 14) and
registered in 1926. (fn. 15) The foundation of a neighbouring church hall, in the Avenue, was laid in
1957. (fn. 16)
The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist church, Wood
Green, was registered in 1915. (fn. 17) The premises, on
the north-west side of Palace Road, had previously
been used by Baptists. (fn. 18) In 1972 they comprised a
small building, of brick with stone dressings, and an
adjoining hall at the back.
Gospatrick Road (W) church was registered in
1931, four years after Methodists from St. Mark's
began to hold services on the White Hart Lane
estate. (fn. 19) The church stood east of the junction with
Deyncourt Road and in 1972 was a small brown
brick building, seating 200, (fn. 20) with a hall at the rear.
Baptists.
Tottenham Baptist church, (fn. 21) on the
west side of High Road, was built by Joseph Fletcher
and other subscribers in 1825 and opened in 1826.
Previously Baptists had met at the house of Thomas
Harwood, near the White Hart, before moving to a
coach-house belonging to Miss Dermer. Land for
the permanent church was also provided by Miss
Dermer, who gave an additional plot for a Sunday
school and a minister's house in 1830. The church,
a substantial brick building with a porch flanked by
Doric columns, was designed by J. Clark. (fn. 22) Despite
its size, side-galleries increased the accommodation
to 900 in 1836. Some 800 Baptists were said to
worship there in 1840, (fn. 23) although by 1851 the average
congregation was 400-500 (fn. 24) and in 1903, after several
other churches had opened, the Sunday attendances
were 319 and 353. Further internal alterations,
necessitating temporary closure, were carried out in
1875-6; the Sunday school was rebuilt in 1889 and
the church itself became the first public building in
Tottenham to be lit by electricity in 1907. Tottenham
Baptist church, with its seating reduced to 700, (fn. 25) was
the parish's oldest surviving place of worship, apart
from All Saints, in 1972.
West Green Baptist church (fn. 26) originated in services
which George N. Watson was holding on the Downhills estate by 1862. A permanent site on the east of
Blacksop Lane (later Dorset Road), at the junction
with West Green Road, was bought in 1864. Salem
chapel, built with financial help from Watson, was
opened in 1865 but attendance fell on Watson's
retirement and the church was reorganized, as
Union chapel, in 1869. At about that time an adjoining plot was bought for a Sunday school, although
the first classes were held in a room at the corner of
Dagmar Road, where a mission operated in the 1880s
to serve the nearby Woodberry estate. Classes were
held in the church itself shortly before 1886, when
the iron Dorset hall was set up to accommodate a
Sunday school and mission in Avenue Road. There
were Sunday attendances of 141 and 250 in 1903.
Despite the hall's closure in 1913, it was not until 1924
that a new Dorset hall was opened, at the rear of the
church. Another hall, the Dorset Memorial hall,
was opened in 1953. The church itself, a Gothic
building of yellow brick with stone dressings, was
damaged by fire in 1877; repairs were carried out
in 1932 and a glass porch was added in 1968. (fn. 27)
There was seating for 450 worshippers in 1972. (fn. 28)
Wood Green, later Braemar Avenue, Baptist
church (fn. 29) arose from meetings at private houses,
including that of a Mr. Cassini in Finsbury Road,
from 1865, two years before James Pugh had charge
of a church in Nightingale Road. After reorganizations under the same minister. land was bought and
a church was opened, as Wood Green Baptist chapel,
on the west side of Finsbury Road in 1876. (fn. 30) Sunday
attendances of 153 and 208 were recorded in 1903.
The congregation was linked with a mission in
Station Road from 1886 until 1907, when both
bodies moved to Braemar Avenue. Meanwhile
several members had seceded from Wood Green in
1904, to re-form in Palace Road, (fn. 31) whereupon the
Finsbury Road premises were sold to the Catholic
Apostolic Church. (fn. 32) In 1908 a new church was
opened at the corner of Braemar Avenue and
Bounds Green Road and in 1914 Palace Road was
reunited with the Wood Green membership, which
later changed its name to Braemar Avenue Baptist
church. The building, designed by George Baines
and Son, (fn. 33) was of red brick with white stone dressings; a hall at the back was extended in the 1950s.
