St Barnabas Bethnal Green

In 1865 there was an Anglican mission called St Luke's run by the nearby church of St Simon Zelotes,{{cite web |title=Bethnal Green: List of Churches |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp217-226 |website=British History Online |access-date=12 July 2023}} but the current St Barnabas building began life as the Baptist Union Church.{{cite web |title=Bethnal Green: Protestant Nonconformity|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp228-240#fnn248|accessdate=7 March 2023}}

It was built in 1865, to a design by William Wigginton, in a Gothic Revival style, in yellow brick, banded with red and black. The church building, which is not oriented, was built with a broad chancel, nave, west gallery and an octagonal south west tower with a spire.

The church was sold to the Church of England in 1868,{{cite web |title=Records of the Victoria Park Baptist Church|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/c908e658-1b9f-4671-bd2a-c39e6750a94d|website=The National Archives|accessdate=7 March 2023}} and in 1870 consecrated for the Church of England by John Jackson the Bishop of London,An inscription on a cornerstone states that the church was consecrated on 2 July 1870. with a district assigned from the parishes of St James the Less and St Simon Zelotes.{{cite web |title=Bethnal Green: List of Churches |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp217-226 |website=British History Online |access-date=12 July 2023}}

In 1876 a large brick vicarage was built south of the Roman Road. It was first inhabited by George Barnes, vicar from 1870-1902, President of Sion College in 1887 and rural dean of Spitalfields 1898-1901.{{cite web |title=Bethnal Green: List of Churches |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp217-226 |website=British History Online |access-date=13 May 2023}}

The church was badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War.{{cite book|chapter=Bethnal Green: List of Churches|title= A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green |year=1998|pages= 217–26 |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22762}} Following the end of the war the steeple was removed and the church rebuilt, retaining the tower and north and south walls. This remodelling was carried out by J Anthony Lewis of architects Michael Tapper & Lewis, who commissioned the sculptor Don Potter to create "The Four Evangelists" on the outside of the building (c.1957).{{cite book | last = Light | first = Vivienne | title = Don Potter: an inspiring century | location = Brook, New Forest, Hampshire | publisher = Canterton Books | year = 2002 | isbn = 0-9541627-1-4 | page = 166, note 9: 'Don received several London commissions from the architect, Anthony Lewis.'}} Potter also created a font in Clipsham stone.Light (2002), p.166Lewis and Don Potter also worked on St Matthew Bethnal Green. In 1957 a two-manual electric Jennings organ was installed in the restored church.{{cite web |title=Jennings Organs, 1957 |url=https://www.voxac30.org.uk/jennings_organs_1957.html |website=Vox AC30 |access-date=14 May 2023}} A plaque in the church states that the restored church was rededicated on 18 June 1957 by the Bishop of London.

Before 1965 St Barnabas was in the Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green.

St Barnabas is part of the Bow Group of Anglican churches, together with Bow Church (St Mary and Holy Trinity); St Paul's, Bow Common; St Paul's, Old Ford and All Hallows, Bow.{{Cite web|url=https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search?p_p_id=uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet&p_p_lifecycle=2&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&p_p_resource_id=%2Faccounts-resource&p_p_cacheability=cacheLevelPage&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_objectiveId=A8040521&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_priv_r_p_mvcRenderCommandName=%2Ffull-print&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_priv_r_p_organisationNumber=5006169 |title=Independent Examiner's Report to the PCC of St Paul and St Mark Old Ford |website=Charity Commission for England and Wales |date=2016 |accessdate=7 March 2024}}

St Barnabas National School (formally St Luke's) was based in a Gothic building at the junction of Roman Road and Lanfranc Road. It was founded in 1866 and was also used as a mission church. It closed in 1905 and was converted into a church institute.{{cite web |title=Bethnal Green: Education |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp242-260#anchorn254 |website=British History Online |access-date=1 October 2023}}

A notice within the church gives the following names and dates of priests of St Barnabas.

• 1870-1902 George Barnes. Barnes was also president of Sion College (1887) and rural dean of Spitalfields (1898-1901){{cite web |title=Bethnal Green: List of Churches |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp217-226 |website=British History Online |access-date=14 May 2023}}
• 1902-1920 Alexander Bassell Winter. Later Winter was chaplain of St Ursula's Church, Bern, Switzerland{{cite web |title=list of chaplains |url=https://www.stursula.ch/historynotes.html |website=St Ursula's Church, Berne |access-date=14 May 2023}}
• 1920-1941 Thomas Felix
• 1942-1945 William Charles Smith
• 1945-1949 William George Hossack Redmond Parr
• 1950-1960 George William Saunders
• 1961-1967 Christopher Dudley Johnson
• 1967-1972 John Whitmore Griffiths
• 1973-1975 Arthur Robert Royall. Royall was also rural dean of Poplar (1965-1966), rural dean of Tower Hamlets (1968-76) and prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral London (1973-86){{cite web |title=Church Times: Deaths |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2013/21-june/gazette/deaths/deaths |website=Church Times |access-date=14 May 2023}}
• 1975-1976 Michael Harold Champneys
• 1976-1992 Fredrick Mark Rollinson
• 1992-1996 John David Marshall Peton
• 1997-2000 John Arthur Webber
• 2001–present Brian Charles Ralph

The PCC of St Barnabas Bethnal Green has been affiliated to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement since 2006 {{Cite web |title=St Barnabas Bethnal Green |url=https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/15445/find-us/ |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=www.achurchnearyou.com |language=en}} and is only the second congregation to have affiliated as a body.{{cite web| title=Saint Barnabas, Bethnal Green | url=http://changingattitude.org.uk/find-a-church/congregations/london/saint-barnabas-bethnal-green | archive-url=https://archive.today/20121223211327/http://changingattitude.org.uk/find-a-church/congregations/london/saint-barnabas-bethnal-green | url-status=dead | archive-date=23 December 2012 | publisher=Changing Attitude England | accessdate=20 September 2012}}

From 2003 to 2012,{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} the church played a key role in St Barnabas Community Fete (also known as Bowstock), whose director was the church's vicar, Father Brian Ralph.{{cite web| title=Living Britain: How Britain's towns and cities are undergoing cultural revival | url=http://www.zurich.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1FF55C8E-A0B8-4203-80A4-E0AAD1AADE7E/0/zurich_community.pdf | publisher=Zurich | accessdate=20 September 2012|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312051718/http://www.zurich.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1FF55C8E-A0B8-4203-80A4-E0AAD1AADE7E/0/zurich_community.pdf|archivedate=12 March 2012}}

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{Official website|http://www.stbarnabasbethnalgreen.org/}}
• [https://www.achurchnearyou.com/st-barnabas-bethnal-green/ A Church Near You: St Barnabas Bethnal Green]

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{{Churches in Tower Hamlets}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Barnabas Bethnal Green}}

Category:Church of England church buildings in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Category:19th-century Church of England church buildings

Category:Diocese of London

Category:Bow, London

Category:Churches bombed by the Luftwaffe in London