St Mary's Church, Plaistow, Newham

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St Mary’s Church is a Church of England church in Plaistow, in the London Borough of Newham. It was part of the Parish of the Divine Compassion with St Matthias’, St Martin’s, and St Philip and St James’. The original Victorian building was designed by Sir Arthur William Blomfield and built between 1890 and 1894, but it was demolished in 1976. Worship now takes place in a smaller church on the site, built in 1981. St Mary’s began as a chapel of ease for All Saints Church in West Ham, the area’s first parish church, and became a parish in its own right in 1844. The site was given by Sir John H. Pelly, and the church was designed in neo-Gothic style influenced by the late Perpendicular period by Thomas Curtis. A notable vicar, Thomas Given-Wilson, expanded the building to hold about 1,000 people. The parish also built several mission churches: St Peter’s, Upton Road (in the 1880s); St Katherine’s on Chapman Road (built 1891; replaced by a permanent church in 1894 and demolished in 1965); St Thomas’ on Northern Road (1898–1950); and St Matthias’ in Canning Town (1887).