St Nicholas, Plumstead
St Nicholas, Plumstead
St Nicholas is a Grade II* parish church on St Nicholas Road, Plumstead, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, a medieval village church absorbed into London and now in the Diocese of Southwark.
- Location
- Plumstead, Greater London
- Country
- England
- County
- Greater London
- City / town
- Plumstead
- Address
- St Nicholas Road, Plumstead, Greater London, SE18 1HJ
- Postcode
- SE18 1HJ
- Built
- 12th-century west wall; 13th-century south wall; 15th-century north aisle (now nave); tower 1664; restored 1867–68; enlarged 1907–08
- Architect
- C. H. Cooke (1867–68); Greenaway and Newberry (1907–08); post-war restoration by T. F. Ford & Partners, 1959
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Nicholas
- Diocese
- Southwark
- Parish
- St Nicholas, Plumstead
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Medieval with Arts and Crafts Perpendicular enlargement
- Materials
- Random rubble masonry with restored parts roughcast; 1664 tower of brownish-red brick; 1907–08 work in purplish brick with stone dressings; tiled roofs
- Grid reference
- TQ 459 785
- Opening hours
- 1st Saturday of Month 10am to 12pm. Sunday after Mass 12.30pm to 1.30pm. Wednesday before Mass for reflection and prayer at 9am. By arrangement with Teresa Agin or Fr Andrew Stevens.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Non-accessible toilets in church. Ramp or level access available on request
Overview
Historic England lists nave and aisles, west tower and chancel. The present south aisle was the original nave: the west wall is twelfth-century and the south wall thirteenth-century, with arched doorways and windows. A fourteenth-century doorway is blocked at the east end of the south wall. Fabric is random rubble, with restored parts roughcast. The north aisle, added in the fifteenth century, now forms the nave. Charles Henry Cooke restored the church in 1867–68. Greenaway and Newberry enlarged it on the north side in 1907–08 in an Arts and Crafts Perpendicular style; the new arcade matches the old, and the chancel is of the same campaign, in purplish brick with stone dressings and a high-pitched tiled roof.
The west tower, built into the church in 1664, is of three stages in brownish-red brick with a corbelled stone cornice, battlemented parapet and angle turrets. The interior has a timber arch-braced collar-beam roof and a fifteenth-century four-bay north arcade on octagonal columns. Post-war restoration by T. F. Ford & Partners in 1959 introduced fittings by Stephen Dykes Bower, a reredos painting by Donald Towner and an east window by Martin Travers. Foundations of a medieval south transept remain on the south side.