The Ascension, Lavender Hill

The Church of the Ascension of the Lord stands on Lavender Hill in Battersea, in south-west London, and is one of the finest Anglo-Catholic churches in the capital. Thought to be the first church in England to be dedicated to the Ascension of the Lord, it was built to the designs of the distinguished architect James Brooks, with its foundation stone laid in 1874 and its consecration in 1883. A noble brick church raised for the working people of Victorian Battersea, it grew out of one priest's youthful dream — a dream born, quite literally, among the lavender fields that once gave the hill its name.

The church was principally the vision of Father John Bourdieu Wilkinson, a member of the Society of the Holy Cross. As a young man, before his ordination, Wilkinson would often sit on Clapham Common and gaze down upon the blue fields of lavender that then covered the slopes of Lavender Hill, and he dreamed that if he were ever called to the priesthood, it would be upon that hill that he would build a church to proclaim the faith. In time his calling came, and he was ordained and sent to serve at St Barnabas, Pimlico — a famous centre of the Anglo-Catholic, or High Church, revival, where the so-called "ritual riots" had broken out, a series of violent protests against the high-church ceremonial in use there. These riots deeply affected Wilkinson, and, supported by a number of wealthy ladies from the Pimlico congregation, he conceived the idea of creating an Anglo-Catholic sanctuary away from the troubles of central London — a place where the catholic faith and worship of the Church of England could flourish in peace.

The new church was made possible by the generosity of several aristocratic benefactors. Among those who gave to the building were Lady Anne Antrobus, the Honourable Jane Duff-Gordon, and the young dowager Amelia, Lady Boston. Their benefactions were used to purchase land on Lavender Hill, and in 1872 Father Wilkinson, Lady Antrobus and Mrs Duff-Gordon moved to the area, the plot on which the church stands being bought thanks to the generosity of Lady Boston. The church was to serve a rapidly growing working-class district, in particular the people of the Shaftesbury Estate — a model housing development — many of whom were railway workers who had moved from the East End of London to work at the great railway junction at nearby Clapham Junction.

These new parishioners had clear ideas about the church they wanted. Many of them had come from the East End, where the great Anglo-Catholic "slum churches" were a powerful presence, and they made it known that they wished the Ascension to resemble the churches they had left behind. With this in mind, the significant Anglo-Catholic architect James Brooks was commissioned to design the church. Brooks was a master of the grand brick town church — noble, austere and powerful, built of plain materials but on a cathedral-like scale, designed to lift the spirits of the urban poor and to provide a worthy setting for the catholic liturgy. The Ascension is one of his fine creations: a tall, dignified brick building in the Gothic style, its lofty interior creating a sense of space and mystery that draws the eye and the soul towards the altar. Its foundation stone was laid in 1874, and after some years the completed church was consecrated in 1883.

The Ascension has remained faithful to the Anglo-Catholic tradition in which it was founded, maintaining the dignified ceremonial and sacramental worship that Father Wilkinson dreamed of bringing to Lavender Hill. It is now the principal church of a united parish — the parish of Lavender Hill, the Ascension and Battersea, St Philip with St Bartholomew — that once had three churches; the other two have passed to other Christian communities, St Philip the Apostle on Queenstown Road now being home to an Ethiopian Orthodox parish and St Bartholomew the Less to a Greek Orthodox parish, so that this corner of Battersea remains rich in Christian worship of many traditions. The Ascension itself continues as a living and devout Anglican church, serving its diverse community in the heart of south London.

The church stands on Lavender Hill, the busy thoroughfare that runs through Battersea between Clapham Junction and Clapham, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Clapham Junction — one of the busiest railway stations in Britain, whose workers helped to fill the church — lies close by, as do the green expanses of Clapham Common and Battersea Park, the shops and restaurants of Battersea and Clapham, the regenerated riverside around Battersea Power Station, and the wider attractions of south-west London, with the West End across the Thames a short distance away.

From a young priest's dream among the blue lavender fields of Battersea, through the influence of the Pimlico ritual riots and the generosity of aristocratic ladies, to the building of James Brooks's noble brick church for the railway workers of the Shaftesbury Estate, the Church of the Ascension gathers the story of the Anglo-Catholic revival into one building. Thought to be the first church in England dedicated to the Ascension of the Lord, it remains a living Anglican church in the catholic tradition on Lavender Hill — a soaring sanctuary of faith raised, as its founder dreamed, upon the hill of lavender.