The Ascension of The Lord, Lavender Hill, is an Anglican church in the

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches. The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglica ...

tradition, situated on

Lavender Hill The A3036 is an A road in London, England, running from Waterloo to Wandsworth. Route It starts at the southern tip of the County Hall roundabout where the A302 Westminster Bridge, York Road and A23 Westminster Bridge Road all interse ...

, in Battersea, South West London. It is thought to be the first church in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

dedicated to The Ascension of The Lord. Built to the designs of the architect James Brooks, its foundation stone was laid in 1874, and it was consecrated in 1883. The church is one of three in the parish of Lavender Hill, The Ascension and Battersea, St. Philip with St. Bartholomew. The other two are no longer used by the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

. St Philip the Apostle, Queenstown Road is now home to the Ethiopian Orthodox Parish of Saint Mary of Debre Tsion, and St Bartholomew the Less, Wycliffe Road is now home to the Greek Orthodox Parish of St Nectarious.

History

Foundation

The Ascension, Lavender Hill, was principally conceived by Fr John Bourdieu Wilkinson SSC. As a young man Wilkinson had often sat on

Clapham Common Clapham Common is a large triangular urban park in Clapham, south London, England. Originally common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, it was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878. It is of g ...

and gazed down upon the blue fields of

lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and easte ...

which made up the historic

. He often dreamt that if he ever was called to become a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

, it would be upon the

where he would build a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

for the faith to be proclaimed. Eventually his priestly calling began to materialize and he was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

. Now a priest, Wilkinson was sent to

St Barnabas Barnabas (; arc, ܒܪܢܒܐ; grc, Βαρνάβας), born Joseph () or Joses (), was according to tradition an early Christian, one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem. According to Acts 4:36, Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew. Name ...

, Pimlico where the effects of the "ritual riots" – a series of protests against high church practices in use there – were being felt. It was these riots that influenced Wilkinson, supported by a number of wealthy ladies from the Pimlico congregation, to conceive the idea of an

sanctuary away from the troubles of Central London. Amongst those who financially contributed to the building of the new church were Lady Anne Antrobus, wife of Sir Edmund Antrobus, her sister-in-law through marriage, The Hon Jane Duff-Gordon, and a young

dowager A dowager is a widow or widower who holds a title or property—a " dower"—derived from her or his deceased spouse. As an adjective, ''dowager'' usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles. In popular usage, the noun ...

, Amelia, Lady Boston. A sizeable benefaction made by the ladies was used to purchase the grounds of Pountney House which ran from what is now Acanthus Road to the end of Crown Terrace (where the Crown pub is situated today), and north of the church to Elsley Road. Only about a third of this land now remains in church hands. It was not until 1872, that Father Wilkinson, Lady Antrobus and the Hon. Mrs. Jane Duff-Gordon moved to

and the plot of land on which the church stands was purchased, thanks to the generosity of Lady Boston.

Construction

The people of the Shaftesbury Estate, many of them railway workers who had moved from the East End to work at nearby

Clapham Junction Clapham Junction is an urban locality around Clapham Junction railway station in London, England. Despite its name, it is not located in Clapham, but forms the commercial centre of Battersea. Clapham Junction was a scene of disturbances during ...

made it clear that they wanted the Ascension to resemble the churches that many of them had left behind in east London. With that in mind, a significant

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, James Brooks, was commissioned to design what was to be one of his finest churches. The

foundation stone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...

was laid on 1 June 1874, by John Patrick Boyle, Earl of Glasgow; according to Henry Simmonds in ''All About Battersea'' (1882) it was situated "under the altar" of the temporary church. It was not long before Brooks soon discovered that he was using too much of the available funds for the foundations of the new church. His clients quickly became alarmed by this unforeseen expense, and he was subsequently dismissed as architect. His replacements, J. T. Micklewaite and Somers Clark, completed the church almost entirely to Brooks’ original specification. The overspend, however, meant that some of Brooks more elaborate design features, such as the carving of the stone capitals in the nave, the projected tower with steeple, above what is now the south porch, a belfry and an elaborately carved stone reredos could not be completed. Like Brooks' East End churches, the Ascension is a bold, simple design, built of brick. A continuous roofline runs the full length of the building. The nave is lit by lancet windows in the clerestory; there are no aisle windows. There is a narrow ambulatory around the chancel. The arcades are supported by short cylindrical columns, with square capitals, plain in the nave and carved with foliage in the chancel. The brickwork above the arcades is left bare. Francis Bumpus noted the French Cistercian influence on the Ascension, and on his Holy Innocents in Hammersmith, saying that both buildings were "conceived in a bold and vigorous Early Pointed style, recalling such Burgundian examples as Auxerre and Pontigny" and admirably adapted to contemporary requirements. The new church was consecrated for worship by the Bishop of Bishop of Rochester,

Anthony Thorold Anthony Wilson Thorold (13 June 1825 – 25 July 1895) was an Anglican Bishop of Winchester in the Victorian era. The son of a Church of England priest, he also served as Bishop of Rochester. It was in that role that he travelled throughou ...

, within whose diocese the parish then was, on 30 June 1883.

Fire

Just before 7pm on Friday 13 April 1979, which happened to be Good Friday, a fierce fire broke out, quickly spreading along the church roof, and threatened to destroy the building in its entirety. The London Fire Brigade sent fire fighters from some six stations, some of whom worked throughout the night to ensure that this historic landmark was saved. The then Parish Priest Fr John Cuthbert CMP, praised the work of the fire service, recognizing that without their assistance the damage sustained to the building would have been far worse.

Worship

The Ascension, Lavender Hill is an

church which is affiliated to

Forward in Faith Forward in Faith (FiF) is an organisation operating in the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church. It represents a traditionalist strand of Anglo-Catholicism and is characterised by its opposition to the ordination of women to the pr ...

, and served by priests of the

Society of The Holy Cross The Society of the Holy Cross (SSC; la, Societas Sanctae Crucis) is an international Anglo-Catholic society of male priests with members in the Anglican Communion and the Continuing Anglican movement, who live under a common rule of life that i ...

. As such its style of churchmanship and worship is

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. There is an emphasis on the Seven Sacraments including Confessions. Practices and services include those of The Reserved Sacrament, The Veneration of

Relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tang ...

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, also called Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament or the Rite of Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction, is a devotional ceremony, celebrated especially in the Roman Catholic Church, but also in some other C ...

, The Rosary, Devotion to Our Lady, and Stations of the Cross. Sunday Mass incorporates the "bells and smells" nature of an

church with the use of incense, throughout, and bells at the Eucharist. There are lay deacons and sub-deacons, and servers, who wear the traditional black cassock and white cotta.

Gallery

Image:Statue of The Sacred Heart, Ascension Lavender Hill.jpg, Statue of The Sacred Heart Image:The Lectern, Ascension Lavender Hill.jpg, The Lectern in Ordinary Time

Parish priests

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ascension, Lavender Hill

Buildings and structures in Battersea

Gothic Revival church buildings in London Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Wandsworth Grade II* listed churches in London