There was seating for 500 in 1972.
Woodberry Down, the first Baptist church to
serve south Tottenham, was built with help from the
congregation at Hackney Downs and opened in
1883. The church, on the south corner of Vartry and
Seven Sisters roads, was designed by Paull and
Bonella as an imposing red-brick building dressed
in Bath stone, with rounded staircase turrets at the
west end and a central ventilating turret. Rooms
were added to the east end in 1912 and the seats
were reduced from over 900 to 750 after internal
reconstruction in 1954. (fn. 34)
Shaftesbury hall, Carlton Road, Bowes Park, was
registered in 1885. It had attendances of 78 and 103
in 1903 and was still used by Baptists in 1937 but had
been closed by 1954. (fn. 35)
Westerfield hall, (fn. 36) a former G.P.O. sorting office
in Westerfield Road near Seven Sisters station, was
registered in 1887 by Gospel Christians. (fn. 37) When the
congregation started to use Earlsmead hall, (fn. 38) the
building in Westerfield Road was leased for Baptist
worship by a Mr. Eastty, who acted as lay pastor
until his retirement. Sunday attendances of 19 and
89 were recorded in 1903. Members were affiliated
to Tottenham Baptist church from 1900 but continued to meet at Westerfield Road, where there was
seating for 200, (fn. 39) until the Second World War. A few
Sunday school classes were held after the war before
the premises were sold, whereupon the children
moved to West Green.
Westbury Avenue church originated in meetings
of Baptists from Campsbourne Road (Hornsey) in
Turnpike Lane in 1891. They formed a church two
years later and moved to Dovecote hall in 1895 and to
a new chapel at the junction of Westbury Avenue
with Willingdon Road in 1902. There were Sunday
attendances of 119 and 145 in 1903. The chapel was
rebuilt, with a hall, in 1930, when the seating capacity
was raised from 250 to 300. (fn. 40)
Palace Road, Wood Green, contained a small
chapel which was registered in 1907 (fn. 41) by Bowes
Park Baptist church, a group which had seceded
from Wood Green three years before. The congregation rejoined Wood Green Baptist church in
1914, (fn. 42) whereupon the building in Palace Road
passed to Welsh Methodists. (fn. 43)
Strict Baptists.
Ebenezer Strict Baptist chapel,
Napier Road, traced its origins to meetings held at
Welbourne hall, near the high cross, in 1884.
Worshippers moved to a site in the fork between
Napier and Ranelagh roads, north of Philip Lane, in
1887. Ebenezer chapel, registered there in 1898, had
Sunday attendances of 65 and 93 in 1903 and seating
for 300 twenty-five years later. In 1972 it was a low
yellow-brick building, with red-brick decoration. (fn. 44)
Park Ridings Strict Baptist chapel, Wood Green,
arose from meetings at no. 9 Dovecote Villas in
1886. Two years later worshippers formed a church
and in 1892 they registered an iron building on the
east side of Park Ridings, (fn. 45) where Sunday attendances numbered 71 and 81 in 1903. A new redbrick chapel, seating 250, (fn. 46) was begun in 1922 and
registered in 1923. It was again registered as the
undenominational Wood Green Evangelical church
in 1971 (fn. 47) and used as such in 1972, when a brick and
stone hall stood at the corner of Mayes Road and
Hornsey Park Road.
