A Catholic chapel was built in St George’s Fields in 1790, at the time of the passing of the Second Relief Act. The architect was the London surveyor and builder James Taylor. Here was reportedly celebrated in January 1793 the first High Mass in England since the days of James II (apart from in the embassy chapels), for the repose of the soul of the late King Louis XVI of France.

By the 1830s this Georgian chapel was inadequate for the numbers attending, prompting Fr Thomas Doyle, the priest in charge of the mission, to develop ambitious plans for a significant new church. In 1838, after extensive fundraising, A.W.N. Pugin was asked to develop plans for a large cruciform church with a central tower and spire, cloister, chapter house, convent and schools. However, these were rejected as too expensive and instead designs for a new church, clergy house and two schools were sought in competition from Pugin, John Buckler, Edward Foxhall and J.J. Scoles. By this time the Georgian design of the 1790 chapel was decidedly unfashionable (although it had been internally Gothicised in 1808); the brief called for ‘pointed architecture’ and ‘solidity of construction’ while at the same time emphasising economy and maximum size. Pugin’s design was chosen, the site in St George’s Road purchased (purported to be have been that from which Lord George Gordon had led a march on Parliament in 1780), and builders chosen (Pugin’s favourites, Myers & Wilson). The foundation stone was laid in May 1841, with building continuing intermittently (on account of further fundraising difficulties) until July 1848, when the completed church was opened by Vicar Apostolic Nicholas Wiseman.

Pugin’s second design, although modified from that of 1838, was nevertheless the largest Catholic church in England at that time. The church relied for its effect on its volume; of necessity there had to be economies in the construction (it was built of yellow stock brick, with stone used only for the dressings) and fitting out. One of its chief original furnishings was a double stone rood screen, or jubé, at the chancel arch. Pugin’s intended 320 ft western tower and spire were not realised, and the tower remained a 60ft stub.

Two highly personal events in Pugin’s life are associated with St George’s and its environs. His third marriage, to Jane Knill, took place in the church in 1848. Less happily, four years later, after his descent into psychosis, he was briefly admitted to the Bethlem Hospital (now the Imperial War Museum), opposite the cathedral.

With the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in 1850, the church was the natural choice for the cathedral church of the new Diocese of Southwark, with Pugin’s adjoining clergy house (with schools and convent) becoming the residence of the first bishop, Thomas Grant.

The cathedral was furnished and enriched over time. A.W.N. Pugin added the Petre Chantry in 1848-9 and his son Edward Welby Pugin the Knill Chantry in 1856-7. The chapel of St Joseph, off the south aisle, was built in memory of Samuel Weld (d. 1851) and finally opened in 1890 (designs by Joseph Seed, clerk of works to J.A. Hansom).

In 1887-8, under Bishop Butt, Pugin’s clergy house and schools were largely subsumed within a larger and grander building housing a residence and offices for the bishop, clergy accommodation and a small convent (the schools having by then relocated to new buildings nearby, designed by Leonard Stokes). The architect for the rebuilding was F.A. Walters.

In 1889 Bishop Butt relocated Pugin’s rood screen to the west end, below the tower gallery. The cathedral and its various altars were consecrated on 7 November 1894.

In 1938-40 Amigo Hall was built alongside the cathedral, from designs by Robert Sharp. It was named after Archbishop Amigo, Bishop of Southwark from 1904, on whom the personal title of Archbishop was conferred by Pope Pius XI in 1938.

In April 1941 Pugin’s cathedral was gutted by a German incendiary bomb. Worship took place in Amigo Hall until rebuilding was completed. Work began on this in 1953, under the direction of Romilly Craze FRIBA, with Higgs and Hill the builders. The design of the rebuilt cathedral, which reopened in 1958, departed from Pugin’s in a number of respects. A great west tower (this time without a spire) was proposed but, like Pugin’s, was never completed. Other changes were the addition of a tall clerestory and associated flattening of the roof pitch (although Pugin had intended a clerestory), the replacement of the nave column shafts with piers and the formation of short transepts out of the aisles. New furnishings included stained glass in the east and west windows by Harry Clarke Studios of Dublin. In 1961-3 a large Lady Chapel was added, giving off the south aisle at its east end; this with the baptistery at the west end of the south aisle (1965) completed the reconstruction.

