If you have strolled along East Street at any time over the last 146 years, you will have walked past a small church and mission building, perhaps barely giving it a second glance,?writes Neil Crossfield…
It does not have the architectural splendour of Sir John Soane?s St Peter?s Church in Liverpool Grove, nor the imposing fa?ade of the Metropolitan Tabernacle founded by Spurgeon at the Elephant and Castle, but the humble East Street Baptist church is perhaps the most historically significant religious building in Walworth.
The origins of the Richmond Street Mission School began around 1858, when John Thomas Dunn had founded a Ragged School in a loft, above a cow shed in East Street.
Until recently it was believed that Dunn had been a disciple of the charismatic Charles Haddon Spurgeon, however, recent research has shown that in 1858, Dunn had originally been employed as a missionary by the London City Mission (LCM). The LCM started operating in London around 1837, founded by David Naismith, in an effort to bring evangelical Christianity to London by the provision of pastoral care for the poorest in society.
John Thomas Dunn had been born in Bermondsey in 1829, the son of a leather tanner. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a haberdasher, Simon Gingall, completing his seven years apprenticeship in 1853.
In the same year he married Martha Green and they went on to have seven children together.
His career as a haberdasher may have been fleeting as a document held in the LCM Archive records that when he was being examined for the role of an LCM missionary, he was employed as a carpenter and was earning ?84 per year.
He was accepted as a missionary of the society in February 1858, taking a pay cut in the process with a new salary of just ?75 per year.
In 1866, Dunn handed his resignation in to the LCM and officially joined the Metropolitan Tabernacle, eventually working closely with Spurgeon and becoming a respected church elder.
Later in life, Dunn talked about the conditions he had found in Walworth when he began his work there. He had observed that, ?Walworth was sunken into the depths of moral degradation and vice. This, with the insanitary condition of its entire surroundings, rendered it a veritable plague spot?.
He went on to note: ?The children grew up ignorant, depraved and ragged: truly a ragged school was needed.?
He had been talking here about the mid-19th century, but despite the work of Dunn and other philanthropic and charitable organisations, conditions improved little over the years.
In 1896, none other than Charles Booth had noted in his Life and Labour in London, that ?in this the most miserable slum in the capital, it was likely that a high proportion of the children would grow up to be liars or thieves.?
In an age before compulsory education, Sunday and Ragged schools were primarily set up in the hope that by teaching children to read it would allow them to reach salvation by the knowledge and greater understanding of religious scripture.
Though in today?s more secular world we might consider this as a form of religious indoctrination, few of the children who attended Dunn?s Ragged School would have had any opportunity for any type of formal education.
Many of the working classes would have been illiterate at this time, and so the chance to be able to rectify this would have been appealing to many, as this could have led to more sophisticated and varied employment possibilities.
In 1861, some nine years before the introduction of the 1870 Elementary Education Act, Dunn had told a fundraising meeting that his Ragged School was open five nights every week with an average attendance of 120, and that in the two years of its existence some 350 boys and girls had passed through it.
Dunn?s Ragged School went from strength to strength, operating from several different locations over the years.
Eventually a permanent location was needed, so with the support of Spurgeon, funds were raised and in 1875 the new Richmond Street Mission and School Building was erected.
In the December 1875 edition of Sword and Trowel, the Metropolitan Tabernacle?s magazine, Spurgeon notes that on Monday, October 25, the new schools in Richmond Street, Walworth were opened.? He describes the new buildings thus: ?The two rooms, one above the other, are plain, well ventilated, lofty, and moderately spacious.?
Though Dunn had raised a substantial amount of money, funds were still required to complete the task and the Tabernacle assisted them greatly.? After the opening ceremony at Richmond Street, the attendees gathered at the Tabernacle school room for tea and a prayer meeting.
At the end of this, Spurgeon told those present that ?150 more was required to open the school debt-free and that he was willing to personally contribute ?50 of this and that he would not leave the Tabernacle until the other ?100 was found.? This was a substantial sum of money in 1875, equating to around ?3,300 in today?s figures.
While the Ragged School was primarily concerned with the education of the poor, Spurgeon?s Metropolitan Tabernacle, the London City Mission and the many other groups involved in the evangelical movement shared a far wider objective.
