SAINT STEPHEN THE MARTYR, HAMPSTEAD: AVENUE ROAD, CAMDEN

Parish registers & administration.

COVERING DATES OF REGISTERS DEPOSITED

September 1856-July 1948 Baptisms

July 1913-April 1945 Baptisms solemnized at St Andrew's Mission Church

September 1856-October 1945 Marriages

The register of confirmations for the parish of the St Stephen the martyr, Portland Town 1920-1948 was continued in use as the register of confirmations for the parish of St John's Wood. See P81/JN/20.

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Parish records of St Stephen the Martyr, Avenue Road, Portland Town, Hampstead deposited in the Greater London Records Office by the Vicar of St John's Wood, 17 November 1978 (Ac. 78.64)

St Stephen's Church was consecrated in 1849 and a chapelry district was assigned to it the same year. In 1856 this became a parish. Although St Stephen's Church was situated in the Borough of Hampstead, most of St Stephen's parish lay within the Borough of St Marylebone.

From February 1941 St Stephen's parish was grouped administratively with the parish of St Barnabas, Bell Street, and the parish of Christ Church, Cosway Street, with St John's Wood Chapel. The Rector of Christ Church the Reverend O.H. Gibbs-Smith was based at St John's House and took charge of all three parishes. The scheme for the parochial reorganisation of St Marylebone published in 1945 proposed that the part of St Stephen's parish which was situated in the Borough of Hampstead should be transferred to Hampstead Deanery. The rest of the parish would form the major part of a new parish with St John's Wood Chapel replacing St Stephen's as the parish church. St Andrew's Mission Church would become a daughter church to St John's. The Bishop of London ordered that St Stephen's Church should be closed from 31 October 1945 and St Stephen's Parochial Church Council were asked to recognise St John's Wood Chapel as their parish church without waiting for a formal legal decision. St Andrew's Church was subsequently closed in July 1948.

When Mr Gibbs-Smith resigned in 1947, he was replaced by separate incumbents of St Stephen with St John and Christ Church with St Barnabas. The Reverend N.A. Perry-Gore was instituted Rector of St Stephen with St John on 5 December 1947. On 1 January 1948 St Stephen's accounts were closed and the money was transferred to St John's. On 11 March 1952 an Order in Council was published ratifying the reorganisation scheme and on 9 September 1952 a further Order in Council changed the name of the parish from St Stephen, Avenue Road to St John's Wood.

Whatever the legal position, St John's Wood Chapel had become the administrative centre of three parishes and St John's Wood appears to have absorbed St Stephen's rather than the other way round. Most of the series of records used for St Stephen's were closed, and either the St John's records were used for the new parish or a new series was started.

It has been decided, therefore, to list the records of St Stephen's parish dating from before the de facto union of 1948 separately from the records of St John's Wood Chapel and St John's Wood Parish.

Records of the parish designate of St John's Wood dating from 1948 to 1952 have been listed with the records of St John's Wood Parish.