The History of St Barnabas

 St Barnabas 1895 is a historic Anglican church located in the city, deeply connected to the local community. Established in 1895, this place of worship has a rich history and continues to serve as a spiritual hub, offering a welcoming environment for all. 

It all started one day when the Very Reverend Charles Barnett-Clarke, dean of Cape Town must have looked towards Kloof Nek and possibly thought of the opening line in Psalm 122, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills.” Believing that help would come from the Lord, he wondered what could be done for the saints, as St Paul would have said, who lived in the area.

Could a Mission Outpost be started? Just at the same time the Sisters of the Community of All Saints decided to move their quarters from Keerom Street to Kloof Road, as Kloof Nek Road was then known, as they offered to assist the Dean in starting a Mission. This was to become the foundation of our parish church.

A property owner, Mr. Caporn, offered to convert a house in De Lorentz Street for use as a Mission House. Thus, the Cathedral Church Upper Room came into being. Chairs, organ and hangings were purchased, while an altar and some furniture for the sanctuary were lent by the Sisters from their chapel in Wynberg. On 23rd May 1893, the Chapel was opened as the Cathedral Upper Room, with the Reverend John Gordon in charge.

In 1894, the Reverend T.O.S. Davies came from England to be Chaplain of All Saint’s Home and from the time of his arrival, he and his wife took great interest in the Mission Chapel. In 1895 he was given charge of the Mission and later that year the name was changed to St Barnabas Mission Church. Soon after taking up his duties, Mr. Davies purchased a tract of land extending from Kloof Road to St Barnabas Street and the first building to be erected was the Rectory, then known as Church House.

On 13th December 1897, at a meeting of the male members of the congregation it was proposed that the building of the church be started. The architect was Sir Herbert Baker and many of the drawings and sketches of plans may be seen in the Jagger Collection in the library at the University of Cape Town. Through these drawing some may trace much of the history of the planning which has shaped the building as it is today. One of the earliest drawings is a small water color sketch of the Church signed by Baker and dated 22 October 1896, showing a somewhat different picture from the Church as it was built. The nave later became longer, and a large parish room was housed beneath this in the space that the natural slope of the ground offered. At one stage the crypt was used by the Girl Guides and Brownies. Today, the historic parish room or crypt is used for Sunday School. The drawings by Baker and his assistants completed with the City Engineer’s official approval dated 29th January 1898, may also be found in the Jagger Collection, as well as the plans for the Vestry, then called the Parish Room.

Tenders were called for the and those submitted were: £4,560, £4,450 and £4,100, the latter being submitted by a Mr. Hopkins. The Committee recommended that the lowest tender be accepted, the details of which show the nave alone costed £3,165, the Narthex(or Porch) £155, the Apse £47 and the Parish Room £735. Not all the work was to be completed immediately but the amount of £3,300 was realized by collections, legacies, subscriptions and loans.  

The foundation stone of the new St Barnabas Church was laid on the 10th of December 1898. The Church was built of Table Mountain sandstone and Kloof granite, probably from Higgo Quarry, now Higgovale. Mountain stone forms the structure up to the base of the windows and above that is granite. With the passage of time the two types of stones have mellowed and blended into a very pleasing combination.  

  The spacious nave is 34 feet wide and 21 feet high and the rafters are supported by eight fine queens post arch braced trusses, each fitted with tie rods and resting on granite corbels on the walls, with dark wood boarding above the rafters. Over the west gable wall, a small bellcote has been formed by projecting the ridge and a short slope of roof on either side. This is supported by a miniature kings post truss on curved brackets, resting on small corbels. It is interesting to note that the queens post trusses are to be found in many English country churches.  

 The Reverend Thomas Owen Sylvester Davies was Priest-in-Charge from 1895 to 1902 and the first Rector of the parish from 1902 to 1905, and by his devotion and generosity he became our Founder Priest and Benefactor. Apart from bequests made to members of his family and grants to the S.P.G. and S.P.C.K., and other religious communities, he bequeathed the residue of his estate to his widow during her lifetime, and after her death, to St Barnabas Church. Money which he had loaned during building operations, together with the sale of two properties in Kloof Road, were left to each successive incumbent of the parish to be used at his discretion. The sum which amounted to £2,600, became known as the “Davies Bequest” and it was finally used to augment the Hall Building Fund during the time of Canon A.F. van der Byl. Father Davies also left the rent of five properties to the Rector of St Barnabas, because he thought the parish might not have enough money to pay a satisfactory stipend. These were a house and ground in Kloof Road, “Arcadia”, and “St Wilfred’s”, also in Kloof Road, and two cottages near St Augustine’s School Ground.  

The earliest Church Register, which we have is for 1903 and the first entry is for Easter Day, when the Services were held at 6:30am, 8am, 10:45am, 3pm and 7pm. The number of Communicants was 138 and the collection, which amounted to £17/12/11,5 was given to the Rector.  