Though there may have been slight doctrinal differences between the different churches, the general belief held by these non-conformists was that the condition of the poor could be raised by Christian redemption.??? Apart from education, it was widely believed that a transformation of the manners and behaviours of the poor could lead to respectability and salvation.
Missionaries would promote cleanliness in the home, regularity at work, temperance, sexual abstinence outside marriage and the importance of thrift and saving.
Within a few years the range of work carried out at the Richmond Street Mission expanded greatly. Apart from more traditional church services and the provision of pastoral care for the congregation and wider Walworth community, the mission and latterly the Baptist Church have, over the years, provided a whole range of what would today be called support services including a Sunday School; a Ragged School; children?s services; mothers? meetings; young men?s bible classes; Band of Hope meetings; a Pure literature society; a Tract society; a penny bank; an Evangelists Association; a mutual improvement society; lending libraries; country visits for children and adults; the provision of Christmas dinners for the poor; a servants? registry; clothing societies; a gymnasium; and soup kitchens.
Though Spurgeon died in 1892, the work of the Mission continued and expanded, eventually outgrowing the original building. Therefore, on May 8, 1896, the foundation stone for a new church was laid by Her Grace the Duchess of Roxburghe.??? Originally Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, a daughter of Queen Victoria, had been due to conduct the ceremony but was otherwise engaged.
A marquee covered the site where the new church was to be built, ?prettily decorated with flags, flowers and choice plants?.?? Men of the Royal West Surrey Regiment formed a guard of honour and music was supplied by the Dr Barnardo?s Boys? Band.
During the speeches, JT Dunn related how he had started his work in 1858 with ?six unruly boys? in a ?small, dirty, ill ventilated room, about 10ft or 12ft square?. Now, in 1896, he noted that the mission had 120 volunteer workers and around 900 children attended services each week.
The architect chosen to build the new church was George Baines, Scottish by birth but London-based.? He specialised in nonconformist churches and may have designed as many as 200 of these all around the country, several of which now have Grade II listed status.
This may not be an elegant or highly decorated structure, but it is functional and demonstrates that the people who commissioned it were more interested in administration of relief to the needy than any ostentatious display of faith.
Dunn continued to work among the poor of Walworth for over forty years and lived at several addresses in the area including, Edward Street in Newington, Boyson Road and finally at number 25 Grosvenor Park.
His wife Martha died in 1900 and he spent the twilight years of his life living with a boarder, a servant and a personal nurse.
Even after his death, the mission continued its important work, as living conditions in Walworth in the early years of the 20th century were frequently? difficult and many of the less fortunate members of the community would have continued to require assistance.
Somehow the Richmond Street Mission and School buildings survived the worst ravages of the Blitz, unlike many of the other buildings in East Street which were destroyed by enemy action.
Redevelopment in Walworth around the turn of the 20th century meant that Richmond Street had long disappeared, with the 1896 Ordnance Survey map showing it had been renamed Blackwood Street.
However, the mission kept its original name until 1955 when it was renamed East Street Baptist Mission.. In 1969, the church officially split from the Metropolitan Tabernacle and became East Street Baptist Church, the name by which it is still known today.??? The church still exists and continues to provide valuable spiritual and practical assistance to its community.
Dunn would no doubt be proud that what he started over 150 years ago was still serving the people of Walworth but perhaps he would be saddened that in this modern age it still needed to provide support to many people experiencing poverty and hardship.
JT Dunn died on 22 May 1902 at the age of 72 and was buried just four days later at Camberwell Old Cemetery. His modest headstone, still well-tended, now tilts to one side near the entrance on Forest Hill Road.?? If you stand facing the inscription, your eyes are drawn to the London skyline in front of you.?? Clearly visible in the distance, through the trees, you can make out the unmistakable form of the Strata Tower at the Elephant and Castle, casting its shadow over Walworth.
It seems apt that even in death, this remarkable man looks out over the streets of the area he knew and cared for so many years.
As part of their Walworth Stories project, the Walworth Society are currently trying to research and collect memories and stories about the church and the important role it has played in the local area.?? People may have recollections about attending Boys or Girls Brigade meetings there in the 1970s, had a family member baptised or married at the church or even remember street preachers, ?Tub Thumping? in the market over the years.
If you have any memories you would care to share with him and the other researchers, please contact Neil Crossfield at neilcossfield40@hotmail.com.