A fairly late church by W. C. Mangan, more stripped and less historicist than most of his oeuvre, with a prominent west tower. It replaced a former warehouse, converted by Wardell and E. W. Pugin into a church and school. The current church has two statues by Michael Lindsey Clark.

The mission was founded by Fr William Lockhart of the Order of Charity (Rosminians) in 1855, when a chapel was opened at 83 Culford Road. The following year a warehouse in Tottenham Grove (later Road) was converted by W. W. Wardell into a church above a school. This was opened on 29 September 1856. The building was further remodelled by E. W. Pugin (1859-60), who built a pitched roof to replace the flat one. This building was demolished in the early 1960s. Wilfrid C. Mangan prepared plans for a new church in 1962. The new church was opened by Cardinal Heenan on 12 April 1964.

Description

The church faces north. This description uses liturgical orientation, i.e. as if the altar was in the east.

The church is built using yellow bricks laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings. The pitched roof is covered with copper. The plan is roughly rectangular with a west tower and a narrower sanctuary flanked by a chapel at the southeast. The tower has two vertical windows with a large stone cross superimposed. Below are three round-headed doorways whose tympana bear reliefs of Alpha and Omega and the Holy Family (possibly by Michael Lindsey Clark). At the southwest is the low baptistery with a canted corner. At the northwest corner is the stone commemorating the opening of the church.

The narthex has a floor mosaic of the Flight into Egypt. Above it is the organ gallery, which projects slightly into the nave. The seven-bay nave has three stepped straight-headed windows per bay. The ceiling is segmental with transverse ribs. The north side of the nave has a painting of the Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi (died 1964). There are confessionals at the southwest and southeast. An unpainted statue of St Patrick is set against the south wall. At the northeast corner of the nave is a shallow shrine to St Joseph with a statue by Michael Lindsey Clark.

On either side of the chancel arch are statues of the Sacred Heart and St Anthony, set on fluted and wreathed corbels. The two-bay chancel has a large gilded crucifix on a black cross, a stone tabernacle stand and a timber font. Two arches on the south side are open to the large Lady Chapel at the southeast. Like the nave, this has a segmental-curved ceiling. The stone statue of the Virgin Mary on a stone altar with brass tabernacle is also by Clark. Other furnishings in the chapel include an icon of Mary and a statue of St Martin de Porres. The Stations are of opus sectile and mosaic (Hardman, 1963).

Heritage Details