St Mary's Church, Battersea

St Mary's Church, Battersea
View of the front of the church
Location Battersea Church Road, Battersea, Greater London, SW11 3NA
Country England
Denomination Church of England
Churchmanship Inclusive Central
Website Church website
History
Status Active
Founded c.800 AD
Architecture
Functional status Parish church
Heritage designation Grade I listed
Completed 1777
Administration
Diocese Diocese of Southwark
St Mary's Church, Battersea, London

St Mary's Church, Battersea, is the local Church of England parish church[1] in Battersea, formerly in Surrey and now part of south London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth.[2] The parish is now within the diocese of Southwark. Christians have worshipped there regularly for over a thousand years. It is a Grade I listed building.[3]

History

St Mary's stands on one of the earliest known consecrated sites on the south bank of the River Thames. The original church was built as early as 800 AD, and the present building was completed in 1777.[3] It was designed by Joseph Dixon, a local architect.[4]

The church is built of brick, with stone used for quoins and other dressings. It consists of a nave, rectangular in plan, an apse at the east end forming the sanctuary, and a west tower. The west front has a single storey entrance porch with Tuscan columns supporting a pediment. The tower, rising immediately behind it, is topped with a clock chamber and a small spire. Inside, the whole width of the church is spanned by a flat ceiling, and there are wooden galleries supported by columns on three sides. The nave windows are in two tiers, the upper ones round-headed.[4][5]

The church has strong connections with art and literature through the artist and poet William Blake, who married Catherine Boucher there on 17 August 1782,[6] and J. M. W. Turner, who painted the river from the vestry window. Benedict Arnold and his family are buried in the crypt, and the church has links with the explorer Robert Falcon Scott.

The church is used weekly by Thomas's Battersea for their Thursday morning church service and also holds a Thomas's Kindergarten.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Battersea, St Mary, Battersea". A Church Near You. The Church of England, UK. Retrieved 30 March 2011. External link in |work= (help)
  2. ↑ "St Mary's Church Battersea". London Borough of Wandsworth, UK. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  3. 1 2 "Church of St Mary and Churchyard Wall and Gates - Wandsworth - Greater London - England". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  4. 1 2 "St Mary, Battersea". Diocese of Southwark. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Cherry, Bridget; Pevsner, Nikolaus. London 2: South. Buildings of England. p. 688. ISBN 0140710477.
  6. ↑ "St Mary's Battersea". Tate. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  7. ↑ http://www.thomas-s.co.uk/location.html

Media related to St. Mary's Church, Battersea at Wikimedia Commons

  • St Mary's Church website
  • "Stained glass virtual tour". Archived from the original on 18 February 2012. Stefan Hopkinson, the Vicar of Battersea during the Second World War: ... There was considerable damage, but the church was unharmed -- at least, until I picked up a stone and smashed all the [very bad] Victorian glass.

Coordinates: 51°28′36″N 0°10′32″W / 51.47667°N 0.17556°W / 51.47667; -0.17556


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