In 1982 Pope John Paul II celebrated a liturgy of the sick at the cathedral during his visit to the United Kingdom, an event subsequently commemorated by a stained glass window in the north transept. In 1988-9 the sanctuary was reordered by Austin Winkley. More recent works overseen by Jonathan Louth architects have included the refurbishment of Amigo Hall, the refitting of the space between the chapels of St Joseph and St Patrick as the Archbishop Romero Chapel, with a large painted cross by Fernando Llort, alterations at the west end to facilitate wheelchair access and the formation of a holy door at the west end of the north aisle.

In 2023-4 two altars designed by F.A. Walters for the chapel of the diocesan seminary at Wonersh (which had recently closed) were relocated to St George’s Cathedral: the altar of Our Lady, a baroque design of 1900 with opus sectile panels, was installed in the Lady Chapel (photo above), while the marble altar of St John the Evangelist (1925) was set up in the north transept. A 1922-3 copy of the famous painting of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour (the original in the Redemptorist church of St Alphonsus, Rome), in a marble frame designed by Walters, was also relocated to St George’s and the earthly remains of Bishop Butt (1826-99), who had founded the seminary and been buried in the chapel at Wonersh, were transferred to the crypt.

Description

The building is described in the list entry (below). The Blessed Sacrament Chapel is incorrectly attributed to E.W. Pugin rather than A.W.N. Pugin, and the descriptions of this chapel and the Knill Chantry appear to be muddled. Features not mentioned or insufficiently described in the list entry include:

• The painted ceiling panels of the nave and of the ribs and panels in the aisle roofs are by Robert Hendra and Geoffrey Harper.
• The Harry Clarke Studios west window depicts the Coronation of the Virgin and the nine-light east window the Crucifixion and various saints.
• Table tombs in the north aisle to Provost Doyle (d.1879, by Farmer & Brindley) and Archbishop Amigo (d.1949, photo above).
• Above Archbishop Amigo’s tomb in the north aisle is a window by Goddard and Gibbs recording the papal visit to Southwark Cathedral in 1982.
• In the north aisle, one of the confessionals has been adapted to form a shrine to St Francis Xavier Cabrini, with a large bronze roundel by the Gillick brothers in an arched recess (2010).
• Austin Winkley’s chancel reordering involved a new altar and ambo in marble and stone, the ambo incorporating a panel of the Four Evangelists by David John, and a wrought iron screen and painted fabric by Alan Evans and Sue Ridge.
• The Stations of the Cross, 1960, are low-relief stone panels by Harold Youngman, in the manner of Eric Gill.
• In the chapel of St Joseph are displayed the conserved remains of Pugin’s 1848 high altar frontal (photo above).
• Two altars from Wonersh were introduced in 2023-4, as described above.

Text amended by AHP 19.05.26

List descriptions

Cathedral

II

Catholic cathedral. 1841-48. By Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin; restored and redecorated 1888-1905 by FA Walters; largely rebuilt and extended following war damage, 1953 by Higgs and Hill to designs of Romilly B Craze based on Pugin’s plans.

MATERIALS: yellow stock brick with Portland stone dressings. Slated roofs.

STYLE: C20 Gothic Revival style, mixed with fragments of Pugin’s Decorated Gothic; only the east end, the lowest part of the west tower, the aisle walls and a few internal details remain of Pugin’s work.

PLAN: western tower, tall nave of 8 bays with clerestory (an addition to Pugin’s design), aisles and pseudo-transepts. Large tower and spire intended for west end never built.

EXTERIOR: parapeted west front has full-height buttresses with statues in stone niches at bases flanking central ashlar doorcase with moulded pointed arch; large C20 6-light traceried window. Baptistry north of entrance, completed 1966, has 3- light window and pyramidal roof. Southern return with single-storey, buttressed aisles with traceried windows and parapet. Gabled transepts formed by heightening the east bays of the aisles. East end flanked by small stone turrets with conical roofs.

INTERIOR: has massive stone piers (replacing Pugin’s original ones) designed to support elaborate stone vault over nave, simplified when built to transverse arches with a boarded ceiling in between. Aisles with chapels at east ends have flying ribs, creating illusion of vault. Series of small chapels as extensions to south aisle, with larger Lady Chapel extension (1961-3) at south east. Crossing in 7th bay and sanctuary now extended into last bay of nave. Gallery with gabled pseudo-transepts created by heightening of aisles. Sanctuary now extended into last bay of nave. Gallery at west end. Large Decorated chancel windows and north aisle windows, the remains of Pugin’s work.

