History
A brief note on the establishment of the Clapham Welsh Presbytarian Chapel, Beauchamp Road, Clapham Junction.
As increasing numbers of Welsh people settled in London during the 19th century there was a need to establish chapels to enable them to worship in their own language. The first Calvinistic Methodist (later time to Presbyterian) chapel in London was formed in 1774. This was the predecessor of the church but in 1823 in Jewin Crescent in the City. As London expanded rapidly in Victorian times, so did the need for more Welsh chapels. By the early 1890s it was clear that there was an urgent requirement for a chapel to serve the burgeoning Welsh population of Clapham and Wandsworth and initially in 1893, a branch of the Falmouth Road Chapel (Elephant and Castle) was set up as a Sunday school on Wandsworth Road (near the Springfield Hall). These premises proved unsuitable and in 1895 the Sunday School moved, first to the Felix Institute on Lavender Hill and a few months later, to the New Hall, 61 Battersea Rise.
The success of this venture persuaded the London Presbytery to establish a chapel in the area and a committee was set up to oversee this. The first service was held on December 8, 1895, the church was incorporated officially on January 18, 1896, the first minister, the Rev’d Llewelyn Edwards was called in October 1896, and a committee led by Mr Timothy Davies was set up with a brief to find a suitable site for chapel. A plot on which stood a large house, built by a Mr Dives came to their attention. It stood at the corner of Beauchamp Road and measured 80 feet by 80 feet. The house had been used as a builders’ office during the development of the environs of Beauchamp Road and Dives Road, (later renamed Ilchester Gardens) and hence, had escaped redevelopment. It was available on a lease of 80 years at a rent of £36 per annum. The asking price was £800, but an offer of £600 was accepted by the seller, Mr Alfred Hever, a well-known local property developer.
The architect commissioned to undertake this project (unfortunately still unidentified) reported that the house on the site could be converted into a chapel building holding 300 people at a cost of around £1500 and that there would be sufficient land remaining to provide accommodation for a caretaker to the west of the chapel (number 32 Beauchamp Road) as well as putting up two family house adjacent to the chapel (the present numbers 28 & 30 Beauchamp Road). His brief was accepted and in 1896 construction will started.
The new premises were completed in 1897 at a total cost of £5833 and by that time there were 91 full members and 87 in the Sunday School. Five years later the membership had grown to 204, with 41 children and a Sunday School of 145. Naturally, most of the cost of servicing the debt fell on the members but they were greatly assisted by benefactors such as Timothy Davies (who owned a department store in Fulham Broadway) and others in London and Wales.
Two significant additions to the chapel were made in 1909: a magnificent stained-glass window in the memory of Mair Eiluned Lloyd George was unveiled on June 27. She was the eldest child of David and Margaret Lloyd George and died at the age of 17. The window was designed by Thomas Figgis Curtis (1854-1924) and produced by his company T.F. Curtis Ward of Firth Street, Soho. The service of dedication was conducted by the Rev’d Tyler Davis (the minister, Clapham), Rev’d Dr John Williams, Brynsiencyn; Rev’d H. Elfed Lewis, King’s Cross and Rev’d Herbert Morgan, Castle Street. The second addition during that same year was a handsome carved wooden screen, erected behind the pulpit and commissioned by Mr and Mrs T.H. Jones, who owned a dairy on Battersea Rise. Electric lights were then installed in 1913.
By 1921 when the chapel celebrated its silver jubilee, the original debt had been cleared and the membership had reached 286, with 89 children. The inter-war years saw a record growth in membership as the ‘Depression’ in Wales lead to an increase migration from the valleys, and peaked at 478 in 1938. The chapel was then extensively modified in 1925 using plans drawn up by F. R. Gould Willis, to meet the needs of an increasing congregation. The building was lengthened by extending westwards to incorporate the caretaker’s house at 32 Beauchamp Road, thereby increasing the size of the body of the chapel and providing more seating. Two new offices were also constructed. A new niche, flanked by iconic columns was built at the west end and the pulpit moved from the east to the west. In October 1926 a new pipe organ was installed in the niche and was dedicated at a service at which David Lloyd George gave the address. The organ was replaced by an electronic version in the 1990s. In 2016 extensive improvements were made to the vestry and kitchen, a lift was installed and the heating, lighting and utilities modernised.
The chapel has been ably served by a total of eight ministers between 1896 and 2009. In order of appointment, they are the Reverends Llewelyn Edwards; D. Tyler Davies; W.J. Jones; R.G. Alun Richards; O.J. Evans; Geoffrey G. Davies; Dafydd Owen and Anthony Williams. In September 2010, the Reverend Richard Brunt become minister. The membership has included many who have been prominent in public life including Dame Margaret Lloyd-George, D. Owen Edwards, Sir David Hughes-Parry, John Hooson and the Lord John Morris of Aberafan (Aberavon). Most importantly, Clapham Junction chapel has been for 127 years, a spiritual and cultural home for hundreds of Welsh people wanting to worship and socialise in their own language. The chapel has served and is still serving, as a centre where generations of Welsh men, women and children have met to ‘sing the Lord’s song in a strange land’.
Dr Hywel Thomas
