Tours | Categories (New, Hot) | Map
Alcohol - Ancient - Animal - Architecture - Art - Aviation - Boxing - Celebrity - Charity - Children - Church - Cinema - Comedy - Crime - Dance - Death - Disaster - Drugs - Fashion - Food - Gambling - Ghost - Grave - Health - Historical - Industry - Justice - LGBT - Literary - Look Up - Medical - Military - Motoring - Murder - Museum - Music - Nature - Naval - Paranormal - Pioneer - Poetry - Police - Politics - Pub - Public Amenities - Quirky - Religion - Retail - Ripper - River - Royalty - Science - Sculpture - Sex - Signs - Society - Sport - Subterranean - Technology - Theatre - Train - Transport - Tube - TV - Weather -
Contact Us
IN THE NEWS
TOUR OF THE MONTH
ON THIS DAY IN LONDON
22nd July 2006 Arsenal's new stadium The Emirates officially opened.
22nd July 2005 Jean Charles de Menezes is shot dead by plain clothes police at Stockwell tube station.
22nd July 1971 Born today: Charlotte Gainsbourg, London England, actress (Little Thief)
22nd July 1944 Born today: Rick Davies, London England, rock vocalist/keyboardist (Supertramp)
22nd July 1928 Fulham football legend Jimmy Hill was born in Balham, South London.
22nd July 1919 De Falla and Massine's Three-cornered Hat, premieres in London
22nd July 1844 Born today: William Archibald Spooner, London, reverend/inventor (spoonerisms)
22nd July 1814 The Earliest known match played at Lord's Cricket Ground.
The Church of the Good Shepherd
This is a church that was built for the Agapemonites...
Location: Upper Clapton, London
Description: A Church built for a Victorian free love cult!
The Church of the Good Shepherd (orignally called the Church of the Ark of the Covenant) was built in 1892 for a sect called the Agapemonites. This group had been founded in the 1840s by a man called Henry James Prince. During that decade he created a community for his followers in Spaxton, Somerset where they could practice their unconventional views on marriage, morality and the messiah.
The London church which cost 20,000 was opened in 1896 by Prince's sucessor John Smyth-Pigott. The building looks like a typical Victorian church except for the huge sculptures of the symbols of the Evangalists around the door and around the steeple. The interior has stunning stain glass by the Victorian illustrator, Walter Crane.
The sect's presence in North London, came to an end not many years after it was built when in 1902 Smyth-Pigott claimed he was the messiah and that he could walk on water. Venturing out to the ponds on Clapton common to show eveyone he could perform this miracle inevitally led to his failure at water walking and the police had to protect him from the angry mob that were not impressed that this self proclaimed messiah was a fake. So Smyth-Pigott fled the area and went back to the town of Spaxton.
The church is now owned by the Ancient Catholic Church. Occasionally it is possible to get a look inside however even the exterior is worth a visit!
Architecture
Ranking This Month: 625/2701
Pages Hit This Month: 74
Link to This Page: http://www.shadyoldlady.com/location/1881
Credits: http://www.churchofthegoodshepherd.co.uk/
|
This is a church that was built for the Agapemonites... |
The Shady Old Lady points out that you can drag this map using mouse. Or visit our full massive map.
St Mary's Church», 9.7km
The Actors' Church», 4.9km
The Holy Trinity and Clowns», 1.9km
St Mary Aldermary», 4.3km
St James Church», 5.3km
St George in the East», 4.3km
St John's Wood Church», 5.2km
A History of differing Worship», 7.0km
St James Church», 3.8km
St Paul's Cathedral», 4.3km
mapping London's most interesting and unusual places and history