Eldon Road Strict Baptist church, Wood Green,
was the creation of seceders from Park Ridings, who
opened a new church at Dovecote hall, a wooden
building in West Green High Road, in 1909. Sunday
school classes were also held there until the congregation moved for 14 months to Noel Park school and
in 1911 opened an iron church on the west side of
Eldon Road. With aid from the sale of Bassett
Street Strict Baptist church, Kentish Town, the site
was extended and a new church, with a school hall
at the rear, was opened in 1936. An additional school
hall was opened nearby in 1955. (fn. 48) The church, of
brick with stone dressings, had seating for 220 in
1972. (fn. 49)
Brook Street chapel was opened in
1839 by Robert Howard and his brother John Eliot
Howard, the naturalist, (fn. 51) a year after Brethren had
begun meeting at the house of Mrs. Sands in
Stoneley South. The Howards, who belonged to the
chemical manufacturing firm of Howard & Sons, had
seceded from the Society of Friends and were
joined in 1839 by their father Luke, (fn. 52) the meteorologist. The chapel was thriving in 1840, when it
supported a Sunday school; (fn. 53) it was attended by
about 140 in the morning and 120 in the evening on
Census Sunday in 1851, (fn. 54) two years after the congregation's Tottenham Statement had rejected the
exclusive doctrines of J. N. Darby. Well-known
attenders included the zoologist Philip Henry
Gosse, (fn. 55) who was married from Robert Howard's
house in 1848 and was later portrayed by Edmund
Gosse in Father and Son, the philanthropist Thomas
Barnardo, baptized at Brook Street in 1862 at the
age of 17, (fn. 56) and James Hudson Taylor, promoter of
the China Inland Mission. From about 1880 until
1903 assemblies took place in a lecture hall which the
Brethren renamed Bruce Grove hall, on the opposite
side of High Road, while Sunday school classes
were held in the chapel. A schoolroom was built at
the back of the chapel to mark its jubilee and an
adjoining room for youth-work was put up in 1955.
In 1972 the chapel itself was a low yellow-brick
building, modernized inside but with its original
seating capacity of 200.
Ten worshippers, described as Brethren, attended a 'place of exhortation' at West Green
infants' school in 1851. (fn. 57) Others, sometimes calling
themselves 'open' or Christian Brethren, registered
the 'Rest' mission rooms, Station Road, Wood
Green, in 1885 (closed by 1960), Wellesley hall,
High Road, West Green in 1893, Lordship hall,
Lordship Lane, in 1910 (closed by 1954), (fn. 58) Woodberry hall, St. John's Road (opened by 1899,
closed by 1971), (fn. 59) Ringslade hall, nos. 3 and 5
Ringslade Road, Wood Green, in 1928, and a room
at 597 Seven Sisters Road in 1931. (fn. 60)
Congregationalists.
Wood Green Congregational church was registered in 1864, (fn. 61) three years
after meetings had started in schoolrooms nearby.
The building, the first permanent nonconformist
church to serve the new houses of Wood Green,
was estimated to hold 500 and in 1873 was criticized
as too large; (fn. 62) in 1903 it had Sunday attendances of
267 and 195. It was classical in style, with roundheaded doors and windows, pilasters, and a pedimented front facing Lordship Lane at the corner of
Redvers Road. The congregation was united with
Harringay Congregational church in 1964, whereupon Wood Green church was acquired by the
local authority as an arts centre. (fn. 63)
High Cross church (fn. 64) was founded largely through
the efforts of William John Eales, a wealthy merchant
of Bruce Grove and a member of Edmonton Congregational church. Besides hiring a lecture hall for
services in 1866 Eales was instrumental in enrolling
members for a new church in 1867, in starting a
Sunday school, and in erecting a church on the east
side of High Road opposite High Cross Green. The
building was opened in 1868 but its ambitious design,
to seat 600, burdened the trustees with debt for over
50 years and contributed to frequent changes of
minister in the late 19th century. Sunday school
attendance nonetheless rose, necessitating extra
classes in the institute in Philip Lane in the 1890s
when the church also operated a mission at Page
Green. (fn. 65) In 1903 there were Sunday attendances of
343 and 704 at the church and 60 and 86 at the
mission. Adjoining property along High Road was
bought in 1907 and exchanged in 1919 for land
behind the church, where two temporary halls were
put up. A brick memorial hall was opened there in
1929, after the earlier buildings, one of them later
known as the John Williams hall, had been moved.
