HISTORY OF THE PARISH
2: THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCHES

The building of St Mark's Church was begun in 1844. It was in the Gothic Revival style - much smaller than the present building - and had a nave, side aisles, transept, and central tower, but no spire. It was consecrated by the Bishop of Winchester on 1st May 1845, and its first vicar was the Reverend Edward Phillips. He began work in the parish in January of that year although the building of the church was not quite finished, and the vicarage not yet started.

As the population continued to grow, the church became over-crowded, and needed enlargements and alterations amounting almost to the building of a new church. Baroness Burdett Coutts contributed £2,000, and a further £1,400 was raised locally. The central tower was then removed, the chancel enlarged, the nave lengthened, and the roof raised. During the rebuilding the services were taken in the schools and in a corrugated iron building erected against the south wall of the church. St Mark's was re-opened on Palm Sunday 1855, and six years later, the present tower and spire were built at the north-west angle of the church.

By then a chapel of ease was needed for the increasing population of Lower Surbiton, and a small iron church was built at the corner of North Road, opposite the church schools, which held its first service on Advent Sunday 1860. When the Reverend Charles Burney became vicar in 1870, he expressed immediate concern at the scant accommodation provided by this iron church, and a more permanent building was planned. Coutts' Bank had already given a site on the opposite side of St Andrew's Road (known before 1868 as St Mark's Road). Mr Burney felt that this was ideally located "within easy distance of the numerous poor for whom the present provision of St Mark's is lamentably inadequate".

The new site was adopted at a meeting of subscribers held at the schools on 2nd March 1871, and plans were prepared by the architect Arthur Blomfield (later Sir Arthur Blomfield). The foundation stone of St Andrew's Church was laid on 17th June 1871 by Baroness Burdett Coutts, who first deposited under the stone a bottle containing particulars of the building together with some silver coins of Queen Victoria's reign. The church was built in a year by Adams Brothers of Putney, at a cost of £6,851, and a tower was added as a memorial to the recovery from illness of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), at an additional cost of £1,488. The organ, by Hill, cost another £580. The building was of yellow and red brick and Bath sandstone, and the plan was an adaptation of the Early Christian basilica to modern requirements. The apsed baptistery which housed the font had a coloured decoration in the roof by N.W. Lavers, and the stained glass windows were designed and executed by Messrs Lavers and Westlake.

St Andrew's was consecrated on Thursday 6th June 1872 by the Bishop of Winchester. This was Dr Samuel Wilberforce, son of the campaigner against slavery. He was a great nineteenth century character, known as "Soapy Sam" for his eloquence and his upward social mobility. His consecration sermon was described as "eloquent and practical" by the Surrey Comet, and the collection taken amounted to £281. Afterwards the choir were treated to a repast at the Antelope Hotel in Maple Road, at the expense of Mr F.B. Morten.

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