St Luke's Church, Charlton
St Luke's Church in Charlton, London, England is an Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Southwark.
Records suggest that a church dedicated to St Luke existed on the site around 1077. It was rebuilt in 1630 with funds provided by Sir Adam Newton, of Charlton House. That forms the core of the present building, constructed of Kentish red brick, which is Grade II* listed. It was modified in the 17th century, again in 1840 and finally in 1956. Remnants of chalk and flint walls have been found and may relate to the original building.
The church operated under the aegis of Bermondsey Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries; thereafter, in 1607, the lands upon which it stood passed to Newton. It now practises the Modern Catholic tradition.
Marriages of notable people at St Luke’s include that of Anne Shovell, granddaughter of Sir Cloudesley Shovell, to John Blackwood on 28 July 1726.
Among the people buried at the church are two whose deaths were political assassinations. One of those is the British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, and the other Edward Drummond, a personal secretary to several British Prime Ministers whose murder led to the establishment of the legal test for insanity known as the M'Naghten rules.
The church is entitled to fly the ensign that was in use prior to the 1800 Acts of Union. It can do so on the saint's days of St Luke and St George, in recognition of its past role as a navigational landmark for ships on the Thames.
