St Mary's Church, Welling

In 1934, population growth necessitated the construction of a mission hall in the parish of St Michael, East Wickham.

[1] Eventually, the church (which is orientated west) was designed by the Southwark Diocesan architect, Thomas Ford, in 1954, and opened in 1955, when the parish was formally established.

[1][3] Thomas Ford, the Southwark Diocesan architect, was strongly influenced by Sir John Soane, and many of his churches show signs of Soanian Classicism.

Externally, it is in a brick-built Italian Romanesque style, with a partially disengaged campanile in the liturgical north-west.

The liturgical west door is surmounted by a tympanum, which is decorated with sgraffito, an art form rarely found in Britain, but which matches the external design.

[3] Inside, the reredos on the liturgical east wall is a painted mural of the Ascension by the German émigré artist, Hans Feibusch, with whom Ford often collaborated.