Tag: Wates development

Site of former St Peter’s church, Courtlands Avenue, Lee

Geograph – 2009

Site of former St Peter's church, Courtlands Avenue, Lee

Site of former St Peter’s church, Courtlands Avenue, Lee

St Peter’s parish church, on the corner of Courtlands Avenue (right) and what is now Lyme Farm Road (foreground), was built in 1871. The church was closed in 1939 due to poor attendance. The building survived World War 2, being used for storage, and was not officially redundant until 1960. The site was sold in 1961 to Wates for housing development for £5000: the extent of the church building is represented by the nearest block in this photo and the one to the left of it.

A new church was built in 1960 on a site on Eltham Road and has itself since been replaced – see TQ4074 : St Peter’s church, Eltham Road, Lee. The war memorial remains and can be seen towards the right of this picture. TQ4075 : St Peter’s parish war memorial, Courtlands Avenue, Lee.

St Peter’s parish war memorial, Courtlands Avenue, Lee

Geograph – 2009

St Peter's parish war memorial, Courtlands Avenue, Lee

St Peter’s parish war memorial, Courtlands Avenue, Lee

The only evidence left on the ground of St Peter’s church that used to stand on the site of the block of houses in the background is this war memorial. Its octagonal base bears the names – many now illegible – of the men of the parish who fell in World War 1, with a later addition marking World War 2 (but without additional names). See TQ4075 : Plaque on St Peter’s war memorial, Lee for the plaque.

Plaque on St Peter’s war memorial, Lee

Geograph – 2009

Plaque on St Peter's war memorial, Lee

Plaque on St Peter’s war memorial, Lee

This is the plaque recording the history of the church TQ4075 : Site of former St Peter’s church, Courtlands Avenue, Lee and its war memorial TQ4075 : St Peter’s parish war memorial, Courtlands Avenue, Lee.

‘Everything is suffering from change…’

[AWH – Possible start to booklet? Out the window modern, cube-shaped flats and maisonettes were springing up. In just xx months, his house would be demolished.

Maybe try to find the Catford letter.]

The Rev A. Miller Hagerty, sat in his soon-to-be demolished vicarage near its soon-to-be-demolished church, hammering out a letter that railed against change. “”Everything in this age and generation is suffering from change,” he wrote, as modern flats and maisonettes sprung up around him.

That change “inflicts itself on the community life socially, economically and even religiously,” he added in his letter to the Sydenham, Forest Hill & Penge Gazette’s “You Tell Us” page. “Road traffic bewilders us, housing is an ever growing problem, the equitable adjustment of wages and prices, the turmoil of strikes, with thier dislocations, are a nightmare.” Beyond Courtlands Avenue, things were even worse. “The international strife of the powers breed the fear of the possible disintegration of civilisation.”

He kicked off a tradition of Courtlands Avenue letter writers. Though they were less angst-ridden as time went along.]

Sydenham, Forest Hill & Penge Gazette – Friday 16 September 1960