Country United Kingdom Heritage designation Grade II* Address London NW4 4JT, UK Diocese Diocese of London | Denomination Church of England Deanery West Barnet Phone +44 20 8203 2884 Archdeaconry Hampstead | |
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Website www.hendonparish.org.uk Parish St Mary and Christ Church, Hendon Architectural style English Gothic architecture Similar St Mary the Virgin - East Barnet, St Mary‑at‑Finchley Church, St Margaret of Antioch - Edgware, St Mary the Virgin - Monken, St Mark's Church - Barnet Va | ||
St Mary's Church is a Church of England parish church in Hendon in the London Borough of Barnet. It is joined with Christ Church, Brent Street, in the Parish of St Mary and Christ Church, Hendon, which lies within the Diocese of London.
Contents
History
The church may date back to the Anglo-Saxon period. A spurious charter of 959 records the parish as being in the possession of Westminster Abbey, and a priest is mentioned in 1086 in the Domesday Book probably implying a church. There are also probable Anglo-Saxon burials. The first definite date is the church built around 1080, and a Norman font (pictured right) is still in use. The building still has a thirteenth-century nave, chapel, north aisle and south aracade, together with traces of painting on the walls. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries saw further rebuilding, and the tower and south arcade still survive from this phase.
In 1914-15 the church was extended with a larger nave designed by Temple Moore. His work was praised by Nikolaus Pevsner as "one of the rare cases in which a Gothic revival architect, by respecting old work and frankly adding new work to it, has considerably enhanced the original effect".
In 1950, the church was given grade II* listed status.
Memorials and churchyard
One of the most important memorials in the church is to Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, who lived locally at Highwood Hill. The churchyard is a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation together with the neighbouring Sunny Hill Park. It contains the grave of Herbert Chapman, the pre-war manager of Arsenal Football Club. There are buried in the churchyard twenty Commonwealth service personnel, eleven from World War I and nine from World War II, most of whom are commemorated by special memorial where graves could not be located.
The Church today
The parish is served by a vicar and a curate, and there is access to the church from Church End.