 At a Vestry Meeting held on 17th May 1905, arrangements were finalized for the installation of the organ which had been ordered from Messrs. J.J. Binns of Leeds, who would supply and install it for a cost of £480. The cost of the gallery was £130 so with the various other sundry items, the total cost was £700.   

Because the church was built on sloping ground from west to east and since the fabric was of stone and granite, much anxiety was caused by large cracks appearing in the north and south walls. From time-to-time action had to be taken to deal with this problem. At a Parish Council Meeting held on 17th January 1917, the acting Rector, the Reverend E.W. Place, warned the members that the cracks in the north, south and east walls were causing great alarm and that something had to be done. It was decided to call in the services of the architect who had been responsible for some work done in 1910. After his examination he confirmed the suspicion that the thrust of the roof was gradually forcing the walls outwards. A quantity surveyor who was consulted said the condition was due to a number of adverse factors. The church was built on a sloping site with a clay subsoil; the walls were of insufficient thickness, weakened further by too many windows, and the buttresses were inadequate to maintain he heavy thrust from the pitch of the roof. The foundations also were not what they should have been and cape lime, which has no adhesive qualities, had been used for the mortar. The affected walls would have to be shored up to prevent the possibility of further mischief, should a strong South-Easter blow.

It was therefore decided at the annual Vestry Meeting held on the 24th of April 1917, to accept the architect’s plans for ensuring the safety of the building at the estimated cost of £3,200. It was also decided to complete the bonding of the east wall with the north and south walls, which would further strengthen the building. The repairs were completed before the next Vestry Meeting, on 16th April 1918, but, in fact, it was only after the present Parish Hall was built between 1971 and 1972, that this periodic appearance of cracks in the fabric was successfully arrested. It was decided during excavations for the foundation of the Hall to build a strong retaining wall between the Church and Hall, and, with this, stability was attained. 

The Booth Memorial Fund was opened '...to beautify an enlarged church' and in October 1927, Mr. Kendall, an architect, designed the classical paneling and reredos at the east end.

 During 1929 there were several pencilled entries in the Church Register. When only four people attended Evensong, notes said: 'Political meeting next door! ', 'Heavy rain all day,' 'Strong wind' and 'Appallingly hot day'. These all seem legitimate remarks when most people came to church on foot. 

  Canon Robert Patterson Smart came to the parish in 1930 when financially St Barnabas seems to have been in a parlous state. The news­letter of July 1931 records: ‘The Parish is now largely Jewish, the congregation no longer well-to-do and the Cathedral easier to reach for many parishioners.' The Diocese asked for an assessment of 15 percent of the assessable income, but the Parish Council refused and offered 12 and a half percent. A note records that £ 128/10/0 was therefore due. They were well behind with payments, however, and it was suggested that they dispense with the services of the organist to save money.  

    Letters between March 1947 and May 1948, record what could be called the Battle of Nichol Street. There had apparently been many complaints of the misuse of the unmade Nichol Street by vagrants. The City Council proposed closing off the street and making a turning circle for traffic half-way up the cul-de-sac. This proposal led to some acid correspondence between the City Council, St Barnabas Church and Die Niewe Kerk, which had recently bought the ground below Nichol Street. One of the reasons for opposing the plan was that the circle would have been built on the area earmarked for the new church hall. Finally, the City Council decided to leave the street as it was, and they eventually tarred it.   

During the incumbency of the next Rector, the Reverend Geoffrey Colin Davies, 1959 to 1963, pledged giving was first introduced in the parish and our parishioner, Stella, Lady Bailey, was one of those on the Steering Committee. Another council member and former Churchwarden was Mr. Victor Hook. The Planned Giving Scheme was launched by the Most Reverend Joost de Blank, Archbishop of Cape Town at a Loyalty Dinner held at the Cranston Hall, in Mill Street, in May 1959, and by June £8 464 had been pledged. 

Father Davies took the Chair at the Inaugural Meeting of the Ladies' Guild on 8th September 1959. After a short service in the Church, there was a business meeting to clarify the aims of the Guild. The first project tackled by the Ladies' Guild was to raise the money for the curtains of the Parish Room stage. These cost £61. 13s. 2d. Three members of the Ladies' Guild whose names are minuted as being at the Inaugural Meeting were: Miss Maud Berry, Mrs. Gladys Fisher and Mrs. Joyce Lucock.

 Incidentally, Miss Berry also spanned the life of our church as her father was one of those who worshipped in the Cathedral Upper Room in De Lorentz Street. She was baptized in St Barnabas Church in 1911 and was also confirmed there by Archbishop Carter.   

Canon Adrian Foster van der Byl came to St Barnabas in 1963 from Ceres where he had been Archdeacon of Paarl. Soon after his arrival he was appointed Archdeacon of Cape Town and served as such until just before his retirement in 1974, when he went to live in Claremont. 

