St Leonard

St Leonard’s church stands on a site at the heart of Streatham where Christians have worshipped for over 1,000 years. We are proud of our heritage.

In particular, the Streatham Window and Rectors Board tell our history and there is further information about the organ, tower and bells.

The present building is a pleasing blend of the ancient and the modern. Parts of it date from the 14th century, others from the Victorian era. A major restoration took place after the church was gutted by fire in 1975, when the interior was completely rebuilt to the design of Douglas Feast, RIBA.

All the stained glass in the church was designed and made by the contemporary artist John Hayward There are a few memorials which survived the 1975 fire. One is to the Thrale family and was done by Dr Samuel Johnson, who would stay with them and visit St Leonard’s.

In the Lady Chapel is the Black Madonna. This figure of Our Lady was once part of an ornate but undistinguished Edwardian rood screen. Found among the debris the day after the fire, charred but now possessed of a simple beauty, it was preserved and placed in its current setting.

In the crypt family vaults house the mortal remains of the Thrales and other illustrious former parishioners, while the bones of many more ordinary Streatham folk, exhumed during the 19th century enlargement of the church, lie in deep charnel pits beneath the floor.

At the west end of the building is Sir John Ward’s Tower, the oldest part of the church, 14th century. It is built in Surrey flint and surmounted by a brick spire of more recent construction (1841).