St. Mary's Church, Battersea
| St Mary's Church, Battersea | |
|---|---|
View of the front of the church
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| Location | Battersea Church Road, Battersea, Greater London, SW11 3NA |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Previous denomination | Roman Catholic Church |
| Churchmanship | Inclusive Central |
| Website | Church website |
| History | |
| Founded | c.800 AD |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Active |
| Functional status | Parish church |
| Completed | 1777 |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | Diocese of Southwark |
St Mary's Church, Battersea, is the local Church of England parish church in Battersea, formerly in Surrey and now part of south London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. 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.
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, presumably by the Saxons, and the present building was completed in 1777. It was designed by Joseph Dixon, a local architect.
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.
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, 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.
Coordinates: 51°28′36″N 0°10′32″W / 51.47667°N 0.17556°W
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