1877-84 Rented Premises
The Baptist community in Teddington began with meetings during 1877 in a rented room over a shop in a parade of shops on Bridge Approach
- the shop being at the time tenanted by a Mrs Algars.
This shop and parade of shops was eventually demolished in the late 1980s and replaced by Orlando House (the building with the clock opposite Elmfield House).
However, through the years it had a warm place in the hearts of Teddington Baptists as their original "Upper Room" although it became at one time "Ethel's Cafe" (1956) and later the Curry House Restaurant (1981).
The small group soon needed a larger "Upper Room" and in 1879 moved to another "Upper Room" over what is now the Barclay's Bank, Broad Street.
(At that time it was an earlier building which housed a branch of the London and Provincial Bank)
Then in 1880, they rented a chapel in Clarence Road.
This had been recently
vacated by a Wesleyan Congregation (now Teddington Methodist Church),
which had also moved due to increasing numbers.
The rent for the chapel was £20 a year. The owner, Mr J C Park,
discovering this was more than the small company could manage,
allowed them use of the hall for 2 years for that fee.
Despite poverty the meeting minutes record however that
"we purchased an American organ from Chappell & Co costing rather more than £13".
The Clarence Road chapel still exists but is now known as Craig Hall although at one time it was called "Police Court".
The next step was the purchase of the site at the junction of Church Road and Walpole Crescent on which was erected the Tin Tabernacle.....
1884 Tin Tabernacle
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So on Sunday 30 March 1884 the Church opened its first building for worship on the site in Church Road which it has occupied continuously since that year.
This was the iron building which became known affectionately as the "Tin Tabernacle".
Until then candidates had been baptised at Twickenham Baptist Church, but now the Church had its own baptistry and on Sunday 27 April 1884, 12 candidates were baptised in the Tin Tabernacle.
The Tin Tabernacle was used as the Church building for eleven years.
It was described as "cold in winter and intensely hot in summer but always the spiritual home of the people."
When it was time to replace it with a new building, the Church bought a plot of land in Walpole Crescent and moved the Tin Tabernacle there so it could be used for worship during construction of the new building.
It then stood between the new Church building and 5 Walpole Crescent and was used for the Sunday School for the next thirteen years.
The picture above shows the Tin Tabernacle in this later position which it occupied until it was demolished in 1908 after completion of the new Sunday School buildings.
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The text of the poster is:
TEDDINGTON BAPTIST CHAPEL
CHURCH ROAD
OPENING SERVICES
Divine Service will be held (D.V.) on Sunday March 30th
ON THE FOLLOWING TUESDAY, APRIL 1st, 1884
A SERMON
Will be preached by the Rev
V. J. CHARLESWORTH
OF THE REV. C.H. SPURGEON'S ORPHANAGE
SERVICE TO COMMENCE AT 3 O'CLOCK
AFTER WHICH
TEA AND PUBLIC MEETING
WILL BE HELD
Tea at 5.30 Tickets 1s. each Public Meeting at 7.
When ADDRESSES are expected from the Rev. W. BASTER (Surbiton),
Rev. V. J. CHARLESWORTH, Rev. J DUNN (London), J.M. FOX & J S HAWORTH,
(Teddington), Rev. GEORGE WRIGHT (Kingston), and other Friends.
Chair to be taken by J COWDY, Esq., of Molesey
Collections after each Service in aid of the Building Fund
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1895 Church Building
In 1894, after much preparation, the Church decided to build a permanent building and accepted the tender of a Mr Donald Stewart of Wallington for £2918.
The Foundation Stones were laid on 1 August 1894 and the new building was ready for a dedication service on 21 November 1894 but the official opening did not take place until 23 January 1895 and the organ was not installed until April 1895.
The final cost was £3397 of which £2000 was still outstanding on completion of the magnificent new premises.
The trust in God shown by the 146 members in 1894 was remarkable - both for growth and for financial provision.
The new building was planned to seat 560 adults or a mixed congregation of 750 adults and children.
That trust in numerical growth was justified for by 1900 the membership was over 250 and by 1903 it had reached 300.
The trust for financial provision was also justified - although the sum outstanding on the buildings was still £1215 in 1900,
it had been completely cleared by 1903 when the Church was already looking forward to the building of a further suite of rooms for its growing Sunday School.....
1908 Sunday School Buildings
After 1903, the Church purchased two houses in Church Road for £1150 and demolished them to make way for a new suite of Sunday School buildings.
By the time the Foundation Stone was laid in September 1907, £1000 had been raised towards the cost of the new buildings.
They were opened on 23 September 1908 at a final cost of £6984 for a set of buildings which remains in use today.