FITTINGS include: Petre Chantry of 1848-9 in Perpendicular style by Pugin with vaulted roof and angel finials, has original furnishings including table tomb and carved altarpiece with Virgin and Child and angels. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel, 1856-7 by Edward Welby Pugin in refined Gothic with vault supported by thin internal piers linked to the outer walls by transoms; well carved capitals with birds and frieze; with original fittings including altar, reredos and encaustic tiles; gates by Hardman. Knill Chantry, St Patrick’s Chapel begun 1845 as a chantry for George Talbot, completed as relics chapel in 1905 and largely reconstructed after the war. St Joseph’s Chapel, converted from the Weld Chantry of 1890, with stone vault. The Lady Chapel, 1961-3, contains a small C18 Flemish Virgin and Child. STAINED GLASS: in east and west windows by Henry Clarke Studios of Dublin.

HISTORICAL NOTE: the Cathedral, although not designed as such, was always intended to be an important church but Pugin’s original grand scheme was rejected as too expensive. A competition was held in 1839 which Pugin won and the current, more modest, plan was accepted, being dictated by the restricted site (there was formerly a built-up road immediately to the north).

Archbishop’s House and Cathedral House

II

Summary:1886-87 bishop’s house and clergy house designed by the architect Frederick A Walters in Gothic style, but incorporating parts of an 1840s clergy house and schools by A W Pugin. Some 1930s and 1950s refurbishing.

Reasons for Designation: The Archbishop’s House and Clergy House, both 1886-87 in Gothic style designed by the architect Frederick A Walters but incorporating parts of an 1840s clergy house and schools by A W Pugin, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural interest: Archbishop’s House is a good quality well-articulated asymmetrical design decorated with black brick diaperwork, its two sections separated by an impressive staircase tower and decorative main entrance. Cathedral House is plainer but of good quality with gables, a staircase turret and three arched doorways enlivening the exterior; * Interiors: include original panelled ceilings, panelled doors with elaborate architraves, a number of wood or stone well or winder staircases, elaborate fireplaces, built-in settles and window seats, stained glass windows and a built-in library staircase and gallery; * Intactness: virtually unaltered exteriors and the plan and most interior fittings survive apart from the loss of some fireplaces in Archbishop’s House; * Comparators: comparable in quality with other residential type commissions for the Roman Catholic church by F A Walters, such as religious houses, seminaries and schools, which have been listed elsewhere; * Group Value: part of a complex of ecclesiastical buildings with the adjoining Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. George (Grade II).

History: This building occupies a triangular-shaped corner site at the junction between St. George’s Road and Westminster Bridge Road adjoining St. George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral. In the 1830s a committee was set up to build a large Roman Catholic church to accommodate a great influx of Irish Catholics into the area in the first quarter of the C19. In 1838 A W Pugin, who had been informed of this project by the Earl of Shrewsbury, provided elaborate and detailed plans for a cathedral with chapter house, cloisters and conventual buildings but walked out when the committee enquired about the cost. The north-west view of this scheme is illustrated in Benjamin Ferrey’s ‘Recollections of Pugin’. The following year four architects, including Pugin, were asked to provide designs for buildings to include a church with accommodation for 2,500 on the ground floor, a house for four clergy, and schools for 300 boys and 200 girls, not to exceed an estimated cost of £20,000. A W Pugin’s new simpler designs were selected. In April 1840 the City of London agreed to sell the triangular plot of land opposite Bethlem Hospital for £3,200 provided that the buildings were erected to Pugin’s design, were completed within six years and had no ‘ecclesiastical ornament’ on the outside. The south-west elevation of Pugin’s winning 1839 scheme, which also shows part of the north side and the plan, are preserved in the Cathedral Archives and illustrated as Plate 46 in the Survey of London: Volume 25. The schools are shown located along St. George’s Road in this plan and a house, probably the clergy house, on the north-east side. The Builder of 17 June 1843 stated that ‘An episcopal palace, a convent for the Sisters of Mercy, with spacious sacristies, houses for the clergy, and parochial schools for both sexes are also in course of erection’ (1843, 228). The buildings are shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map, which was surveyed in 1872. Schools for boys and girls are labelled in this position, erroneously called National Schools. Trade directories from 1854 include ‘St. George’s Catholic Church and Schools’ in Westminster [Bridge] Road. In July 1869 Provost Doyle reported that the Cathedral Boys’ School comprised two kitchens and a coal cellar. In 1885 Bishop Butt wished to expand the number of priests by enlarging the Clergy House. In 1887 the schools were removed to a new site and the old site used for a new episcopal residence and a clergy house, also including a seminary and convent, designed by Frederick A Walters. However parts of the existing north and north-east wings in particular have a different character so it is likely that some elements of Pugin’s earlier design may survive. Walters’ St. George’s Road elevation and plan of the ground floor were printed in ‘The Builder’ of June 23 1888. The archbishop’s residence was mainly situated fronting St. George’s Road, with nuns originally occupying the top floor, and the attached clergy house and seminary was mainly situated along Westminster Bridge Road and in the north-east wing attached to the cathedral. However there were connecting doors between the two buildings and some vertical mingling of functions between the two buildings. The footprint of Walters’ building, shown on the 1896 Second Edition Ordnance Survey map, is similar to the first edition map, including an internal triangular-shaped courtyard, but a garden area between the cathedral and the new building is shown much reduced in size on the second edition map. The property is now called Archbishop’s House and Cathedral House.

