More information : Independent chapel in Westminster Bridge Road was built in 1873-6 by Paull and Bickerdike. Gothic style, the plan being an octagonal auditorium with gabled transepts, a corner tower and spire (the latter listed), and a large hall. Now jointly Baptist and United Reformed Church. (1)
The former non-conformist church was built for the congregation from Rowland Hill's chapel in Blackfriars Road. It had an octagonal plan with four transept arms. Between the west and the north arms, almost detached was a bold tower and spire with a height of over two hundred feet. Both church and tower were built in Kentish ragstone with Portland stone dressings and were designed in the Early English style. The tower is also known as Lincoln Tower after the American President Abraham Lincoln. It was built out of funds collected by Reverend Newman Hall in America. It features two buttresses to each face and is capped be pinnacles at each corner. Above the pinnacles is the octagonal spire which 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 tower was Grade II listed on 30th May 1979. (2-3)
The pastor Christopher Newman Hall had lectured and written extensively in support of Abraham Lincoln 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 church was heavily destroyed during the Second World War and its remains -apart from the Lincoln Tower - were demolished and a large commercial office block, with an integral Congregational and Baptist chapel and community office space were built in the 1950s. (4)
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