The main hall is able to seat 500 people and 27 other rooms including numerous small classrooms which have been versatile in use over the past 100 years.
The new buildings were described as offering "plenty of air, plenty of light, plenty of room and plenty of facilities for conducting Sunday School work".
The completed church premises had electricity installed throughout in 1913 and by 1918 were serving a membership of 386 and a Sunday School of 565 children.
They also enabled the formation of a Scout Troop and a Girls' Life Brigade Company in 1915.
1940 Bombed
Teddington was subject to a major enemy bombing raid during the Second World War on the night of 29 November 1940.
That night 43 people died in Teddington and there were about 120 fires in the town.
WAYSIDE PULPIT
A Thought for the Week
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Never let
the shadows
of doubt
darken your
confidence
in God
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Place in TBC History
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One of the bombs fell on Teddington Baptist Church and set fire to
the 1895 church building.
Fortunately there was a passage way between the 1895 and 1908 buildings, and the fire brigade managed to save the 1908 Sunday School buildings by playing their hoses on them.
And when the flames died down, there survived on an outside wall the message of the Wayside Pulpit for that week - a message which the Minister and congregation took to heart.
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Despite the mess, the lack of windows, and no heating, services were held in the Main Hall of the Sunday School buildings the following Sunday.
The Sunday School buildings continued in use for worship and as a Sunday School for the next 16 years
until the new church was opened. Towards the end of the war, an organ,
a gift from the Brett family, was installed into the gallery
of the Sunday School buildings and proved a priceless adjunct to worship.
The fund for the building of a new church commenced when a little
girl named Joy brought a shilling just a few hours after the
bombing and fire "to help build the new church". Another girl brought
a tin loaded with coppers "which I have been saving ever since the
church was burned out". With gifts large and small, the congregation,
started the long haul to reconstruct the church. Soon the Main
Hall was rehabilitated for worship, pews installed in the back
gallery and a baptistry constructed under the platform. Gift Days
were instituted, the first raising £611 13s 8 1/2d towards the
Building Fund.
1956 Church Building
By 1953, the plans for rebuilding of the church had been finalised and War Damage Compensation had been agreed.
The plans were sent out to tender in 1953.
On Sunday 25 July 1954, in deluge of rain, a Service of Dedication was held and then the work began with the clearance of the site which involved the demolition of a bomb shelter erected to shelter local residents during war-time bombing raids.
On 29 January 1955 the stone-laying ceremony was conducted with the laying of two Foundation Stones which read:
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
This stone was laid
January 29th. 1955
by
Rev. E.F. Sutton
Minister of the Church in 1940
when the building erected in
1895 was destroyed.
'OUR GOD IS FAITHFUL'
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TO THE GLORY OF GOD
This stone was laid
January 29th. 1955
by
Rev. F.G. Missen
Minister of the Church in 1955
when this building was erected.
'OUR GOD IS GOOD'
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Place in TBC History
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A great series of meetings held from 14-23 September 1956 marked completion of the new church building.
The official opening took place on 15 September 1956.
and a special booklet entitled 'Achievement' commemorated the day
so long awaited. Mr Tebbitt, a former Pastor, and nominee for
Presidency of the Baptist Union, performed the opening ceremony,
with the Rev E F Sutton, and the current Pastor (Rev F G Missen) also taking part.
The following year there was a dedication service for the Brett Memorial Organ on 2 November 1957.
The picture above of the 1956 interior shows the high pulpit above the communion table and flowers.
It also shows that originally the organ pipes were visible,
but within a few years a screen was erected in front of them with a plain cross
on it. The picture below was taken in the mid-1980s and shows a typical scene on a Sunday morning before the
congregation arrived with an overhead projector screen and banners and flowers on the pulpit.
By this time worship was usually conducted from the lower platform and the pulpit was hardly ever used.
1960s Renovation Projects
The new church building had cost £42,000 and the Brett Memorial Organ cost £2,800.
but by 1960 the Building Debt had been cleared.
However, with such an extensive set of premises,
it seems that the work is never done.
The Sunday School buildings were modernised in 1963 under the direction of a young church member who was also an architect.
In 1983-84 we looked at a major renovation of the whole premises with a design by Stephen Waldron (another architect member)
which was aimed at improving the premises to allow better community service and outreach to be undertaken.
The project involved remodelling of the sanctuary with removal of the pews and pulpit but when put
out to tender would have cost over £300,000 which the members felt was out of reach.
Consequently some minor works were undertaken improving the area in the vicinity of the kitchen,
but otherwise the plans were shelved until.....