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) needs no introduction as the founding architect of the Gothic Revival with numerous works listed, including the adjoining St. George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral. Frederick Arthur Walters (1849-1931) was a prolific Catholic architect who was articled to his father, Frederick Page Walters, and then worked for Goldie & Child for nine years before setting up his own practice in 1880. He was responsible for more than 50 Roman Catholic church or building commissions, including this one, Buckfast Abbey (Devon), Ealing Abbey (London) and the Southwark diocesan seminary at Wonersh in Surrey. His son, Edward John (1880-1947), was taken into the practice in 1924, when it became F A Walters and Son. The practice was continued after F A Walters’ death by his partner S Kerr Bate under the name of Walters & Kerr Bate. Currently a numberof buildings wholly designed by F A Walters are listed, three of them, Buckfast Abbey Church and main block and the Sacred Heart, Wimbledon (London) at Grade II*.

Details: DATE: 1886-87 bishop’s house and clergy house designed by the architect Frederick A Walters in Gothic style, but incorporating parts of an 1840s clergy house and schools by A W Pugin. Some 1930s and 1950s refurbishing. MATERIALS: stock brick in English bond, with plinths and some diaper decoration in black brick, and stone dressings. Ornamental iron rainwater goods. Slate roofs, mainly concealed by parapets, with a series of tall channelled and moulded brick chimneystacks. PLAN: the bishop’s, now archbishop’s residence, stretches mainly along St. George’s Road with the clergy house, now Cathedral House, mainly along Westminster Bridge Road. In the archbishop’s house the public rooms are on the ground floor, the archbishop’s private rooms and some offices are on the first floor, originally nuns occupied the third floor and there were service rooms in the basement. The Clergy House has a complicated plan which includes four staircases. It comprised service rooms to the basement and ground floor, accommodation for clergy on the first and second floors, including two communal reception rooms, and originally there was seminary accommodation on the third floor. EXTERIOR: the principal front of Archbishop’s House faces south-west along St. George’s Road. It comprises a south-west block of four storeys and basement and two bays, divided from a lower three-storey and basement seven-bay north-west block by a taller set-back tower behind the main entrance. The south-west block has a crenellated parapet and bands between floors. The third floor windows are triple mullioned casement windows. The other floors have triple mullioned and transomed casement windows with relieving arches above the ground and second floor windows, but the first floor windows additionally have three blank stone panels with cinquefoil carved heads. The south-east return has a tall two-storey canted bay window over two storeys, an external channelled chimneystack and projecting gable. Adjoining the south-west block is the main entrance with gable flanked by buttresses and an arched doorcase with the archbishop’s arms and the date ‘1886’ above: this is flanked by small arched windows with leaded lights. The double door has ornamental iron hinges. The recessed tower behind the main entrance is of five storeys and one bay, with a crenellated parapet, arched windows to the two upper floors and narrow mullioned and transomed windows below. The north-west block is of seven bays with a crenellated parapet and two external channelled chimneystacks. Second-floor windows are two-light mullioned windows with drip moulds. First-floor windows and the two northern ground floor windows are mullioned and transomed with relieving aches, and the five southern windows on the ground floor have more elaborate mullioned and transomed casements and are divided by buttresses. Archbishop’s House terminates in a corner full-height canted bay of three windows, with arched heads to the second floor windows, blank stone cinquefoil-headed panels above the first floor windows, and relieving arches above the ground-floor windows.The principal front of Cathedral House faces north along Westminster Bridge Road and is of three to four storeys with a crenellated parapet, two small gables and a projecting plinth. The irregularly spaced windows are either stone mullioned or mullioned and transomed casements. There are three doorcases, the eastern one an elaborate stone doorcase incorporating an arch with blank shields to the spandrels and a fanlight with three trefoiled arches. The central and western ones are plainer arched doorcases with dripmoulds. A further section, attached to St. George’s Cathedral, faces south-west and is of two storeys with stone paired trefoil-headed lights. It is terminated by a narrow octagonal brick tower with winder staircase on the cathedral side. A gabled section further north-west has taller ground floor mullioned and transomed windows with moulded stone corbel heads. The internal triangular courtyard has a variety of stone mullioned windows including some with gabled