Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House

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Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House
Wandsworth Friends Meeting House
Wandsworth friends meeting house.jpg
Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House
Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House
51°27′23.8″N0°11′30.2″W / 51.456611°N 0.191722°W / 51.456611; -0.191722
LocationWandsworth High Street, Wandsworth, London, United Kingdom
Address59 Wandsworth High Street, London, SW18 2PT
Denomination Quaker
Website https://wandsworth.quakermeeting.org/
History
StatusActive
Architecture
Style Neo-Georgian
Completed1778
Construction costabout £600
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameWandsworth Quaker Meeting House including frontage building and boundary walls
Designated7 April 1983
Reference no. 1299826

Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House is a Grade II listed religious building in Wandsworth. It was built in 1778 and is the earliest surviving Quaker meeting house in Greater London. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

The building is noted by commentators such as John Summerson as a "building of endearing simplicity". [4]

History

Quakers first met on the site of the Wandsworth meeting house in 1673, subletting a small house, a shop and three sheds on the site from a Joan Stringer and adapting it into a meeting house. Notable members of this early meeting include William Mead, tried for unlawful assembly in 1670, and William Penn, later founder of Pennsylvania. There is a burial ground to the rear of the meeting house, and a memorial stone of 1697 records Joan Stringer as "the giver of the ground". [1]

This first meeting house was demolished and replaced by the current building in 1778, at a cost of about £600. Several alterations have been made since it has been built including a women's meeting room, added in either 1798 or around 1811. It has been in continuous use since its foundation. [1]

The building today

The meeting house continues to be the meeting place for Wandsworth Quaker Meeting, which is itself part of Kingston & Wandsworth Area Meeting. [5]

The meeting house is one of the buildings which opens for the public as part of the Open House London festival. [6] [7] As well as being used for Quaker meetings for worship, it is also used for meetings by other Christian worshiping groups, community support groups, and the Wandsworth Historical Society. [6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House including frontage building and boundary walls, Non Civil Parish - 1299826 | Historic England". Historic England . Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  2. ↑ "Quaker Meeting House, Wandsworth" (PDF). Quaker Meeting Houses Heritage Project. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-11-13. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  3. ↑ Derrick, Andrew (2015). "Quaker Meeting House, Wandsworth, Historic Building Record". Archaeology Data Service . Architectural History Practice Ltd. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  4. ↑ Homan, Roger (2007). "The Aesthetics of Friends' Meeting Houses". Quaker Studies (1363-013X) | George Fox University . Archived from the original on 2024-06-03. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  5. ↑ "List of area meetings". Quakers . Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  6. 1 2 "Quaker Meeting House - Wandsworth". Open House Festival . Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  7. ↑ "Your guide to Open House in Wandsworth". Wandsworth Borough Council . Retrieved 2025-06-09.
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