1986 Fire
Early in the morning of Monday, 29 December 1986, a man walking his dog alongside the church bulding, looked through the window and saw in the ceiling of the church what looked like a ring of fire.
He called the fire brigade, and they broke into the premises to discover
a fire in the ceiling over the pulpit in the sanctuary.
The fire brigade hosed down the loft - the water cascaded down into the church but did little damage because it
ran out through the baptistry which had been accidentally opened when they had pulled a pile of burning wood off the platform.
Subsequent investigation showed that an electrical fault in the lights had set fire to the ceiling.
Although the church was back in use the following Sunday after hectic repair and cleaning work,
it needed a great deal of work to be done.
This fire acted as the trigger for a major renovation project which picked up some of the ideas from the abortive 1983-84 plans.
Place in TBC History
1988 Fire Renovations
During the first six months of 1988,
under the supervision of Dave Smith (one of our members),
the pulpit and choir gallery were removed, a new platform was built,
the ceiling was lowered, the church was repainted and carpeted throughout,
chairs replaced the pews, and a modern sound system was installed.
It is estimated that the total value of the work done in this project was £100,000
but most of the work was done by voluntary labour (church members each contributing one or two weeks of work)
with the necessary cash to pay for professional services and purchases
coming from about £40,000 paid by the insurance company for fire damage.
Not all signs of the fire have been eradicated however: look at the front edge of the lower platform for a scorch mark.
Also look at the underside of the communion table
and the careful repairs to the seats of the communion chairs.
The top of the table was turned over and it was repaired lovingly by Bob Pirson (the father of one of our church members, Richard Pirson)
but he left some of the scorch marks on the underside of the table top as a permanent reminder of the fire.
1990s Renovation Projects
Even without a fire(!), each decade we have to review the premises and improve them so they are fit for modern use and the mission of the Church.
In 1996 we spent some £25,000 on a major renovation of the kitchen to bring it up to modern standards and we also completely renovated our Conference Room at a total cost of about £10,000.
We also opened up the frontage onto Church Road by removing the railing, paving the area between the church and the pavement, and putting public seating on the paving.
These were specific projects in addition to routine repairs and renewals which cost about £10,000 each year.
The work goes on - we renewed the central heating system during 1999 at a cost in excess of £30,000 - and we are waiting to see when we might have to replace the early 1980s boiler possibly at the cost of another £20,000.
Millennium Redevelopment Project
Now after the turn of the millennium we have had a major study and review of The Church Centre assisted by Church Projects Ltd who are an architectural consultancy specialising in advising on the redevelopment of church buildings. After study, planning, and prayer, in September 2002, the church meeting committed itself to go ahead with a major Redevelopment Project costing some £900,000 for completion by the end of 2004.
This project has put into effect much of the thinking of the past thirty years by turning the gap between the main hall and the worship area into useable circulation space. It has also improve the frontage of the church onto Church Road. Finally it would improve the accessibility of all the premises for people with disabilities.
During eight months of 2003, the church sold one house (for £395,000), received a legacy (of about £120,000) and members of the fellowship made pledges likely to result (after Gift Aid) in a further £300,000. Work began in February 2004 and was completed in early November 2004. The official reopening of the premises was held on 20 November 2004.
All this is to provide premises not for our own comfort but to enable the work to go forward
For the Glory of God
Other Buildings
Teddington Baptist Church has owned a number of houses for use as manses over the years.
In 1920, 16 Gloucester Road, Teddington was bought as a manse for £850.
This was replaced by 27 Wellington Road, Hampton Hill in 1966 for the arrival of Rev Harper.
And then that manse was replaced by 79 Hampton Road, Teddington in 1977 to house Rev Roger Martin and his
family with their four sons.
112 Cambridge Road was bought as a second manse to house Wyn Herd (Associate Minister) in 1984 for £60,000 and sold in 2003 for £395,000 with the money released being used to held pay for the major Redevelopment Project for the church's main premises.
The church has also bought and sold various properties adjoining its Church Road site both in Walpole Crescent and in Church Road.
For the past hundred years, the church has owned 5 Walpole Crescent, and it has been used to house other members
of staff including the caretaker, student minister, and Youth Leader.
After the Second World War, it was thought that the bombed church site might be subject to a compulsory purchase order
and so two shops in Church Road (Numbers 11 and 13) were bought in 1945 in case the church had to rebuild in the other direction down the road.
That proved not to be necessary and those shops (having been let in the interim) were sold in 1983 and 1996, the
capital released being used for major projects like the purchase of the second manse (112 Cambridge Road)
and to enable Teddington's daughter church in Hampton (Hampton Baptist Church) to purchase a manse for its own minister.
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