heads, some with ogee trefoiled heads and some mullioned and transomed windows with ogee trefoiled heads. The tiled floor has alternate red and black tiles. INTERIOR: an entrance from St. George’s Road into Archbishop’s House leads into a vestibule with an arched ribbed ceiling and two built-in stone settles. This opens onto the main staircase, a stone well staircase incorporating a series of stone arches. In 1935 a lift with ornamental iron grilles was inserted into the well. On the ground floor a passage to the south-west with original doors has a number of small rooms, originally waiting rooms and a large reception room at the south western end, now used as a library, and retaining original cornices and doorcases. Opening off to the north-west of the main staircase is the largest reception room, the dining hall. This is of five bays with a panelled ceiling with moulded tie beams supported on corbels, original arched doorcases and an elaborate carved stone fireplace with end pilasters, five small ogee arches with cinquefoil decorations, and the motto ‘DEUS PROVIDEBIT’. The adjoining room to the north-west, designed to be part of a library and now storing archives, has a late-C19 carved wooden staircase and gallery incorporating book stands. The adjoining north-west corner room, shown as a library on the architect’s plans, has an original stone fireplace with attached colonnettes and patterned tiles. The first floor has a built-in window seat by the staircase and archiepiscopal apartments which include a chapel with stained glass in one window depicting St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, inserted in 1935 to commemorate their canonisation. A number of rooms retain their original ceilings and one window has stained glass with armorial shields. The top floor formerly housed a convent. The basement, which housed the service rooms, retains original room divisions and red and white floor tiles, but the kitchen was refitted in the 1950s. Cathedral House has an oak main staircase from ground to first floor with a rectangular well, chamfered balusters and moulded posts under a large rectangular glazed lantern. Access to the upper floors is by a smaller well staircase in the north-west corner, of similar character to the main staircase except that alternate balusters have been truncated and linked with a T-bar to adjoining balusters. There is also a narrow stone newel staircase in the north-east corner, a stone staircase in the centre of the north side, which has plain iron balusters and scrolled ends to the handrail to the basement flight, and a blocked narrow newel stair to the octagonal tower facing south-west. The semi-basement towards the north end on the St. George’s Road side has a wide Baronial-style stone chimneypiece to a former kitchen, with circular motifs at the sides, one enclosing a bishop’s mitre, the other the shield of St. George. The adjoining room, formerly a coal cellar, retains two elliptical-headed arches, and the corner room between St. George’s Road and Westminster Bridge Road has a tiled larder with marble shelves and steel hanging racks. The ground floor of the north-east side has a tiled corridor and simple door surrounds, some retaining simple six-panelled doors probably by Pugin. The more commodious first floor accommodation is in the north-west corner with moulded cornices, late C19 wooden fireplaces, one retaining decorative tiles and a metal firegrate, and a corridor with panelled doors with battlemented surrounds. The first and second floors each have a communal room with moulded cornices and tie beams. The clergy dining room retains the original fireplace and the window onto the internal courtyard has re-constituted fragments of C19 stained glass which were rescued from St. George’s Cathedral following wartime bomb damage. The upper floor bedrooms also retain their fireplaces which are smaller and simpler.

Books and journals: Cherry, B, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: London 2: South, (1994), 574; Darlington, I, Survey of London: Volume 25: St George’s Fields (The parishes of St George the Martyr Southwark and St Mary Newington), (1955), 72-75 and Plate 46; ‘The Builder’ (June 23 1888). Other:Architectural History Practice, Taking Stock (Archdiocese of Southwark), July 2011.

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The mission at Abbey Wood was founded from Plumstead. In 1907, a site was acquired with the help of Miss Frances Ellis, who also paid for the church building and the presbytery. A year later, church and presbytery were nearly complete. Both were designed by Benedict Williamson, architect and at that time studying for the priesthood. The design is very similar to Williamson’s St Elphege, Wallington and St Swithin, Bromley Common (qqv). The church was opened on 1 August 1909 and dedicated to St Benet, a shortening of Benedict. In 1939 the mission was canonically erected as a parish.

In 1962 restoration by Bernard F. Moss & Partners included new Stations of the Cross and the introduction of a panelled ceiling. In the late 1980s, the sanctuary was reordered. The interior has recently been refurbished.

