When the St Barnabas District was established in 1891, the building of the parish church was an uphill struggle for the new young vicar.  However, Howard Nixon was a man of great vision, energy, and abundant faith, and having first managed to put up a 'temporary' corrugated iron church on the site generously provided by the Estates Governors at the corner of Calton Avenue and Woodwarde Road, he then persuaded the Governors that the new church should be on the crown of the hill and not on the lower site, and building commenced (after a ceremonial cutting of the first turf, in the shape of a cross, by the Churchwardens) in 1892.

Problems soon arose.  There were legal proceedings against the building contractors, who had failed in their promise to get the roof on by mid-December, and the Architect then fell ill.  1893 saw better progress, and with £2,000 at its disposal the building committee (apart from one member, the Chaplain to the College Chapel, the Revd. G.W. Daniell, who resigned over the issue) decided to press ahead with the second phase of the scheme, extending the nave, and giving the new church a seating capacity of 800.  The Service of Consecration, conducted by Dr. Davidson, Bishop of Rochester (later Archbishop of Canterbury) took place on St. Barnabas Day, June 11th 1894, and on August 23rd the same year the order of the Privy Council for the Parish of St. Barnabas, Dulwich Village, to be fully constituted, was signed.  From the following week, banns of marriage could be read in Dulwich instead of at the old parish church of St Giles, Camberwell.  The following month saw the start of the oak-carving classes, which were to be a feature of parish life for the next forty years.

When the new church opened, it had no tower, and ended abruptly with a temporary west wall.  Calton Avenue stopped at the church, but, as his parish extended as far as Melbourne Grove, Nixon was determined that the church should be accessible from both sides of the hill, and after persistent correspondence with the Estates Governors the new road was laid in 1895.   The organ was installed (to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee) in 1897, the beautiful carving in the Sanctuary was unveiled in 1901, and in 1908 St. Barnabas finally got its tower (although it was discovered not to be strong enough to support a spire, or even the weight of a peal of bells).  Under Nixon's stewardship, the Parish Hall, the Institute Hall in Townley Road, and the Vicarage, were added to the Church's heritage.

On Palm Sunday 1984, ninety years after its Consecration, and after a nine month closure for renovation and re-ordering, St. Barnabas was re-dedicated by the Bishop of Woolwich.

(I have no recollection of writing this, which may be because it was written by my father, William Darby, who certainly wrote the following notes.)

1894:  St Barnabas consecrated, initially as district chapel, by Dr Davidson, replacing the iron church which had been used since 1891.  Building materials for the church comprised oak from Austria, inside stone from Gloucestershire, cement from Kent, iron ore from Lincolnshire, bricks from Northamptonshire, redstone from Nottinghamshire, facing bricks from Suffolk, sand and ballast from Surrey, timber from Sweden, and lime from Warwickshire.   The church was built in perpendicular Gothic style, and the oak carving done by local parishioners, under the expert guidance of F. E. Day.  [WD's Notes]

1895:  St Barnabas became the Parish Church instead of St Giles Camberwell, but incumbency not combined with the College Chaplaincy.  [WD's Notes]

1908:  Tower (weighing 2040 tons) completed, then Hall and Vicarage.  [WD's Notes]

1915:  St Barnabas became independent parish church, instead of district chapel.  [WD's Notes]