Memorial: Christ Church, Lincoln Tower
Erection date: 4/7/1876
{Stone at first floor level on the north-east elevation of the tower:}
Lincoln Tower
From Pastscape: "... the octagonal spire ... is decorated by two groups of inwrought red sandstone bands interspersed with rows of stars. This should symbolise the American Stars and Stripes. The church was heavily damaged during the Second World War and the top of the steeple was subsequently removed. .... The pastor Christopher Newman Hall had lectured and written extensively in support of Abraham Lincoln {murdered in 1865} and the abolition of slavery during the American Civil War. The Lincoln Tower was opened on 4 July 1876, the centenary of American independence. The foundation stone had been laid two years earlier, on 9 July 1874, by the American ambassador, His Excellency General Schenk. The two main rooms in the tower were named the Washington and the Wilberforce. ..."
The top of the spire does look rather unfinished - it lacks a decorative pinnacle.
Site: Christ Church and Lincoln Tower (3 memorials)
SE1, Westminster Bridge Road, Lincoln Tower
The 1873 stone is on the north-east elevation of the tower, that's the wall facing left out of our picture. It's at knee height, below a window across what was surely the original entrance. The 'Lincoln Tower' stone is also on this face, but higher up. To see the 1959 plaque you have to go up the modern steps to the right of our photo and look low down, to the right of the concrete screen.
Architect.com gives "The church on the ground floor is 1958-1960 and the office block 1972-1976, both by the architect Peter John Darvall. It is now an academy."
In 1849 the congregation at the Surrey Chapel had raised a fund to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Rowland Hill, their first pastor. When the lease of that chapel was due to expire that fund was used by their pastor, Newman Hall, to acquire this site on which to build a complex of mission buildings including the Congregational church, and, in 1867, a new Hawkstone Hall to replace that on Westminster Road which had been swallowed up by the expansion of Waterloo Station. Hawkstone Hall being named for Rowland Hill's birthplace.
In 2014 the whole church site was converted to house the school, Oasis Academy Southbank, with the chapel becoming the sports hall.