Description

The church is facing north; however, this description will use the conventional liturgical orientation.

The church was built between 1908 and 1909, to designs by Rev. Benedict Williamson (the Buildings of England volume gives a wrong architect.) It is built using stock brick, laid in English bond, with clay roof tiles. In plan, it is a rectangular box with a lower sanctuary, both with pitched roofs. A flat- roofed sacristy is attached to the northeast. The west elevation has a recessed round-arched doorway, whose imposts continue as a string course across the facade. Above are three round-headed windows, separated by two stylised columns.

The west doors open directly into the four-bay nave with a flat panelled ceiling. The floor is covered in large rustic brick tiles, laid in herringbone pattern. The three west windows are glazed with modern coloured glass in an abstract pattern of swirling blues and reds. The north wall has a door at the west, leading into the presbytery, and another to the sacristy at the east, with one round-arched window above. The south wall has four windows. The timber benches are modern. The carved and unframed Stations date from the 1962 restoration

In the southeast corner of the nave stands a statue of the church’s patron saint, St Benet. On either side of the sanctuary arch are statues of St Joseph (left), and the Madonna and Child (right). The one-bay sanctuary is lit only by two lateral windows. A large crucifix hangs in a shallow niche above a timber screen. To the left is the tabernacle, to the right a statue of the Sacred Heart. The timber sanctuary furniture is modern.

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The mission was founded from St Benet’s church, Abbey Wood, in order to serve the new Abbey Wood housing estate (developed in the 1950s by the London County Council). From 1960, Mass was said in a hall in Grovebury Road, and later in the new school, run by the La Sainte Union sisters. The present church was originally designed as a two-storey parish hall. During the construction works plans changed and the building was modified to become the church. (Apparently, the gallery is a remnant of the intended upper storey.) The architect was Bernard Moss of Bernard F. Moss & Partners. St David’s church was opened on 31 May 1964 and was the first church in the diocese dedicated to St David (of Wales). The church is able to seat a congregation of 300. According to photos of 1965, the current benches, crucifix and tester are original. A high altar raised on three steps and the altar rails have since been removed.

Description

The church was built in 1964 to designs by Bernard Moss. It is built using black bricks, laid in stretcher bond. The plan is rectangular with ancillary spaces to the south, including the south aisle, sacristy and a confessional. The west front has a large doorway with a five-light window above. To the left is a large fibreglass relief of St David (1964). The north elevation has a large metal cross and the name of the church in metal lettering. Below are three small square windows to the narthex. A large window occupies the centre of the north wall, surrounding a central brick panel supported by four lozenge-shaped pillars.

Internally, there is a narthex below a gallery at the west end. To the left is a small meeting room, to the right a kitchen and the stairs to the gallery. The nave has four columns on each side. Those on the north side are set closely to the wall, while beyond the columns on the south is a narrow aisle. At the west end of the south aisle is a small space with a Lady altar, which is also used as a confessional. The north wall has  a large window with  coloured  glass, of a three-foot wide line surrounding a central brick panel. (The window line is only interrupted by two doors on either side of the brick panel.) The glass features abstract red shapes in front of a blue background. The individual glass bricks are four inches long and 1½ inches wide. (According to an account in The Cork Examiner of 1964, this glass was made at Buckfast Abbey; although Evinson states it was supplied from Dublin.) The Stations of the Cross are made from coloured and painted glass, apparently by Hardman. The south aisle is lit by clear-glazed clerestorey windows and glazed doors in the aisle.

The straight-headed sanctuary arch is timber panelled with statues of the Virgin and Child to the left and St Joseph to the right. The lectern, altar, font and tabernacle stand are made from rusticated blocks of English limestone. The remaining sanctuary furniture is of timber. Above the tabernacle hangs a large timber crucifix with Christ the King, carved by craftsmen in the Dolomites, with a geometrically coloured canopy above. At the east end of the south aisle is the sacristy.

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In 1925 Fr Henry Prince, parish priest at St Chad’s Norwood, acquired for £3,000 a hall in Lower Addiscombe Road which had been built for the Primrose League, an organisation (wound up in the 1990s) which promoted the cause and interests of the Conservative party. A daughter church was established, served from St Chad’s until 1939.

The church was damaged by a bomb in 1940, but holding repairs were carried out by 1943. In 1944 Fr John McKenna took over as parish priest and with the arrival of a curate in 1947 three properties in Addiscombe Road were acquired. These were amongst the oldest houses in the street, having been built in the 1870s by Lady Ashburton. One of them, no. 147, became the presbytery. Meanwhile the church was fully repaired and improvements made, almost doubling the seating capacity (from 140 to 270), between 1950 and 1952.

