Name: St. Stephen with St. John
Denomination: Anglican
Address: 38-42 Rochester Row. SW1P 1LE
Telephone: 020 7834 0950
Web Site: http://www.sswsj.org/
Email: Click Here
Parish Office: St Stephen’s House, Hide Place, SW1P 4NJ
Email: parishoffice@sswsj.org
Please visit the website for times of services and details of other events.
We are a flourishing parish church at the heart of London. At St. Stephen’s, you will find not only a beautiful building with an interesting history, but a friendly and very mixed community of people, most of whom live locally, who come together week by week to worship God.
In a part of the world where, very reasonably, many churches have ‘specialist’ ministries of one sort or another, we like to think of ourselves as a non-specialist church – a local parish church, with a style of worship that is dignified but relaxed, and brings together people of widely different backgrounds.
So we are a church where children and their families have a valued place, and to which a good number of single people belong. We have people who have long experience as members of the church and others for whom this is still a new experience. I hope we are a church whose convictions are strong, and that knows the importance of living with questions. We want to be a church where we can come to worship God, in order that we can be better equipped to live our lives faithfully in our daily occupations in the wider world.
Adjoining St. Stephen’s is the Church of England Primary School, Burdett-Coutts, named after the benefactor who founded our church.
St. Stephen’s falls within the Deanery of Westminster. We are one of twenty-four churches in the Deanery.
History
In the middle of the 19th century, Rochester Row was part of a notorious area of slums known as Devil’s Acre. Surrounded by open sewers, the filthy tenements harboured every kind of criminal, and the local rope-yard was infested with rats. This was the site chosen by a remarkable woman, Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts, to build a new church as a memorial to her father, Sir Francis Burdett Bt, a former Radical Member of Parliament for Westminster. The land was given by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey.
Angela Burdett-Coutts built not only the church, but the school in Rochester Street which was opened in 1849, and still bears the name of Burdett-Coutts. The almshouses for elderly people opposite the church were also enriched by her gifts; and she endowed a college on the Vincent Square side of the church to help local citizens emigrate to the colonies.
Architect
The architect chosen for St Stephen’s Church was Benjamin Ferrey, a pupil and biographer of Augustus Pugin, the father of the designer of the House of Commons. the design he produced was based on the decorated style of the 14th century. His other works included the cathedral on the island of St Helena, and the plans for the new town of Boumemouth.
The foundation stone was laid on 20th July 1847, and the church was consecrated on 24th June 1850, the festival of the Nativity of St John the Baptist.
The exterior is built of Bargate ragstone with quoins and dressings of Morpeth sandstone. The interior is built with stone from Caen in Normandy. It is a particularly good stone for the fine carving which was done by Peter Wright of Vauxhall Bridge Road.
Doctrine and Style of Worship
St Stephen’s encompasses the breadth of the Church of England. Both the Book of Common Prayer and the Revised Common Lectionary are used. Families and children are particularly welcome. There is a large Sunday School and Family Services are also held. At ‘Tinies Time’ on Tuesday aftemoons the very young come to play and to join in a very simple act of worship.
Social Outreach
St Stephen’s supports the wider mission of the church and has developed particularly close links with the church in Myanmar (Burma). Locally, we are actively involved within many areas including the Queen Mary Hostel, where a weekly Eucharist is held on Thursday evenings, and the Drop-In Centre for over 50s. Lunches are regularly held on Sundays in the Parish Hall, where a weekly Mums & Toddlers group also meets.
Facilities
The church is used by local groups such as ‘keep fit’ and the hall is well used by groups ranging from a nursery school and the Brownies to the Orchid Society. The hall is completely accessible to the disabled.