Coking chambers in a coke oven battery are disposed in an alternate relationship with heating flues. At the top of each coking chamber there is a top arch having an inner-arched surface defined by a segment of a circle whose diameter is greater than the internal width of the coking chamber. The coking chamber is bounded by two heating walls which are extended to the spring of the arch where wall portions extend in an inclined manner upwardly and outwardly to form a mushroom-shaped gas-collecting chamber above the coke oven chamber. These wall portions extend at an angle of approximately 30 DEG to 50 DEG to the horizontal. The diameter of the arched wall portions for the arch is approximately between 30% and 60% greater than the internal width of the coking chamber.