Geograph - photograph every grid square

St George’s Church was originally built in 1824 by a local architect Francis Octavius Bedford and was one of the ‘million pound’ churches paid for by a vote of Parliament, being part of the thanks for a grateful nation for deliverance from Napoleon. Bedford also built the 'Waterloo' churches at West Norwood and Waterloo, and St George's Church is almost a replica of St John's in Waterloo Road. By 1976 it had become deconsecrated and derelict and in the early 1980s a serious fire destroyed the interior leaving only the external walls and the tower standing. For many years it was a most depressing sight but it was restored for housing between 1992 and 1994, and St George’s Church Housing Co-operative now comprises 30 one bedroom flats built on three floors within the existing walls around a central courtyard.