This the is first article in a series sharing the history of Kew Baptist Church, London. It was produced to be used by the church to reflect on God’s goodness over the 159 years of its existence. It formed the basis of a talk given on a Zoom call on 8 November 2020 at Kew Baptist Church, London. An audio recording of this talk is below.
The story of our church began in Richmond in the 1850s. At that time there was a local church meeting in Rehoboth Chapel on Kew Foot Road. I understand this church later moved to a chapel in Jocelyn Road, Richmond. While there is no longer any congregation meeting there, that building still remains.
During these years, the church at Rehoboth Chapel was prospering and there seemed to be people travelling to it from some distance. From example, a number of brothers and sisters were travelling to it from Kingston. After doing so for some time, those brothers and sisters decided to form a new church in Kingston, planting out of Rehoboth Chapel to reach a new area of London. This church in Kingston later became known as Providence Chapel, Kingston.
Unfortunately, while we also were formed out of the church at Rehoboth Chapel, the reasons for our departure were much less joyful. Rather than leaving in a positive way in order to meet in a different area of London, the original members of Salem Baptist Church were forced out.
While the church had been prospering for a number of years, by the late 1850s a pastor by the name of Mr Winslow had been called to the church and he was responsible for taking it in a very different direction. Unlike the positive ministries of his predecessors, Mr Winslow began to cause great division within the church body. His preaching was the subject of much disagreement, as it was thought his style of preaching was more likely to offend than attract listeners. Pastorally, it appears that things weren’t much better. It is reported that he withdrew membership from individuals for reasons like absence and illness without even going to visit them to see how they were. In 1859-60 the situation appears to have hit a new low when Mr Winslow prohibited those he disagreed with from taking the Lord’s Supper.
Given the atmosphere in the church at this time, it was perhaps a relief when Mr Winslow handed in his notice to resign. However, shortly after doing so he retracted it and said he wanted to remain as their pastor. A members’ meeting was held to discuss what the church should do and, by a small majority, it was decided that Mr Winslow should be allowed to remain at the church.
As surprising as that perhaps was, what happened next was even more so. For a resolution was then passed by the majority stating that those individuals who had voted to remove Mr Winslow should themselves leave the church. As a result, the 13 members, including two of the deacons, who had voted against Mr Winslow remaining as pastor were forced to leave the church.
We can take comfort from the fact that the story of our church from the very beginning has been that God can bring good out of bad circumstances. For these 13 members, who surely went through great sorrow and stress during this period, went on to form our local church.
The founding of our local church came about in this way. One of the 13 members, a Miss Wild, was worried about the future of her brothers and sisters. As a result, she decided to invite them to her home for prayer meetings and preaching services together. This informal arrangement continued for around 12 months, during which time it appears that there was some uncertainty whether they should form another church or not. However, on 22 September 1861, the 13 friends met and decided that they could no longer continue to meet in an informal way. Therefore, in order to prevent them from being scattered and separated from each other, they should join together as a formal church fellowship.
They immediately set about trying to find a public venue where they could hold worship services. Within two months, a small room had been found and converted into a chapel. As a result, on 1 December 1861, the 13 friends formed themselves together as a church and began meeting publicly in that place. It appears that the difficulties of the conflict at Rehoboth Chapel was put behind them, as they chose to call their church Salem Baptist Church, with Salem being the Hebrew word for peace.
It appears that their early services were not peaceful enough for some in the area. The room they had converted was on Church Walk, near the parish church in Richmond, and it is recorded that during one of their services, the vicar from the local parish church appeared to complain about how loud they were singing. He apparently instructed them that unless they sang more quietly, they would have to move. I understand that the church politely refused his request to lower their voices.
However, it appears that the vicar soon had peace and quiet restored in his neighbourhood, as due to the increasing attendance at the services in the first two years, the church began looking for another place to meet. In 1863, they moved to the Royal Assembly rooms in the Square, Richmond (which were formerly the Richmond Baths). When they made that move, they also began a Sunday school - which started with 5 girls and 7 boys. A few years later in 1867 they called a Mr Griffin as their first pastor.
The church continued to meet in these rooms for almost 25 years until they were told that they could not do so indefinitely. As a result, in 1887 they began to raise money to build a chapel for them to meet in. Individuals from across London gave to this need, including £5 from a certain CH Spurgeon, and a significant loan from the Metropolitan Association of Strict Baptist Churches. The group was later renamed the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (South East) and this was the first of many loans that the association made to the church.
The money raised was used to purchase a building on the road called Parkshot in Richmond, which is near Richmond Green. The building was converted to a chapel and opened on 24 April 1888, when a Mr John Bush preached on Psalm 122:8, ‘For my brothers and companions’ sake I will say, "Peace [Salem] be within you!"’
Given the difficulties from which our local church emerged in the 1850s, and the contracting peace they seemed to enjoy together in their first 27 years, this first period of the church’s history can perhaps be best described as the story of moving from sorrow to salem.
ALEXANDER ARRELL