In 1957-8 a parish hall was built in the grounds of the presbytery, at a cost of £12,500, from designs by T. J. Denny LRIBA of Watford. In 1962 Denny & Bryan were asked to draw up plans for a new church, on land adjoining the parish hall, which was capable of seating 500 and maximising visibility of, and proximity to, the altar. The church was built between 1963 and 1964, the contractors being Messrs Coldman of Dulwich. The cost was £59,000, excluding fittings and furniture. In 1975 the sanctuary was reordered by Denny & Bryan in preparation for the consecration of the church, which took place on 2 October 1975.

Description

The church was built at about the time of the Second Vatican Council, with a view to encouraging full and active lay participation in the liturgy. The church is of reinforced concrete construction, faced externally in a chestnut-coloured brick, with stone dressings and dark brown pantiles to the roof. It is T-shaped on plan, consisting of a wide nave with narrow circulation aisles, and with transepts giving off the east end (that on the south side partitioned off to form a weekday or winter chapel). Sacristies give off the rear of the sanctuary. The entrance front has three entrances with hardwood (Sapele) doors under a flat projecting canopy. Above this is a tall west window, its pointed apex following the pitch of the roof. There are similar windows on the end walls of the projecting transepts. Otherwise the windows are plain high level clerestory lights, in threes. At the northwest corner is a brick campanile, with louvred openings in the top stage and a pyramidal roof.

The entrance doors lead into a narthex with a baptistery/repository giving off on the south side. The narthex leads into the nave, where the bays are marked by reinforced concrete piers, which continue down to mark the division with the narrow circulation aisles. Between these the walls are plastered and the ceiling lined with acoustic tiles. There is a choir gallery at the west end, accessed via a stair in the narthex.

As originally placed, the high altar was freestanding, but placed higher and  set further back, on a platform and steps of dark green terrazzo paving. The altar is of polished Nabresina marble. Behind this, the east wall is windowless, the wall plane relieved  by raised geometrical patterning as a backdrop to the sanctuary. At the centre is a crucifix designed by Michael Clark. Below this is a white marble tabernacle stand, introduced in 1975, and above this is an original red and gold painted panelled canopy. The white marble ambo was also brought in as part of the 1975 reordering. In the north transept a recessed Lady altar gives off the east side  top-lit and with a small altar of polished Nabresina marble and a bronze Annunciation, also by Michael Clark. The south transept is separated from the rest of the church by a glass screen; it was designed to serve as a winter or weekday chapel, with its own heating and confessionals, and with its own entrance from Bingham Road. It has a Sacred Heart altar of Verde Greco and green Cippolino marble. The baptistery at the west end now doubles up as a repository. It retains its original red and gold enamelled wrought iron gates, Portland stone tapering octagonal font with Sapele cover, and three stained glass panels depicting the vine, dove and fishes.

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The mission at Anerley began with a fundraising appeal by Canon Bethell which raised £407 and allowed a small iron church to be built in Genoa Road on a site owned by the Canon. This opened on 25 October 1878. By the late 1890s the iron church was in disrepair and the mission priest Fr Miller began to plan for a replacement. He bought another site in Genoa Road for £230 and built a two-storey school building whose upper floor was used as a chapel. The chapel was formally opened on 14 May 1898 by Bishop Bourne  (later Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster). The cost of the building and its furniture was £2,653.

In 1912 Canon Bethell died and the following year the presbytery and the site for the future church were acquired from his heirs for £700.

The mission of St Chad, South Norwood, had been established in 1908, which was served from Anerley. This became a separate parish in 1919. Anerley itself became a parish in 1920. When James E. Walters became the parish priest in 1924, the debt had been cleared and there was enough money to start building a permanent church (including a gift of £3,000 from Miss Mary Murphy). Plans were drawn up by the architect Frederick A. Walters, the parish priest’s father. Building work started in November 1925. The builders were Messrs James Smith & Sons, Norwood. The foundation stone was laid on 28 March 1926 by Bishop Brown, Assistant Bishop of the Diocese, and on Easter Monday, 18 April 1927, Bishop Brown formally opened the church. The cost of the church, which could accommodate 400 people, was £12,076. The high altar cost £234. Some furnishings were donated in time for the opening, such as the painted stone statues of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady, and the font at the west end of the aisle. Other furnishings were acquired piecemeal over the following years, including the stone pulpit from Miss Koch (c.1929) and the organ, benches and altar rails. F. A. Walters had proposed a full-height reredos instead of an east window; however, this might not have been realised. He also proposed a three-stage tower at the west end with a parapet and spirelet and an attached apsidal baptistery; but this too was not realised – instead a smaller bell turret was built against one of the transepts.

