St Leonard's Church, Streatham; chancel by William Dyce

St Leonard's Church, Streatham

Mid-Victorian extension by William Dyce, RA (1806-64)

Apse removed and chancel rebuilt and decorated, 1863

Stone, with a steep slate roof

Tooting Bec Gardens, Lambeth

London SW16 1RB

Photographs and text by Jacqueline Banerjee, 2011, with thanks to John Brown, church archivist, for his useful information.

Postcard of the interior by Clayton & Co., reproduced by kind permission of the Reverend Mandy Hodgson, Rector of St Leonard's.

[You may use the photographs without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL or cite it in a print document.]

St Leonard's Church, Streatham, offers a case in which someone "not otherwise associated with church building" gave his time to a local project (Cherry and Pevsner 62). The earliest part of St Leonard's, the lower part of the tower, dates from the fourteenth-century, but the body of the church was rebuilt by J. T. Parkinson in 1830-31. In 1863, the apse was removed and a new chancel designed by the artist William Dyce, and executed by the architect Benjamin Ferrey, was added instead. Dyce, a devout Anglo-Catholic, had moved to the area in 1856 and was a churchwarden at the church. He then decorated the new chancel in a colourful painted scheme — of which, sadly, hardly anything now remains. This is because it met an even worse disaster than that which befell his frescos at All Saint's, Margaret Street. There, the damage was done by pollution, and the work was reproduced, as closely as possible, later on. But here, the whole interior of St Leonard's was gutted by fire in 1975 (see "St Leonard's, Streatham"). Even Dyce's pillars were left marked by the flames.

Like most parish churches, St. Leonard's is a blend of the Gothic and the neo-Gothic. Dyce's love of this style is reflected elsewhere, for example in his architectural drawings at King's College, London (see under "King's College School and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood"), where he was once the Professor of Fine Arts, and in the drinking fountain originally placed closer to the church.

Dyce died in the winter of 1863, and was buried in St Leonard's churchyard (see Pointer 178-79). The parishioners paid for an impressive brass memorial to him, which was placed in the chancel and unfortunately ruined by the fire. However, the fountain and his initials do feature in one of the new stained glass windows.

Other Views and Related Material

Early-twentieth-century postcard, showing the interior of the chancel
The chancel as it is today
Damaged pillar and capital, with fragments of stencilling above
Detail of stained glass window, showing the Dyce fountain alongside other places of worship in Streatham
Dyce's grave (the railings were removed for the war effort, and the cross destroyed by a bomb)
The Dyce fountain
Memorial to Sophia Thrale, by John Flaxman

References

"British Listed Buildings: Church of Leonard, Streatham." Web. 6 Feb. 2011.

Cherry, Bridget, and Nikolaus Pevsner. London: South, Vol. 2. London: Penguin, 1983.

Pointer, Marica. William Dyce, 1806-1864: A Critical Biography. Oxford: Clarendon, 1979.

"St Leonard's, Streatham: Church Guide." Web. 6 Feb. 2011.

Last modified 15 March 2011