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The rebuilding 1774-1777
Serious structural problems arising from the church’s proximity to the River Ravensbourne led to the commissioning of a structural survey in 1773. Instead of remedying the faults it was decided to build a new church to the designs of George Gibson, a local architect. The floor level of the new, and much larger, Georgian

church was 10 feet above that of its predecessor. The interior was plain and unadorned – a “preaching box” – except for the addition of a few fine memorials: Maria Lushington (by the sculptor John Flaxman), two monuments to the Petrie Family by Thomas banks and Van Pook, and Joseph Innes.
John Wesley preached here in 1777 on one of his many visits to Ebenezer Blackwell who lived in “The Limes” in Lewisham High Street. A monument to the Blackwell family is in the churchyard.

Above: J.C.Barrow’s splendid aquatint of the new church in 1798. (A.R. Martin Collection Lewisham Local Studies Library)

Opposite: Mary Lushington’s memorial by
John Flaxman