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Open House London
Open House London celebrates all that is best about the capital’s buildings, places and neighbourhoods with over 700 buildings of all kinds opening their doors –
all for free – including St. Peter’s Church (above left) and the
Chapel at Aldborough Hatch Farm (right).
Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd September
St. Peter’s Church and
The Chapel, Aldborough Hatch Farm
Saturday - 10am to 5pm; Sunday - 12noon to 5pm
St. Peter’s Church
Consecrated on 6th March 1862, St. Peter's stand on the edge of Fairlop Plain, part of London’s green belt, and is at the heart of the local community in Aldborough Hatch. The first Westminster Bridge, designed by Charles Labelage, was opened to traffic on 18th November, 1750. The new Westminster Bridge was designed by Thomas Page in consultation with Sir Charles Barry, architect of the new Houses of Parliament. Building of the new bridge started in 1854, but the old Bridge was in use until the new one neared completion in 1862. The Portland Stone of the old bridge was used to build St. Peter’s.
Wordsworth stood on the stone from which the church is built to write the lines:
“Earth has not anything to show more fair. . .” (Ode to Westminster Bridge)
The Chapel on Aldborough Hatch Farm
Aldborough Hatch Chapel possibly pre-dates Aldborough House to which it was attached and may have been built in the late 17th or early 18th Century. It was around 1728 when Colonel Martin Bladen built Aldborough House, fronting Oaks Lane and to the west of where St. Peter's stands today. This was a large mansion of red brick, costing £14,000, with two storeys and basements and ten windows across the front. The house was demolished shortly before 1808. Services were held in the Chapel until 1862 when St. Peter’s was built. The Chapel served as a farm outbuilding and workshop the west wall of the Chapel was blown down during the hurricane force winds on the night of 15th/16th October 1987. After standing derelict and in danger of collapse for some four years, Redbridge Council leased the building for conversion into a private residence. Conversion was completed in 2011 by Chartered Architect Balkrishna Savant, RIBA, FIIA, for his personal use.
