94 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



The story of Kennington Church does not take us 

 very far back, down the dim alleys of history, for it 

 was built so recently as the first quarter of the 

 nineteenth century, when it was thought possible to 

 emulate the marble beauties of the Parthenon and 

 other triumphs of classic architecture in plebeian 

 brick and stone. Those materials, however, and the 

 architects themselves, were found to be somewhat 

 inferior to their models, and eventually the public 

 taste became so outraged with the appalling ugliness 

 of the pagan temples arising on every hand that at 

 length the Gothic revival of the mid-nineteenth 

 century set in. 



But if its history is not long, its site has a horrid 

 kind of historic association, for the building stands on 

 what was a portion of Kennington Common, the exact 

 spot where the unhappy Scottish rebels were executed 

 in 1746, and where Jerry Abershawe, the highwayman, 

 was hanged in 1795. The remains of the gibbet on 

 which the bodies of some of his fellow knights of the 

 road were exposed were actually found when the 

 foundations for the church were being dug out. 



The origin of Kennington Church, like that of 

 Brixton, is so singular that it is very well worth while 

 to inquire into it. It was a direct outcome of the 

 Napoleonic wars. England had been so long engaged 

 in those European struggles, and was so wearied and 

 impoverished by them, that Parliament could think 

 of nothing better than to celebrate the peace of 1815 

 by voting a million and a half of money to the clergy 

 as a " thank-offering." This sum took the shape of a 

 church-building fund. Wages were low, work was 

 scarce, and bread was so dear that the people were 

 starving. That good paternal Parliament, therefore, 

 when they asked for bread gave them stone and brick, 

 and performed the heroic feat of picking their 

 impoverished pockets as well. It was accomplished 

 in this wise. There was that Lucky Bag, the million 

 and a half sterling of the Thanksgiving Fund ; but 

 it could not be dipped into unless you gave an equal 



