What are the opening hours?

Monday 10:30am - 12pm Tuesday 10:30am - 12pm Wednesday 10:30am - 11:30am 7pm - 8:30pm Thursday 10:30am - 12pm Sunday 9am - 1pm 6pm - 7pm

St Paul's Church Cliftonville

Nearby places of worship

St. Paul's Church, Cliftonville, Margate
Northdown Road, Cliftonville

Ignite Cliftonville
Northdown Road

History of St Paul's Church, Cliftonville
Northdown Road

https://www.facebook.com/ignite.cliftonville/reviews
We will be open at 7.00pm Wednesday as usual and it will be Pizza this week along with teas, and coffees.
Please take charge of small children if you are sitting outside as we have had a few disruptions the past couple of weeks where children are chasing around inside while serious stuff is in progress. Thank you. We look forward to seeing you again.

Ignite Cliftonville Ignite is a fresh expressions cafe-style church, using lots of laughter, interaction and multi-media

18/09/2023

Let us pray for the people of Derna in Libya.
Lord, give hope and encouragement for the rescuers and hold those people tight who have lost a relative or friend in this disaster. Bring healing and hope to your people in the zone and beyond. We pray for comfort and peace as they recover and rebuild their town and surrounding areas. Lord have mercy, Amen.

10/09/2023

Please offer up your prayers for those in Morocco who have lost their homes, relatives, loved one's, in many cases whole families have been wiped out as buildings collapsed. The devastation left after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake on Friday evening has been a disaster and although help is now on the way we can pray that there are people still to be found by the rescuers scrambling through the debris.

"Lord have mercy on all the souls who have perished in the tragedy, on all those wounded and on those rescuers scrambling through the debris as they search for bodies and survivors alike. Give them the strength to carry on. Bless all those who have lost someone, give them your peace and bring hope for the region. In God's holy name, Amen"

Plowshare Prayer | Music | Watershed Charlotte

01/09/2023

This is such a special prayer, be blessed as you watch and listen.
'Watershed Charlotte' with 'Plowshare Prayer'

Plowshare Prayer | Music | Watershed Charlotte Donna and the Watershed Band covers Spencer LaJoye's Plowshare Prayer during our June 19, 2022 gathering. View the whole Sunday gathering at https://youtu.be...

21/08/2023

A special prayer this week for those involved in the Hawaii fires.

Almighty God,
who is our strength and our refuge,
be with those who are besieged by fire in Hawaii.
Guide those who evacuate their homes so that they may find care and comfort in a safe place,
protect their homes and their pets, their neighbours and their friends
so that they may return home to a loving community.
Comfort those whose loved ones have been lost,
and sustain and protect those who battle the fires.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son,
who abides with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii

Praise (feat. Brandon Lake, Chris Brown & Chandler Moore) | Official Lyric Video

18/07/2023

"Hi church! Fab new song for our All Age service on Sunday! If you can, have a listen so it's a bit more familiar. Do bring the children - they can practice their dance moves! "

Praise (feat. Brandon Lake, Chris Brown & Chandler Moore) | Official Lyric Video The official lyric video for "Praise" by Elevation Worship feat. Brandon Lake, Chris Brown, and Chandler Moore."Praise" is available everywhere on the album ...

11/07/2023

Don't forget that Ignite is not on this week but will be back again 19th July, see you then 👍

Photos from St Paul's Church Cliftonville's post

04/07/2023

Photos from our Parish Awayday at Minster Abbey Saturday 1st July 2023

01/07/2023

The garden is full of wild flowers this year and the bees and butterflies love it.

26/06/2023

Some pictures from the special 150th service with Bishop Rose preaching

24/06/2023

Please don't forget it is our 150th service tomorrow at 10.30 with Bishop Rose in attendance and speaking.
Parishioners old and new welcome.

22/06/2023

It was lovely to be among other worshipers from both St Paul's and All saints churches welcoming Patrick and Debbie at the licensing service with Bishop Rose and other dignitaries including the Archdeacon Dr William Adam, the area Dean Rev Jo Richards and the Mayor of Canterbury.
Thank you Pat and Debbie for your 18 years with us at St Paul's, Cliftonville. We are all sad to see you leave but very happy for you at Canterbury. Wishing you well and every blessing going.
BTW, it was not very often we got to see Pat wearing his cassock (frock) and collar, but he did well tonight in the warmth of the summer evening.

18/06/2023

We have two events coming up this week.

