Monument

This church, designed by William Butterfield, was completed in 1853. In 1867 Rev. Le Geyt's high church tendencies sparked strong protests: the vicar being shouted at during the service, mobs surrounding the church and shouting "Attack the church" etc. and causing the police to be called out to protect the vicarage.

Bombs on 5 January 1941 totally destroyed the vicarage and the church suffered severe damage, especially to the roof. Following significant restoration work by architect Nugent Cachemaille-Day the church was reopened in 1954.

You can chart the recent restoration of this plaque (by Antique Bronze of Highgate) on Google Street View: it's shown unrestored until April 2019, when the wall is shown empty. The plaque reappears, restored, in September 2020. Whilst researching this we noticed a rather lovely light effect on the window opposite the church.

Sources: church website, Wikipedia, St Matthias Halls.

We are not particularly short of stature but to get all the names on this plaque we had to return with a stool on the back of the bike to give us the extra height to see over the wall. By chance, our standing on a stool peering over the wall coincided with playtime at the primary school next door. Sure enough - a teacher came out to question our activities.

The cross, barely visible from the road, is in the church grounds immediately to the north, right of this church.

The associated church halls, St Matthias Church Institute, is a few minutes walk to the north, on the same side of the road.