Wikipedia [visit link] tells
us about the tower:
"The Lincoln Memorial Tower or Lincoln Tower is a Gothic
revival tower in London, housing small meeting rooms, that was opened in 1876 in
memory of Abraham Lincoln, and paid for partly by Americans. Once part of a
complex of nineteenth century philanthropic institutions sited alongside a
Congregational chapel, it is all that now remains of the original design. It is
located at the corner of Westminster Bridge Road and Kennington Park Road close
to Waterloo Station and Lambeth North tube station in London, and is today a
listed building associated with, and close to, Christ Church and Upton
Chapel.
The Lincoln Tower is built on the site of an orphanage
for females, founded in 1758. When the orphanage closed in the mid nineteenth
century, its site was acquired by trustees of the Surrey Chapel on nearby
Blackfriars Road, whose own chapel lease was due to expire. This larger site
provided them with ample opportunity to fund-raise not only for a new
Congregational chapel which they named Christ Church, but also for a large
complex of ancillary buildings.
The pastor of Surrey Chapel at the time was the
energetic Christopher Newman Hall who had lectured and written extensively in
support of Abraham Lincoln and abolition of slavery during the American Civil
War. He raised funds in America for a permanent International Memorial in
London, to Abraham Lincoln, and incorporated this into plans for redevelopment
of the former orphanage site.
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 rooms.
The original design by the architect E.C.Robins,
developed in 1873, would have placed the tower and spire as an elevated
structure above the centre of the new Congregational chapel. This was adapted in
the final scheme by architects Paull and Bickerdyke, who kept much of the
original design and detailing of the building complex as a whole, but gave
greater prominence to the Lincoln Tower. This became a stand-alone building with
its own ground floor and entrances, though still integral to the complex. As
more memorial funds were raised, the new architects, like E.C.Robins before
them, added a lofty spire; raising the tower 200 feet high. The spectacular
spire incorporated E.C.Robins' concept for an architectural version of 'stars
and stripes' - the use of a polychromatic colour scheme of red and white
stones.
On the Tower's north entrance, above the apex of a large
archway, a stone was added bearing the title Lincoln Tower. Under the paved
basement the coffin of preacher Rowland Hill was re-located from Surrey Chapel,
with a tablet inset into the interior wall above. There was another tablet in
memory of his successor, James Sherman, with a still larger tablet giving the
name and purpose of the tower – to commemorate emancipation by the martyred
Lincoln, the contribution of half the cost of the tower by American citizens,
and as a pledge of international brotherhood.
The completed tower, built of Kentish Rag stone outside
and Bath stone within, and modelled on a Gothic style, was widely regarded at
the time as one of the best examples of steeple and tower architecture in
south-central London.
Much of the Christ Church complex was destroyed in the
Second World War, although the Lincoln Tower survived. In the 1950s a large
commercial office block, with an integral Congregational and Baptist chapel and
community office space, was planned where the nineteenth century Christ Church
Congregational chapel and its school and meeting rooms (Hawkstone Hall) had
stood.
Today, the complex, with its integral Christ Church and
Upton Chapel form a modernist backdrop to the surviving Gothic Revival tower.
The Lincoln Tower, as well as the chapel and adjoining community office space,
are presently owned by United Reformed Church (as successors to the
Congregationalists) and Baptists, and managed by church.co.uk, part of the Oasis
Trust charity. The chapel is also open as a cafe."
The tower is Grade II listed and the entry at the English
Heritage website [visit
link] tells us:
"Five-stage tower with spire, the angle turrets having
spirelets. Snecked rubble of Kentish rag with Portland stone dressings. Top
stage of ashlar has bell-openings. Early English style with tall lancets and
angle buttresses. Spire is banded with red sandstone and has
lucarnes."