All Hallows in Lombard Street

All Hallows Church has stood on the Chertsey Road in Twickenham since 1940, but its history stretches back to Saxon times.  We should spend time to reflect on our rich history and heritage and to celebrate that we have such a wonderful building in which to worship God and to service the Twickenham community.

The original All Hallows Church was on Lombard Street in the City of London on a site where Christian worship has been documented back to 1053.  Over the years the church was rebuilt twice, but in 1666 disaster struck when the Great Fire ravaged London and destroyed hundreds of buildings, including All Hallows.  

Christopher Wren designed the new All Hallows, which was built between 1686 and 1694.  Dominating the new church was the square stone bell tower outside and the extraordinary woodwork of the fittings inside.  One of the last of the churches in the City to be rebuilt after the fire, it cost £8,058.

As the City population dwindled and business interests began to dominate there, fewer churches were needed to serve the people.  Once structural defects were discovered in its walls, the authorities selected All Hallows for demolition which took place in 1939.  Its former location is now occupied by the head office of Barclays Bank.

At the same time, the suburbs were booming and needed new churches.  A site on the Chertsey Road in Twickenham was chosen for a permanent building for the Mission Church of St Martin. This had been established in 1918. In 1938 the two projects came together, and the Reverend Harold Schofield, priest-in-charge at St Martin’s, announced that the new church would take the identity of All Hallows, along with the fittings and furnishings from the Lombard Street church. The Bishop of London laid the foundation stone in July 1939, and the new building, designed by Robert Atkinson, was dedicated and opened here in November 1940 under wartime conditions as the new home for All Hallows.  Robert Atkinson designed a modern church to house the treasures saved from London.  In the midst of World War II the building with its dramatic old bell tower and wonderful wooden interior fittings started a new life in Twickenham.
The Bishop of London dedicated All Hallows, Twickenham, on November 9th 1940 with the sound of gunfire in the distance.

He was quoted as saying “We all thought it was marvelous that the bells which rang out over the City of London would now ring out here”.