During his incumbency, the Church Hall was built, using accumulated funds, in addition to the proceeds of the sale of St Augustine's, the Davies Bequest and the Herschberg Legacy. Father Davies had been anxious to create a Garden of Remembrance because of the steady increase in cremations, but this plan had to wait for the completion of the Hall in 1971, then the Garden was laid out on the north side of the Church. Mr. E.R.D. Hogwood, a prominent educationalist and former Principal of the Dr. Bennie Hewat College, Athlone, served as a Sub-deacon in the time of Canon van der Byl and lived at Gatehouse, St John's Hostel. Towards the end of his stay, he was asked by the Most Rev. Robert Selby-Taylor to instruct Coloured students who wished to prepare for the Ministry. When it was proposed to have a Garden of Remembrance, Mr. Hogwood played an active part in its planning and spent a great deal of time with some of his students in actually laying the stonework as it is today. He also donated the granite Maltese Cross which stands in the Garden.  

ln 1974 loudspeakers were installed in the Church. These have proved a great help to those leading the services and who must often battle against the double cacophony of the bells of our neighbour, the D.R.C. Church, and the frequently noisy blasts from the Southeaster. 

The Hall was completed and officially declared open by Alderman R.M. Friedlander, Mayor of Cape Town, on 28th November 1972. Until that time the Parish Room on the south side of the Church had been used for meetings, work parties and social occasions, but now the new Hall was available for all these functions. 

 Canon W. Arthur D. Collins, A.K.C., who was Rector of St Barnabas from 1975 to 1977, was instrumental in converting the Parish Room into a Side Chapel and separate choir and priests' Vestries. Father Collins super­vised the furnishings of the Chapel and it was consecrated by the Bishop Suffragan, the Rt, Rev. George Swarts.  

 In October 1975, the new 'Liturgy 1975' was introduced. Deaf Aids were installed in several pews, and, in 1977, the Altar was brought forward from the east wall to a free-standing position in the Sanctuary.  

 He also obtained the statue of the Virgin and Child in the Lady Chapel. This had originally been in St John's Church, Strand Street, which had been closed.  

 The Reverend Thomas Owen Sylvester Davies was Priest-in-Charge from 1895 to 1902 and the first Rector of the parish from 1902 to 1905, and by his devotion and generosity he became our Founder Priest and Benefactor. Apart from bequests made to members of his family and grants to the S.P.G. and S.P.C.K. and other religious communities, he bequeathed the residue of his estate to his widow during her lifetime, and after her death, to St Barnabas Church. Money which he had loaned during building operations, together with the sale of two properties in Kloof Road, were left to each successive incumbent of the parish to be used at his discretion. The sum which amounted to £2,600, became known as the “Davies Bequest” and it was finally used to augment the Hall Building Fund during the time of Canon A.F. van der Byl. Father Davies also left the rent of five properties to the Rector of St Barnabas, because he thought the parish might not have enough money to pay a satisfactory stipend. These were a house and ground in Kloof Road, “Arcadia”, and “St Wilfred’s”, also in Kloof Road, and two cottages near St Augustine’s School Ground.

 Mr. James Briant, a Sidesman, and subsequent Churchwarden, carved the board of which the Rectors’ names are inscribed, on the south wall just left of the door to the Vestry. This was erected in memory of the first Rector, the Reverend T.O.S. Davies, in tribute of his generosity and self-sacrificing devotion to his parish. 

  The Rev. Walter Parry de Winston Kitcat was curate at St Barnabas during the latter years of Father Davies and succeeded him as Rector from 1905 - 1913. His sister was the organist for some years and on the wall in the organ loft, there is a tablet in her memory. Father Kitcat remained a bachelor and returned to the United Kingdom in 1913.  

 The Rev. Dr Lancelot Parker Booth, D.D., M.A., came to Cape Town in 1912 after a strenuous life of service in Natal, India and back in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War. For a short time, he was Sub-Dean at St George's Cathedral and was appointed as Rector of St Barnabas Church in 1913. In those days few people had cars, and we see in the records that gathering things for the bazaar was difficult. However, trams ran up what is now Kloof Nek Road and would stop and pick up passengers and their parcels whether they were waiting at an official halt or not. One bazaar mentioned in the records was held in the Rectory Garden. Ice-cream cornets were sold at one and one-and-a-half pence, from the stoep which was then unenclosed. Between the sales, the ice-cream was kept in an ice­ bucket as there were no refrigerators. A 'Second Bazaar' was always held the following Saturday to sell off everything left over. It was said of Dr. Booth, after his death in 1925, that he had 'the devotion and spirituality of a St Francis, with the enquiring mind and scientific out look of a Roger Bacon.'  

