St Nicholas

St Nicholas was built in the 15th century, and enlarged in the 19th, though a church has been on the site for over a thousand years. The 15th century rebuilding incorporated the west wall of the earlier church, and a small Saxon window is visible outside the west door. The Norman font is also still in use.

It is a grade 2* listed building and is situated within the Chislehurst Conservation Area. Nikolaus Pevsner remarks upon its 'tall shingled spire, quite a landmark'.

The Walsingham Tomb, in the northeast corner of the chapel, has front panels of intricately carved ‘decorated’ work, perhaps reused from an older tomb in the earlier church. The Renaissance tablets commemorate Sir Edmund Walsingham, Lieutenant of the Tower of London in Henry VIII’s reign, and Thomas Walsingham, spymaster to Queen Elizabeth. Thomas Walsingham was patron of the playwright Christopher Marlowe. The American Calvin Hoffman twice instigated investigations of the tomb and vaults in a search for a clue which connect Marlowe with the works attributed to William Shakespeare! At the time of the second of these investigations, the effigy of Earl Sydney, who died in 1890, was relocated to the north wall of the chapel and the chapel was refurnished as a place for private prayer.

The churchyard surrounds the church. A will of 1459 left money for fencing the west side of the churchyard, and it is possible that the design of the fence used then, much repaired and extended, can still be seen surrounding the churchyard today. Near the lychgate are the graves of William Willett, originator of British Summer Time; and Sir Malcolm Campbell, holder of land and water speed records. The tall white cross north of the church marks the grave of Charles Lowder, the first Vicar of St Peter’s, London Docks and one of the founders of the Society of the Holy Cross. There are 8 graves identified by Commonwealth War Graves Commission.