Dilston Grove, the name of a sleepy back road in the southwest corner of Southwark Park, London SE16 also marks the focal point at one end of the street, a building of concrete construction built and blessed as Clare College Mission Church in 1911. The iconic cross, perched on the roof, denotes the building's former use; its continued presence maintains a symbolic reference to its role as a sanctuary for an ever changing flock.

The history and meaning of the building was reshaped in 1969 by a group of artists, graduates from the Royal College of Art, who shared the inner sanctuary as a studio/workshop. With the metamorphosis of ‘church into studio’ came the renaming of the building to Dilston Studio. The interior became a lofty, empty, rectangular shell, an open work space for several artists though ‘there are a few clues as to its previous use - a raised area at the north end where the altar used to be, a balcony where the organist once sat....’

In 1978 the local authority had other plans for the building and the artists vacated. For the following twenty-one years the future of Dilston Studio remained in the balance; pigeons took vacant possession. In 1999 the Bermondsey Artists' Group resumed the artistic link with the 70s securing a short lease from Southwark Council for the Café Gallery. Dilston Studio has now become known as Dilston Grove.

from: 'Artists in East London'
online available at: www.acme.org.uk/download.php?pdf=149‎
(accessed September 2013)