Canon Ralph Layard White was Chaplain to Archbishop Carter when he was appointed as Rector of St Barnabas Church in 1925. During his incumbency, the Parish Council authorized the extension of the nave by one bay and the erection of a permanent stone wall at the east end. Canon White also purchased a cottage in Kloof Avenue, called ”Chellowdene” for the use of a married curate, but it was never used for that purpose. In 1929 he was appointed Dean of Pietermaritzburg, but prior to his departure he transferred the title deeds of 'Chellowdene' to the Diocesan Trust with the proviso that half the rental received from the property be paid to St Barnabas.  

 Canon Robert Patterson Smart came to the parish in 1930 when financially St Barnabas seems to have been in a parlous state. 

 When Canon Smart left St Barnabas to serve as a Chaplain in Baghdad in 1934, his place was taken by the Rev. Francis Robinson, who remained Rector until 1943. About nine months after his appointment, he was asked by the Mother Superior of All Saint's Home if he would undertake to be Chaplain of the Home in addition to his parochial duties, for a remuneration of £120 per annum. He felt this would be possible if St Barnabas could again enjoy the sorely needed services of an Assistant Priest. He felt sure that, with the guarantee of the additional income from All Saints' Home, it would be possible for the parish to raise the necessary £210 per annum for an Assistant Priest's stipend. He reported in his newsletter: 'I have at last procured the Reverend Harold Halvorsen as assistant priest after protracted negotiation with Zululand. I have known Harold since he was a young man and if I had not been sure he was the right person for St Barnabas, I would not have waited, but quickly got a priest from England though this would have been as risky as acquiring a wife by correspondence.' 

The Reverend Leonard T.J. Shapter came to St Barnabas as Rector in 1944 and only stayed until 1946. He had previously served at St Paul's, Bree Street, and later went to St Stephen's, Pinelands. 

  It was during the incumbency of the next Rector, the Reverend Arthur Gerald le Sueur, from 1946 to 1954, that the parents of David Leonard Richfield gave the stained-glass window depicting the boy bringing loaves and fishes to Jesus.  

 The Reverend Alfred Walton Carter was Rector from 1955 to 1959. He was the father of Charles Carter and was dearly loved by the parishioners of St Barnabas. He did not drive a car but was renowned for the tremendous amount of home visiting he undertook in the parish - all on foot! 

  During the incumbency of the next Rector, the Reverend Geoffrey Colin Davies, 1959 to 1963, pledged giving was first introduced in the parish and our parishioner, Stella, Lady Bailey, was one of those on the Steering Committee.  

 Canon Adrian Foster van der Byl came to St Barnabas in 1963 from Ceres where he had been Archdeacon of Paarl. Soon after his arrival he was appointed Archdeacon of Cape Town and served as such until just before his retirement in 1974, when he went to live in Claremont.   

Canon W. Arthur D. Collins, A.K.C., who was Rector of St Barnabas from 1975 to 1977, was instrumental in converting the Parish Room into a Side Chapel and separate choir and priests' Vestries. Father Collins super­vised the furnishings of the Chapel and it was consecrated by the Bishop Suffragan, the Rt, Rev. George Swarts. 

During Father Collins's incumbency, he was appointed Archdeacon of Cape Town in succession to Canon van der Byl. He was also Chaplain to the Mayor of Cape Town, and many remember how the mayor would lend him the official Mayor's Box in the City Hall for concerts and how Canon Collins would take parishioners, who shared his love of music, to enjoy the best view of the orchestra. 

Canon Collins was instrumental in asking the archbishop to license the first woman Lay Minister in the parish, Mrs. Anne Kotze. He also obtained the statue of the Virgin and Child in the Lady Chapel. This had originally been in St John's Church, Strand Street, which had been closed. In 1977, Canon Collins became Rector of St Michael and All Angels, Observatory, but later resigned and returned to England, to become Vicar of Bridlington in the Diocese of Canterbury. 

After an interregnum of several months, the Rt. Rev. Mark Nye became Rector of St Barnabas in 1978, after retiring as Bishop Suffragan of Pretoria and Archdeacon of Pietersburg. 

Father Mark has encouraged the formation of several House-Churches in the parish. In 1978 he was also in charge of St Paul's, Bree Street, our 'next-door-neighbour' parish, during an interregnum and together these two churches formed an Action Committee which has run a Community Kitchen for feeding vagrants on Sundays and a Homestead has been started as a night shelter for vagrant boys. 

Looking the history of St Barnabas Church in the Diocese of Cape Town, we thank God for the devotion and zeal of a continuous line of priests each of whom has made his own contribution to the life of the parish. We thank God too for all the people who have faithfully worshipped in this place and made it a House of Prayer. 

St Barnabas's recorded history ends in 1978. If you have any information you are able to share with us to help us piece our history from 1978 onwards, please contact our church office at church@stbarnabas.org.za.