A Clapham Common Hunt for Oswald Chambers

Clapham Common in London was my goal during a London research trip hunting for Oswald Chambers’ Bible Training College.

The school site, not for the man himself, he’s been dead since 1917.

I was looking for his environs–where he lived during the four years he spent in London as principal of the Bible Training College.

I’m writing a book that touches on his life and I needed first hand information.

45 Clapham Common North

The Bible Training College (BTC) was housed at 45 Clapham Common. My husband and I took the Underground to Clapham Common itself.

By chatting with a worker, I learned that the Northern line was the oldest and thus one the Chambers family would have taken. It’s also the tube station BTC students who did not live there would have ridden.

These small matters are pertinent to my tale.

Clapham Common is the largest park in London.

Elegant townhouse mansions overlook the park. The Pentecostal League of Prayer held meetings at nearby Speke Hall, where Oswald Chambers often spoke in the first decade of the twentieth century.

During those early years, Chambers traveled around the British Isles, speaking. He also traveled to the United States and Japan. He spent six months teaching and working with God’s Bible School in Cincinnati, Ohio.

While at God’s Bible School, Oswald savored the experience of actually living in a community with other believers.

God’s Bible School inspiration

Author David McCasland in Oswald Chambers: Abandoned for God, recounts how the Ohio time changed Chambers’ thoughts on teaching about the Christian life:

“Oswald’s months at God’s Bible School had brought home the value of day-by-day interaction in an atmosphere of commitment to God. In community living, more was “caught” than “taught.”

“During every Cincinnati camp meeting he had been most impressed by the unselfish work of the students who cooked and cleaned. In a class he could teach people to study and preach. In a home he could help them learn to serve.”

Members of the Prayer League agreed with him and decided to fund such a school in London.

Twenty-five students could live with Oswald, Biddy, and Kathleen and study God’s word in-depth. They found a beautiful home at 45 Clapham Common called The Cedars.

We found it, too.

The building

It’s a lovely building, three stories high, and no surprise, has a giant cedar tree between it and the busy park road.

Between the tree limbs, you can glimpse Clapham Common stretching to the south.

I walked up the steps (two down from those potted plants) and stood at the bright red door.

I felt a bit like a stalker until I noticed a simple blue British Heritage marker affirming I’d found the right spot.

From the doorway, I admired the view and tried to imagine Oswald, Biddy, and Kathleen going up and down the cement steps.

Besides the cars going past, it was a quiet building, and the air was cool on a sunny day.

Yet, for four years, students sat under Oswald Chambers’ tutelage—students who went on to work as missionaries throughout the world.

We took photos of the shops along the street, trying to imagine life here 100 years ago.

And then we walked away to find another spot important to Oswald and Biddy Chambers.

London looked different with someone else’s life in mind.

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The Bible Training College’s London home Click to Tweet

An Oswald Chambers pilgrimage under the guise of research. Click to Tweet