Battersea Congregational Church

Battersea Congregational Church, by Mr. Fuller, is novel and picturesque in its general grouping, and quiet and unpretentious in its style. The wide roof, however - that perpetual curse of chapel architecture - though less prominent than usual, is kept out of sight by a not very satisfactory expedient. There is no clerestory, and what might otherwise have been termed the aisles, return against the side walls of a kind of nave, which projects many feet before them, The principal end of the chapel is, in fact, borrowed, on the common system, to improve the proportions of the front elevation. Both the ridge and the eaves run through on a uniform level, the roof being lowered in pitch over the wide part of the building enough to make it cover both nave and aisles in the same height which in the narrow part covered the nave alone. The front and back gables, therefore, are totally different in their angles, and this fact alone will make it obvious that the result in certain views cannot be pleasing. All the ingenuity which from time to time has been wasted on disguising huge roofs and stunted walls only points to one conclusion – that sooner or later we must abandon either the wide span or the steep gable. [Building News 30 August 1867 page 589]

Reference    Congregational Year Book for 1867 page 349
Reference    Building News 30 August 1867 page 589