History
	St John the Divine began its work in the early 1880's in a small iron building built near the River Wandle. At that time, Earlsfield was nothing more than a few cottages and some farms. The iron building served as a place of worship and belonged to St. Anne's parish.       In 1884 houses began to be built along Garratt Lane. As the population grew, a better place of worship became necessary. A Mission District was formed from parts of St. Anne's and St. Mary's parishes. The iron building was enlarged and named St. Andrew's Mission Church. The local population grew rapidly and the small church became overcrowded. A permanent church was needed and was built where the present church of St. Andrew's is today. Shortly after the Mission was closed for a reason that is not recorded. During that period the poorer people in the area built many houses and the district became a "no man's land".      In 1899 the Mission Church was reopened and was soon restored to a thriving place of worship. Because of its growth it became necessary to create a separate district. In 1909 part of the St. Andrew parish was cut off to form it, with the iron building as its Church. It was given the name, St. John the Divine and Rev. G. H. Torrance became its first Missioner.      Rev. Torrance worked tirelessly to make the little church the spiritual home of the people until 1914, when Rev. J.B. Haldane (there is a road nearby, Haldane Place, probably named in his honour) was sent to take up the task of building a bigger church. The War made this impossible, so he built a temporary church that was opened and dedicated by the Bishop in 1915. This church is still in use. The original iron building was destroyed by fire in 1962. The insurance money from this was used to build a hall joining the side of the church. Both church and hall were modernised in 1969 and further improvements were made in 1984 when new lighting, new windows, parapet walls and an attractive porch were added.