About St Stephen's Church, Shepherd's Bush
Religion, Churches, Interesting Places, Other Churches
The Church of St Stephen and St Thomas is a Church of England parish church in Shepherd's Bush, London. It was built circa 1849–50, designed by architect Anthony Salvin in the Gothic Revival style with a tower. The church is located on the south side of Uxbridge Road on the corner of Coverdale Road, to the west of Shepherd's Bush tube station. In the 1950s St Stephen's welcomed many members of the so-called "Windrush Generation" from the West Indies, and in 1962 the Barbadian-born Rev Wilfred Wood became curate to St Stephen's, later becoming the Church of England’s first black bishop. In 1966 the vicar John Asbridge, frustrated by the chronic shortage of local housing, set up the Shepherds Bush Housing Association to help solve the problems of homelessness and poverty in the area. Today St Stephen's ministers to a diverse congregation, and serves a hot meal to up to 100 homeless people every Monday. The church is on Historic England's "At Risk" Register and an appeal has been launched to raise funds to repair the decaying Victorian roof.
