Treasures Revealed: An Exhibition

Fascinating exhibition on the history of a local church.

This September, as part of this year’s national Heritage Open Days programme, St. James’ Church, Clapham is opening its doors to welcome visitors to Treasures Revealed, a unique exhibition that documents both the building’s inspiring story, as well as the remarkable work of the church architect Nugent Cachemaille-Day.

This is the fourth major exhibition that St. James’ Church has staged in recent years; in 2020 its photography exhibition, Hope, was featured by the BBC. This new exhibition has been created and curated by Jim Grover, the award-winning Clapham-based social documentary photographer whose 2023 exhibition, Windrush: A Voyage through the Generations received extensive national media coverage.

Treasures Revealed is in two parts:

The St. James’ Story (1829-1958) brings to life with vintage photographs, maps, prints, architect drawings, documents and other archive materials, the remarkable story of St. James’ Church from its original construction in 1829, through to it being destroyed by bombs in 1940, and the many challenges confronted by the Parish and architect in the 1950s to build the new St. James’ Church which was consecrated and re-opened in 1958.

The work of architect Nugent Cachemaille-Day, brings to life the work of this innovative, creative and award-winning church architect through a photography exhibition comprising over 75 photographs of 24 of his 50 churches that were built either side of World War II. The 24 churches are also exhibited along a timeline from 1932 to 1963, enabling the visitor to see how his work evolved. This is the first time that such an exhibition of his lifetime’s work has been created and presented.

Revd. Kit Gunasekera, Vicar of St. James’ Church, said: “I am so pleased to be opening our doors, once again, to welcome in our local community and to reveal and experience the fascinating and inspiring story of our beautiful church building.”

Jim Grover, exhibition creator and curator said: “This year’s Heritage Open Days theme is ‘Creativity Unwrapped’. The creativity of our church architect, Nugent Cachemaille-Day, is remarkable and I know that visitors will enjoy seeing examples from some twenty bold and radical churches that he designed, including our own which is one of the finest examples of his post-war work.”

Dates: Saturday 16th September – Sunday 15th October.

Opening times: Saturdays: 10 – 5pm (light refreshments/home-made cakes available). Sundays: 2-5pm. Tuesdays and Fridays: 11-2pm.