The church itself, a Gothic structure of stone with
some ornamental brickwork, was altered internally
in the late 1930s. Services were held in the John
Williams hall during repairs to the main front after
the Second World War and in the memorial hall
during work on the ceiling in 1958; the entrance was
reconstructed, to provide a vestibule, in 1966. There
was seating for 900 worshippers in 1972. (fn. 66)
St. Ann's Road mission station was opened in
1878 by members of Stamford Hill Congregational
church, Clapton Common. There were 150 sittings
in 1895 and 300 in 1951. (fn. 67)
Harringay Congregational church (fn. 68) originated in
a Sunday school started in 1891 in Falkland hall, an
upstairs room behind a shop at the south corner of
Falkland Road and Green Lanes. Land was bought
at the junction of Allison Road with Green Lanes
and an iron building was opened there in 1894. It was
replaced by a permanent church, opened in 1902,
and by a new hall and schoolrooms, built as a threestorey block in Allison Road in 1912. There were
Sunday attendances of 341 and 406 in 1903. The
church, of red brick with stone dressings and in the
Gothic style, underwent major internal reconstruction in 1970, when the seating capacity was reduced
from about 650 to 220. All three halls, collectively
known as Allison hall, were retained by the church
in 1972, although the bottom one had been leased to
the government since 1947. In 1969 Harringay
Congregational church united with Hornsey Church
of Christ. The Hornsey premises, in Wightman
Road, were sold and the new church became known
as Harringay United church.
Bowes Park Congregational church began as a
hall and schoolrooms, registered in 1902, at the
corner of Arcadian Gardens and Wood Green High
Road. A large red-brick church with stone dressings,
adjoining the hall, was founded in 1909 and registered in 1912. (fn. 69) After the congregation had united
with that of St. James's Presbyterian church in
1950, the premises became those of the United
Church of St. James-at-Bowes.
Alexandra Park (Whitefield Memorial) church (fn. 70)
was founded by Congregationalists who first met at
the house of Dr. Mailer in Alexandra Park Road.
Many, before moving to the new suburb, had worshipped at the Whitefield tabernacle, Leonard Street,
Finsbury. A building east of the corner with Albert
Road was opened in 1907 and members of the
Finsbury tabernacle automatically became members
of the new church, which at first was called Whitefield tabernacle but was recertified as Alexandra
Park Congregational church in 1922. (fn. 71) The church,
of red brick with stone dressings, had seating for
550 in 1972. (fn. 72) A two-storey brick hall was built on
the north side in 1932 and a lower hall was added to
the back in 1965. Numerous benefactions for the
Finsbury tabernacle were transferred to the minister
and deacons of Alexandra Park congregation. Eleven
charities, regulated in 1958 as the charities of Maria
Godfrey and others, produced a gross income of
£315 in 1971, when £164 was distributed among
four needy parishioners. (fn. 73)
Presbyterians.
St. John's church, High Road,
north Tottenham, was registered in 1866, three
years after services had started in a lecture hall. (fn. 74) The
building, designed by W. G. Habershon and Pite,
had seats for 450. By 1876 St. John's had opened a
mission hall in Coleraine Park, which remained in
use until 1915 and, as a Sunday school, until 1917. (fn. 75)
There were Sunday attendances of 137 and 170 at
the church and 29 and 57 at the mission in 1903.
After the First World War the removal of many
members to the outer suburbs reduced the active
congregation to about 40 by 1939, when the church
was accordingly closed. (fn. 76)
St. James's church, Wood Green, was formed in
1875, when the Presbyterian Church of England
took over an iron chapel which had been used for
four years by the Church of Scotland. (fn. 77) There were
about 100 members in 1877, when work started on a
church in Green Lanes. The new building, of redbrick dressed with Bath stone, was noted for its
grandeur. It seated 400 worshippers, apart from
those in the galleries, but was soon extended to take
700; in 1902 it had the fourth largest congregation
within the London Presbytery (fn. 78) and in 1903 Sunday
attendances were 585 and 465. In 1950 members
united with Bowes Park Congregational church,
whose premises they used as the United Church of
St. James-at-Bowes. (fn. 79) The former Presbyterian
church afterwards served as a warehouse and survived in 1974. (fn. 80)
The Salvation Army.
