1950s And 60s In St Giles, Camberwell

A Memory of Camberwell.

Wayne’s comment made me re-read my piece and I was driven to expand. This is St Gile’s Church. My parents were baptised and married here in 1937 and I was baptised and then confirmed by Mervyn Stockwood here. To our right was the Vicarage and its’ garden which was sold to ‘the Americans’ by Revd John Nicholls in the 60s, demolished stone by stone and exported to be replaced by the flats within which is the 23rd Camberwell Scouts’ HQ. As I said I was sent to Sunday school in St Giles; I remember Fr Dampier one of the clergy when Cannon H Frank Bishop was Vicar. When I was 7 I joined St Giles’ Choir; at that time all choristers were male – we boys with a number of men to provide the other three parts. I sang many solos when I became leader; my time in the choir ended when my voice started to break at about 14 then I became a server. By that time I had learnt to ring the bells; I got the Scout badge for doing so. So on Sundays I would ring and then run down the steps in the spiral staircase (you can see to the left of the north transept) through the church and into the vestry rushing to get changed into my cassock (with all 39 buttons) , alb, amice and girdle while the priest in charge said the preparatory prayers! Phew! – I still ring but in Devon and am no longer (mostly) in a rush! I have mentioned Wolf Cubs, Scouts but not yet Seniors and Rovers – this was before 1966 - all a long time ago. To the left of this picture were and are the flats that front Peckham Road and to our left behind us are the two church halls where the Guides and Scouts met as mentioned in my other piece. I am also still an adult in Scouting! As a member of St Giles Youth Club we ‘excavated’ the crypt which had many coffins in various states of repair. Most of these were removed, others bricked in, and we cleaned and painted it all making a small chapel; the brass candle sticks were removed from my (or rather my mother’s) piano and I fixed them to the wall above the little altar and we celebrated the mass. Later the entrance and steps down from the front north porch (you can see in the picture) of the church were built and it became a ‘drop in’ centre - way ahead of its’ time. The crypt is still there and open though looking very different from my memory. My wife and I met in St Giles Youth Club and I was best man for my best friend and his wife, also a friend, when they were married in St Giles. My wife and I were married in Sussex; she had moved away. St Giles was a ‘training church’ and we always had 2, 3 or 4 clergy deacons; I remember Frs MacGregor, MacLean, and other names will come back. Miss Paul looked after them all in the vicarage. When JN arrived we had a big event in the garden where Acker Bilk and his band played his stick of liquorice and I looked after their wives with drinks and bits in the front room of the Vicarage that was normally occupied by Revd (later Canon) Patrick Appleford when he was working at the 20th Century Church Light Music Group. We youngsters spent many hours in that room with him playing the grand piano (his?) and singing the news from the papers to plain song or to psalmic melodies; he also did this at home on ‘my’ piano! I served him (and others) at mass many times – he did 0600 on Saturdays which I served and then rushed (cycled) off to work in Peckham. I was invited to take holy orders but I was too much a sinner! I still have my faith.