On Thursday 22nd June at 7.30pm it's Patrick Ellisdon's induction into the parish of All Saint's church Canterbury. Please don't miss the opportunity to be among the welcomers to wish Pat and Debby well in their journey following Jesus at this special service. Those who booked lifts please be outside St Paul's by 6.15pm.

Then on Sunday 25th June we have the St Paul's Special 150th Celebration service at St Paul's with Bishop Rose in attendance. Please don't miss it. This is going to be an all in one service starting at 10.30am with history of our church here in Cliftonville over the past 150 years.
Please bring cakes 🧀🥯🥞🍰🧁🥧, we will have the tea and coffee.

Events planned to mark 150th anniversary of St Paul’s Church in Cliftonville

15/06/2023

There is some information here to the 150th celebrations for St Paul's Church Cliftonville
https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2023/02/28/events-planned-to-mark-150th-anniversary-of-st-pauls-church-in-cliftonville/?fbclid=IwAR15aMyhFQpxrBgGxkUOoh4tRRFiH6fvGDWGJ0Jz9nymy23cIVJj34Df4EE

Events planned to mark 150th anniversary of St Paul’s Church in Cliftonville A series of events are planned to mark the 150th anniversary of St Paul’s Church in Cliftonville this year. Events will include an art installation, a walk around the parish boundary leaving a trai…

24/05/2023

At Ignite Cliftonville tonight we have doughnuts, laughter, some serious bits and all the usual nonsense like Nigel’s jokes! Join us from 7pm

21/05/2023

Today we said goodbye to Patrick and Debbie Ellisdon on their last service with us at St Paul's, and what a service it was. We had around 100 adults and 12 children in to see you off on your journey. We will miss you dearly but wish you well in your new parish church at All Saints in Canterbury. God's work is never done!
18 and a bit years here in Cliftonville serving the Community is a good chunk of ministry service, and you have left us a lovely legacy to keep going in the way of the Foodbank, Open Church and Ignite. So a huge Thank You Patrick and Debbie for all you have done here at St Paul's and in your outreach🙏

Please add your comments and photo's below.

08/05/2023

A few photos from the Coronation street party yesterday. It was a lovely time !

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St Paul’s Church, Cliftonville

St Paul’s Church at 93 Northdown Road, Cliftonville, CT9 2RD is a grade ll listed building (2010) inside the local conservation area protecting it from mordern day alterations. It was constructed of brick, Kentish rag and Bath stone dressing with welsh slate roof 1872-73 of Gothic Revival style along with the similarly styled detached house adjacent to the West side which was built as the large 7 bedroom family vicarage which was used up until approx 2005.

The house was later auctioned off into private ownership in 2010 for approx £160,000 after being left empty for a short time and used as offices and headquarters for the ‘Scrine Foundation’, rebranded ‘Catching Lives’, a charity for homeless people later based in Canterbury. The ex vicarage whilst in private ownership has been divided into two separately rented private flats with local agent working for the owner. It is in much need of maintenance to the inside and out with the external facia of kent rag stone becoming loose and in need of mortar replacement. There are also some structural repairs needing to be remedied which are quite urgent. House sparrows and swifts nest between the external stone work during summer months. There are some listed features incorporated inside the former vicarage to include the ornate tiled floor and wide carved wooden staircase. Within the garden boundary stone walls are mature sycamore and silver birch trees. The sycamores are over 100 years old and were planted just after the church and house were constructed. Along all the boundary walls were iron railings (later removed during the war), and just inside was privet hedging for privacy.
The total building costs for church and vicarage was in the region of £10,000.
The church memorial stone was laid on 16th September 1872 and it was dedicated 14 months later on 13th November 1873 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald Campbell Tait. The Inaugural vicar being Rev Gerrard Lewis M.A.

The communal 3-sided clock and hour strike bell in the tower was provided by public subscription in 1897, some 24 years after the tower was built in preparation. There was a huge need for a public clock in Cliftonville and the St Paul’s Church clock was a great asset to the area and church. Many of the local schools of the time contributed to this cost. The manual winding up of the clock and strike gears had been done by workers from the local council at least once every week for 104 years until in 2001 when it was mechanised with the addition of electric motors on the winding gears. The tower itself has had several repairs made over the years with major refurbishment works in 1971 along with full restoration of the clock works and dials. Because of the salty coastal weather it had been recommended that refurbishment of the clock and works should be carried out approximately every 25 years to keep it all working correctly and stop it seizing up, along with annual servicing periods. This essential upkeep has been overlooked during the past 25+ years with the last renovation taking place in 1971, double the recommended timescale for the life of the clockworks. Unfortunately, for the community of Cliftonville who love the clock it has become neglected without good routine maintenance, with the more urgent and continual church roof repairs having to take priority. The weather has now got the better of it, wear and tear, broken dial glass and rust seizing the gearing up along with pigeons roosting behind the dials is all part of the ageing process and until funding can be found for the necessary repairs it will sadly no longer be running. The clock last ran in November 2018 but it was very noticedly running erratically stopping and starting so had to be stopped to save major breakdown. This is the first time in the history of the clock it has not been working for more than 6 months. I am continuously asked when we will have it working again, this I am unable to answer as that’s all down to grant funding, priorities and the willpower of the PCC to find suitable funding.