In 1884 the army registered an iron hall at Bruce Grove and barracks in
Finsbury Road, Wood Green, both of which meeting
places had been given up by 1896. (fn. 81) The Wood
Green citadel, a two-storeyed red-brick hall at the
corner of Mayes and Alexandra Park roads, was
registered in 1890. It remained open in 1972, as did
a similar hall begun in 1891 (fn. 82) and registered in 1895
for the Tottenham citadel corps at Page Green.
From 1900 the army in north Tottenham used Elm
hall, in Church Road, before opening a yellowbrick hall on the corner of High Road and Paxton
Road in 1908. (fn. 83) A fourth hall still used in 1972 was
also opened in 1908, at Terront Road, West Green. (fn. 84)
By 1929 the army had a hall in Perth Road, Wood
Green, which had been given up by 1954. (fn. 85)
Lutheran church.
A group of German bakers
settled near south Tottenham during the late 19th
century and secured a pastor from the Lutheran
Church, Missouri, U.S.A. Holy Trinity, a combined
church and school building, was dedicated at no. 53
Antill Road in 1901, (fn. 86) registered by Lutherans of the
unaltered Augsburg Confession in 1923, and reregistered by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
England in 1948. (fn. 87) A porch, vestry, and chancel
were added in 1935 but the original seating capacity
of 90 remained unchanged in 1972, when the church
was a simple red-brick building, with a Dutch
gable. A temporary hall was dedicated in 1949 and a
permanent hall opened 20 years later. (fn. 88)
Other Denominations and unspecified missions.
The Free Church of England registered St. John
Wycliffe's, Tottenham Green, in 1853 but used it
only for about eleven years. (fn. 89)
A building at Downhills, West Green, belonging
to William Tucker, was registered by undesignated
Christians from 1861 until 1896 and again, as
Downhills hall, from 1896 until 1907. (fn. 90)
The Free English Church registered no. 15
Houghton Road, near Seven Sisters station, in 1882
but was no longer there in 1896. (fn. 91)
A gospel hall in Southgate Road, Wood Green,
was registered by unspecified Christians from 1872
to 1913. A hall at Bruce Grove which was registered
by the Gospel Temperance Mission from 1883
until 1896 (fn. 92) may have been the iron building where
the Blue Ribbon Gospel Temperance Mission
started its work in 1882. The Blue Ribbon Movement later built Forster hall in Forster Road, (fn. 93)
registered from 1885 until 1896. Christians who
registered a room at no. 1A Woodlands Park Road in
1900 moved to a hall in Clarence Road, West Green,
in 1905. (fn. 94)
Unitarians formed a congregation at Wood Green
in 1890. (fn. 95) Four years later they registered Unity hall
in Newnham Road, where a new church and hall
were registered in 1902. (fn. 96) After the closure of Unity
church in 1966, members assembled with the
Unitarian Fellowship of Enfield and Barnet at
Cockfosters. (fn. 97)
The Catholic Apostolic Church, which previously had used premises in Gloucester Road,
Holloway, registered the former Baptist church in
Finsbury Road in 1906. (fn. 98) The church, a brick
building with a south-east turret, was vacant by
1965, when it was acquired from trustees by the
Greek Orthodox community. (fn. 99)
The Robins Mission administered West Green
hall, built in 1901 and later bought by the president
of the mission, James Hillyer, who helped to pay for
its reconstruction as a two-storeyed building in
1930. Hillyer, by will proved 1938, settled the hall
on trustees whom he enjoined not to permit High
Church practices; he also left £250 a year towards
the missioner's salary, £50 a year for repairs, and
dividends to be distributed annually in gifts of 10s.
