Worship had been offered in the area from 1913 from the Sacred Heart Church in Wimbledon, but plans were drawn up for a permanent church in 1926. The architect was one of the Gilbert Scott dynasty of church architects: Adrian Gilbert Scott (1882-1963), younger brother of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (designer of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral). Like his brother, he favoured blending traditional and modernist forms. The church was dedicated in 1928 and became a parish church in its own right in 1955.
The exterior has a certain anonymity: with its grey-brown brick walls and low pitched roofs, it could be a public library or inter-war underground station. Only a small cross above the entrance indicates its purpose. (It has to be said that the trees and bushes in the small garden, while a welcome oasis of green, do obscure the lines of the architecture somewhat.) The windows provide a nod to the Romanesque, with simple round-headed and circular forms.
The spaciousness of the inside is a bit of a surprise - Scott used the slope of the site to good effect, so the interior is both loftier and longer than you expect, an effect accentuated by the dark timber of the roof and dado panelling. The chancel and south transept chapel have plaster barrel vaults which spring seamlessly from the walls. Furnishings are similarly restrained. A true oasis of calm.
The church is the centre of a busy parish life and offers the mass daily: and, unlike many urban churches, it is similarly open for private prayer every day of the week. That is a lesson many others could learn from.
Christ the King, 9 Crescent Gardens, Wimbledon Park SW19 8AJ
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