Church of St Paul, Letchworth

The Church of St Paul in Letchworth in Hertfordshire is the Anglican parish church for the Letchworth Gate area of the town at the top of Pixmore Way. Dating from 1924, with later extensions, it is a 'daughter church' of the nearby Church of All Saints in Willian and comes under the Diocese of St Albans. Built as a 'Victory' church following World War I, the building is the largest war memorial in Hertfordshire.

When Ebenezer Howard set up his first garden city in Letchworth in 1903 the Church of England gave little thought as to the spiritual needs of the citizens of the new town by building a central Anglican place of worship. The site being developed by Howard's First Garden City Ltd. crossed the parish boundaries of three local ancient village churches: St Mary's church, St Nicholas, Norton, and All Saints, Willian. When in 1917 the Revd Montagu Sharpin Swatman was appointed to the living of Willian he decided to set up a church in Letchworth's Pixmore area in the expectation of building a permanent building when funds became available.

Swatman called a meeting in November 1918 to discuss building a permanent church which was attended by 28 people who donated £29 5s. In 1919 he set up a hutted church on a piece of land bought from the First Garden City Company by the Diocese of St Albans. Swatman now had a site on which to build a 'Victory Church' as a memorial of the victory at the end of World War I. The architect Arthur Heron Ryan Tenison (1861-1930) was commissioned to produce a design described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "an ambitious project... A conventional Decorated Gothic style was adopted with flint walls and stone dressings with conventional gothic traceried windows." Tenison's design for the church was accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1921. A Garden City 'Victory' Church Appeal was launched in 1921 which by October had raised £2,000. At this time it was decided that the new church would be called St Paul's.

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