Archdeacons in the Diocese of Southwark

The Diocese of Southwark was created on 1 May 1905 from two Diocese of Rochester archdeaconries: the archdeaconry of Southwark and the archdeaconry of Kingston-on-Thames.[1] Parts of Surrey (from the dioceses of Winchester and of London) had first been transferred to Rochester diocese on 1 August 1877,[2] and were organised into the Southwark archdeaconry on 3 May 1878.[3] In 1864, the Bishop of Winchester had split the rural deanery of Southwark into three: Lambeth, Southwark, and Streatham.[4] The Kingston archdeaconry was then created by Order in Council soon after, on 22 August 1879, by splitting the archdeaconry of Southwark:[5] the new Kingston archdeaconry consisted of the rural deaneries of Barnes, Beddington, Godstone, Kingston, Reigate, and Streatham; and the continuing Southwark one those of Battersea, Camberwell, Clapham, Kennington, Lambeth, Newington, and Southwark.[6] Lewisham rural deanery was erected, and other deanery boundaries altered, in early 1886.[7]

Not long after the erection of the Diocese of Southwark, the new archdeaconry of Lewisham was created, on 6 March 1906, from part of the Southwark archdeaconry (Camberwell and Dulwich deaneries) and part of the diocese not then in an archdeaconry (Greenwich, Lewisham, and Woolwich deaneries;[8] which had previously been in the Archdeaconry of Rochester).[9]

The archdeaconry of Wandsworth was created in 1973, the Croydon archdeaconry (er. 1930) was moved from the Diocese of Canterbury on 1 January 1985.[10] In 1986, the archdeaconry of Reigate was created from a renaming and reorganisation of the previous archdeaconry of Kingston-on-Thames[11] and the archdeaconry of Lambeth was created from Southwark archdeaconry. Lewisham archdeaconry was renamed the Archdeaconry of Lewisham & Greenwich in 2008.

As of January 2021, the six archdeaconries of the Diocese of Southwark comprise the following 24 deaneries:[12]

• Archdeaconry of Southwark: Deaneries of Bermondsey, of Camberwell, of Dulwich, and of Southwark & Newington
• Archdeaconry of Reigate: Deaneries of Tandridge, of Reigate, and of Sutton
• Archdeaconry of Lewisham & Greenwich: Deaneries of Charlton, of Deptford, of East Lewisham, of Eltham & Mottingham, of Plumstead, and of West Lewisham
• Archdeaconry of Croydon: Deaneries of Croydon Addington, of Croydon Central, of Croydon North, and of Croydon South
• Archdeaconry of Wandsworth: Deaneries of Battersea, of Kingston, of Richmond & Barnes, of Tooting, and of Wandsworth
• Archdeaconry of Lambeth: Deaneries of Lambeth North, of Lambeth South, and of Merton