among members aged over 70. The property and its
endowment were vested in the London City Mission
by a Scheme of 1940. (fn. 1)
The London City Mission registered its first hall,
in Tebworth Road, in 1912. Trafalgar mission hall
in Queen Street, off White Hart Lane, was registered
in 1930 and replaced by Trafalgar Memorial hall in
1941. A new hall in High Cross Road was also registered in 1930, as was Shaftesbury Memorial hall in
Fladbury Road, and a mission in Siddons Road
started in 1951. All, except Shaftesbury Memorial
hall, were still undenominational meeting-places
in 1971. (fn. 2)
Spirtualists met at Wyvern House, no. 193 High
Road, in 1903, when 46 attended a Sunday evening
service. In 1926 they registered Bradley hall,
Bradley Park Road, Wood Green, and in 1932
moved to a room in Stuart House, River Park Road,
which they had left by 1954. (fn. 3) Tottenham and
Edmonton Spirtualist church opened in 1929 in
Edmonton, (fn. 4) whither the Temple of the Trinity for
Spiritual Healing moved after three years at no. 371
High Road, Wood Green, in 1941. The Sanctuary of
St. Andrew, registered at no. 65 Duckett Road in
1942, had closed by 1964. (fn. 5) Wood Green Spiritualist
church, unconnected with any earlier group but
affiliated to the Spiritualist National Union, was
opened in 1953; services were held in a private
house, at the corner of Maryland Road and High
Road, which could seat 120 in 1972. (fn. 6) Spiritualists
forming the Mount Zion Church of God began to
meet at Crowland Road junior school in 1965 (fn. 7) and
registered no. 192 High Road in 1967. (fn. 8)
The Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance registered
Elim hall, a rented room on the first floor of no.
614 High Road, Tottenham, in 1929, (fn. 9) soon after
Pentecostal meetings had started there. It was replaced by Brook hall, Brook Road, Wood Green,
which remained in use from c. 1930 until 1955, when
worshippers moved to Russell Road (Edmonton). (fn. 10)
Jehovah's Witnesses registered the first floor of
nos. 6 and 8 Westbury Avenue as a Kingdom hall in
1938 and met there until 1953. A hall in Wingmore
Road was registered in 1959 and used until 1970.
Jehovah's Witnesses still owned the building in 1972,
when they were seeking a larger one in the area.
Meetings were held at the Adult School hall,
Commerce Road, for ten years until 1972, when the
congregation had temporarily to share a Kingdom
hall which had been opened at no. 5 Glenwood Road
in 1970. (fn. 11)
The Tottenham Assembly of the Church of God,
soon renamed the Redemption Church of God,
registered premises in the Crescent in 1962. (fn. 12) Ten
years later the church occupied a small, part roughcast, hall next to no. 1 the Crescent.
The Church of God acquired the former St.
Andrew's Collegiate church, previously a Methodist
chapel, in Stonebridge Road in 1967. (fn. 13)
The Calvary Church of God in Christ (U.K.)
bought the former Methodist church in Northumberland Park in 1971. (fn. 14) There was seating for 250 in
1973. (fn. 15)
Seventh Day Adventists worshipped in a corrugated iron hall at the corner of Northcott Avenue
and Bounds Green Road in 1972. (fn. 16)
The New Testament Church of God, whose general headquarters were at Cleveland, Tennessee
(U.S.A.), worshipped at no. 628 High Road, a 19thcentury house near Scotland Green belonging to the
Y.W.C.A., in 1972. (fn. 17)
Pentecostal meetings were popular among West
Indian immigrants from the 1960s. The groups were
often short-lived and, despite their name, were not
registered among the Pentecostal churches. (fn. 18) In
1972 they included assemblies at Coleraine Park
primary school, Downhills school, and Woodlands
Park junior school. (fn. 19)