The flag pole on top of the tower was used right up until the early 1970’s. I was reliably informed by an ex-parishoner and nearby shop owner of that time that the local Boy Scouts and Cubs were given the task of shinning up the pole every few years to repaint it during bob-a-job week, not something that would be deemed appropriate today though with the Health & Safety regulations. The flag pole was cut down in the early 2000’s amid concerns for public safety. On one quinquennial inspection it was noted the turnbuckle wire fastners that hold and steady the flag pole had become corroded and dangerously thin. A lack of maintenance once again to do with cost and priorities. The vicar of the time decided to bring it down by crane.

There are a number of beautiful stained glass windows adorning all sides of the church. The west side window dates to 1885 being purchased by pupils of 15 local schools which attended services there. Other stunning windows have been donated by past parishioners of the church. The Bath stone font in the west end can be seen through the main entrance from where the original converted from gas standard light pillars are erected either side. Inside the entrance was the pull rope for manual ringing of the church bell to inform the community church is starting, also the inscriptions for Vicars, Churchwardens and a bronze first world war memorial plaque inside elaborate dark gothic style woodwork commemorating local servicemen parishioners who died in the war. There are brass plaques commemorating persons of notability within the chancel and other brass plates with commemorations listed about the church. The pulpit is made of Bath stone with the ornate pillars of red Mansfield stone. The carved stone altarpiece is of Jesus and his Disciples taking the last supper, in red Mansfield stone there are two panels either side with the Lord’s Prayer and Decalogue in Gothic inscription. Arches and pillars hold up the roof which is close-boarded and beamed, being exposed to the tiled floor below giving a feeling of great space, and which would have somewhat absorbed the sound of hundreds singing between the aisles below. The pine pews being removed and disposed off in the 1990’s for more comfortable single upholstered seating which can be moved about for various groups meeting. What was being used as the private cubicle, later the children’s play room in the North-West corner has more recently been converted into a kitchen to serve the congregation along with visitors to the church and guests. The old Vestry which used to have a coal fire for priests and quire in the winter months has a convenient secret door leading from the vestry directly through to the chancel and quire pews. Those pews also being removed during the 90’s. There was an extension made to the North-East side of the church with it’s own stone inscription in the 1960’s giving extra meeting room and kitchen, toilets, etc which is now used for Sunday School and other various groups.

The previously stone boundary wall and Iron railings (cut off and removed for the war effort) enclosed the front garden to the South side of the church along Northdown Road, which was originally known as Alexandra Road. It was opened up to the public in the 1970’s, with raised yellow stock brick beds, small trees and shrubs along with concrete and mahogany benches throughout. There was also a similar bench (now removed) which circled around the beautiful Canadian Maple tree planted in the centre along with other trees around the garden. The original victorian mature sycamores which bordered the garden were felled for this new garden project. The only tree remaining in this garden is the now mature Maple which is ‘Protected’. There is a Patterned brick and concrete path with two wide steps up to street pavement level from the central area. In this concrete are two inscriptions relating to the date of opening the garden by The Rotary Club and Thanet North MP Roger Gale. To the east is Edgar Road and the side/rear doors and garden area within what remains of the original Kentish rag stone boundary walls and stone gate pillars topped with triangular carved bath stone. The former Vicarage made Grade ll listed at the same time as the church and is bordered by the same rag stone walls and gate pillars. The church garden was originally larger and projected further south-eastwards but the corner was taken by the Kent authority to make the Edgar Road/Lynton Parade easier for larger vehicles to manoeuvre the tight corner into Northdown Road. Where the garden projected is now a second section of road with a central Island. There was a petrol station where National Tyres are now located on the junction with St Paul’s Road. The rear garden to the North side had been previously laid out as an allotment for the vicarage growing fruit and vegetables but is now grass and shrubs/flowers. The rear and side gardens are not open to the public.

History by Mr T. McElligott (Churchwarden)