St Margaret's Church, Putney

St Margaret's Church in Putney Park Lane, in the West Putney district of south-west London, has one of the more unusual histories of any London church. Before it became an Anglican parish church it had been, in turn, a Baptist and then a Presbyterian chapel, and within its walls a young Ramsay MacDonald — a future Prime Minister — opened his first debate on socialism. Designed in 1872 and dedicated to St Margaret in 1912, the church reflects the rapid growth of Victorian and Edwardian Putney and the rich Nonconformist and Anglican life of the area, and it continues today as an inclusive and socially engaged church in the Diocese of Southwark.

To understand St Margaret's, one must understand the growth of Putney. From Norman times the original parish church for Putney was St Mary the Virgin at Wimbledon, a four-mile walk away; by 1302 a chapel of ease, St Mary the Virgin, Putney, had been built by the river, becoming a parish in its own right in 1658 — and famous in history as the setting for the Putney Debates of 1647, when the soldiers of Cromwell's New Model Army debated the future government of England. As Putney grew, the Victorians, ever keen church-builders, added more churches: Holy Trinity at Roehampton in 1842, St John's in 1859, and All Saints' in 1874. Between 1871 and 1911 the population of Putney grew from 9,000 to 25,000, and yet more churches were needed.

The building that would become St Margaret's began life quite differently. In 1872 the architect W. Allen Dixon was recorded as acting for Colonel Alexander Croll in alterations to Granard Park, or Lodge, in Putney Park Lane, and the construction of a new church in its grounds. This was originally a Baptist chapel, completed in 1873 in memory of the colonel's mother — the lodge itself now being the site of Granard Primary School. In 1879 the chapel was transferred to the Presbyterians, and the Reverend Donald Matheson was appointed minister. Matheson was a lively and progressive figure who had studied in Germany, where liberal approaches to biblical criticism were current, and he controversially introduced the new Revised Version of the Bible on its publication in 1881. He was passionate about congregational singing, holding classes for his flock and even sending out postcards with the Sunday hymns for them to practise.

Most remarkably, Matheson founded the Granard Debating Society, which became a forum for the great questions of the day. It was here that a young Ramsay MacDonald — who would go on to become the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom — opened a debate on socialism, an early step in his political career. The congregation of the chapel included other notable figures of Victorian public life, among them the great Liberal and Radical statesman John Bright and a future Lord Chancellor, Douglas Hogg, the first Viscount Hailsham. For a chapel of modest size, it had a remarkable connection to the political life of the nation. By 1898, however, the Presbyterians had moved to a new home at Briar Walk, and the chapel was left vacant.

It was the continued growth of Putney that gave the empty chapel a new life. Canon Thurston Rivington, the vicar of Putney, was looking for a new church building to serve the developing district of West Putney, and after a slow-moving appeal for the £2,000 needed, a benefactor named Seth Taylor — who had considered turning the building into a laundry or simply demolishing it — magnanimously gave the chapel to the parish of Putney. It was dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch, the namesake of one of Mr Taylor's daughters, on Saturday 5 October 1912 by Bishop Hook. The church overflowed with worshippers singing the first hymn, "Christ is Made the Sure Foundation" — a fitting choice for a building given a new and lasting foundation as an Anglican church.

In the century since, St Margaret's has continued to serve its corner of Putney, and it has developed a strong tradition of inclusivity and social action. It is a member of Inclusive Church and of Churches Together in Putney and Roehampton, and through the winter months it runs a weekly homeless shelter in partnership with the charity Glass Door, putting the Christian gospel of welcome and service into practice. From its origins as a Baptist memorial chapel, through its Presbyterian heyday and its rebirth as an Anglican church, St Margaret's has always been a place of lively faith and engagement with the wider world.

The church stands in Putney Park Lane, in the leafy West Putney and Roehampton district of the London Borough of Wandsworth, in south-west London. The River Thames and the famous Putney Bridge — the starting point of the University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge — lie a little to the north, along with the historic St Mary's Putney of the Putney Debates; the open spaces of Putney Heath, Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park, the campus of the University of Roehampton, and the shops and riverside life of Putney are all close at hand.

From a Baptist chapel of 1873, through its Presbyterian years and the debating society where a future Prime Minister cut his political teeth, to its dedication as an Anglican church in 1912 and its modern ministry of inclusion and care for the homeless, St Margaret's Church gathers a remarkable social and religious history into one building. A church of three traditions in the heart of West Putney, it remains a living and welcoming Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Southwark — a place where faith, music and the great questions of the day have always met.