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Home Page The West End
The door to the vestry is in the centre of the photograph. Turner painted sunsets and cloud effects from the vestry's Oriel window, which faces out over the river. The Memorial to the fallen of Battersea in the two world wars is just to the right of the vestry door. It is reputedly the largest terracotta work in London, and was unveiled in 1949 by a cadet and a Chelsea pensioner. In the gallery above the vestry door hangs the tithe map of the parish of Battersea in 1838 AD. It shows the area to be still largely market gardens and river-based industries.
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The gallery is faced with a series of plaques commemorating significant
charitable gifts in the history of the parish. One records the
foundation of St Walter St John's School in Battersea High St (on the
site of the current Thomas' Day School). Another of a gift of
money, the interest from which is to be used to buy clothing for
'decayed families of the parish'. The most recent benefactor recorded
here is Harold Carter, a local greengrocer, who left the parish a large
sum in his will.