Architecture

Built: 

1857-67

Architect:

Benjamin Ferrey

Listing: 

Grade 2

All Saints was built as the new parish church for the village of Blackheath. It stands on its own on the edge of the Heath and makes no attempt to relate to nearby buildings. It has Kentish rag surfaces and a spire on the south-west corner. Vestries (1890) and porch (1899) were added by A W Blomfield.

Benjamin Ferrey (1810-1880)

Born in Hampshire, Ferrey was a pupil and biographer of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. Pugin was Great Britain's foremost architect and designer of the nineteenth century, a man with extraordinary talent, verve and perspicacity. A man who believed in himself, and harboured a passion for Gothic and the Roman Catholic Church.

After a period on the Continent, under William Wilkins, Ferrey set up his own architectural practice in London in 1834. This practice grew to prodigious size, and Ferrey became an important establishment figure, for example being Hon. Secretary of Architects' Committee for the Houses of Parliament. He was Diocesian Architect for Bath and Wells, carrying out much restoration work on the Cathedral at Wells. He also designed and laid out parts of the town of Bournemouth. Ferrey's pupils included his son, Benjamin Ferrey Jr, and the late Victorian architect John Norton.

In London, his work includes several churches, including All Saints Blackheath, and the more centrally located St Stephen's, Rochester Row(1845-7) in Westminster.
He also designed Surrey churches at Shalford 1846, Kingswood 1848 and Esher 1853).