St. Mary's Church, Putney

About

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Putney, is an Anglican church in Putney, London, sited next to the River Thames, beside the southern approach to Putney Bridge. There has been a centre of Christian worship on the site from at least the 13th century, and the church is still very active today.

It is also noteworthy as the site of the Putney Debates on the English constitution in 1647, during the English Civil War. It has been Grade II* listed since 1955. Parts of the existing church have survived from medieval times, such as the 15th-century tower and some of the nave arcading, and the early 16th-century Bishop West Chapel, built by Bishop Nicholas West.

Most of the building dates from the substantial reconstruction of 1836 to the designs of Edward Lapidge, which largely rebuilt the body of the church in yellow brick with stone dressings and perpendicular windows. Some of the medieval pillars and arches in the nave were retained, and the north and the south arcades were widened. In 1973 much of the church was gutted by fire.

Rebuilding was not completed until nearly ten years later, when the church was rehallowed by Rt. Revd. Michael Marshall the Bishop of Woolwich, on 6 February 1982...