St Barnabas church is the second to have stood on the site. The first was a large, brick Victorian Gothic building consecrated in 1894 which replaced a less permanent structure further down the hill towards Dulwich Village. In 1919 this was made the Parish church of Dulwich. It was destroyed by fire on the 7 December 1992, but some elements still remain to remind us of our past. The building which stands proudly on Calton Avenue is the fruit of faith, professional ability, communication and vision.

 

Christ's Chapel was consecrated in 1616 by George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, as part of the Dulwich College foundation. The Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn built his College of God's Gift on Dulwich Green as an act of thanksgiving to God for his talents as an actor and his ability in business. Since then it has been in use continually as a spiritual focus for the almshouses and three Dulwich Schools of the Foundation: Dulwich College, James Allen's Girls'
School and Alleyn's School.