St Paul's, Deptford

St. Paul's, Deptford
Photo of St. Paul's
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Anglo-Catholic
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade I
Architect(s)	Thomas Archer
Administration
Diocese	Diocese of Southwark
Clergy
Rector	Fr Paul Butler

St Paul's, Deptford, is one of London's finest Baroque parish churches, cited as "one of the most moving C18 churches in London" in the Buildings of England series. It was designed by gentleman architect Thomas Archer and built between 1712 and 1730 in Deptford, which was then a suburb in Kent but is now part of South East London. It was one of the 50 churches that were to be built by the New Church Commissioners, although only 12 were ultimately constructed. It and St. John's, Westminster, were the only church designed by Archer to be built under the Act.

With rising urban growth in Deptford (mainly made up of literate, skilled workers tending to dissent from the established church), the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches decided to counter this drift away from the established Anglican communion by building a major new Church of England church in the area. To this end they appointed Thomas Archer, one of their fellow commissioners, to design a church in Deptford. Archer also designed St John's Smith Square and Birmingham Cathedral. He began almost immediately, designing it in his usual Roman Baroque style and completing the fabric and most of the decoration by 1720 (though work continued until its consecration in 1730).