In 1936 Fr Bernard Wall became the parish priest (he later became the Bishop of Brentwood.) The church was consecrated on 14 June 1950. The predecessor of the present incumbent sold the church hall to the parish school, for use as the kitchen. On 13 June 2000, the feast of St Anthony, Bishop Charles Henderson, Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark, set a time capsule in the sanctuary’s north wall.

Description

The church is facing southwest; however, the following description will use the conventional liturgical orientation.

The church was built between 1925 and 1927 to plans by F. A. Walters. The materials are brick and roughcast, with Bath stone dressings and a roof of Cornish Green slates. The style is later fifteenth-century English Gothic. The plan is longitudinal, with a lean-to south aisle and a north transept. The sacristy is placed to the east of the transept. The west face of the north transept has a small bell turret which also incorporates the chimney from the boiler room. In contrast to the interior, the west facade’s Gothic detailing appears rather thin. The central gabled doorway is set below two traceried ogee-arched windows. Above is a niche with a statue of St Anthony and  a gable-end  cross. This central section is framed by buttresses, with further diagonal buttresses on the outer corners. The west face of the south aisle has a two-light window.

Access is via the west doors, a northwest porch (with ramp) or a door on the school (south) side of the building. At the west is a narthex with the repository at its north end. The nave has four bays, with a pointed arcade to the south aisle. On the south side of the nave are four three-light clerestory windows; with three three-light windows on the north side. Nave and sanctuary have a low-pitch timber ceiling. Beside the northwest entrance is a small bronze memorial plaque to the fallen of the First World War. The north side of the nave has a built-in confessional (with external access via a uPVC  door) with a traceried timber screen to the nave. The north transept has an organ loft above a small chapel lit by a four-light window. The chapel is dedicated to St Anthony, with a reproduction painting, a timber altar and a monstrance in a glass case. Beside the side altar is the door to the sacristy.

The sanctuary is two bays deep, lit by two windows each on the north and south sides. High altar, forward altar, altar rails and pulpit are all of matching Seaton stone. The reredos of the original high altar is set against a shallow pointed  niche,  painted yellow. The reredos has four carved shields with the instruments of the Passion, with a monstrance throne above the tabernacle. The original altar was moved forward and replaced by a simple tabernacle stand in matching white stone. On either side are aumbry and piscina set into the walls. The altar has a carved frontal with two angels pointing towards a shield with the Blessed Sacrament and a mensa of dark marble. The altar rails (possibly shortened) are of Seaton stone, carved with pomegranates, a symbol of the Resurrection, and the IHS monogram. The stone pulpit is attached to the rails on the north side. It is octagonal, also of stone, with Perpendicular tracery carvings and a central scene of St John the Baptist and Christ. A small inscription in Latin dedicates it to the memory of Frederick Koch, who died on 4 March 1929. On the north side of the sanctuary is an enclosed niche with a brass plaque recording the placing of a time capsule in 2000. Further east is a door to the sacristy. On the opposite side is a large arch to the side chapel.

The octagonal stone font with ogee-arch tracery is placed centrally in the side chapel, which has a three-light south window above a piscina. A statue of the Virgin with Child (c.1927) is set against the east wall, with statues of the Sacred Heart (c.1927) and St Joseph on either side of the chapel’s arch.

The south aisle has no windows along its south face. A large Pietà sits on a pedestal painted with Marian symbols, an inscription (‘Mater Dolorosa ora pro nobis’) and diaper patterns. Two brass plaques dedicate it to the memory of Constantine and Philip Tomei, whose names recur on the First World War memorial. The west end of the aisle, beyond the southwest entrance, was originally the baptistery, with a piscina, aumbry and a carved timber panel of the Baptism of Christ. The Stations are large reliefs in rectangular frames set into the north nave and south aisle walls.

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Ashford before the mid-nineteenth century was a small market town but following the arrival of the railway in 1842 and, more importantly the establishment of the South Eastern Railway’s engineering works here in 1847, the town grew rapidly. In the mid-eighteenth century Mass was said at Calehill House, home of the Darell family, near Little Chart, in a chapel dedicated to St Joseph. Fr James Darrell, a Jesuit, served the district from 1769 to 1775. By 1851 the population of Ashford had reached 5,000, double its size a few decades earlier. In 1859 land was purchased on the corner of North Street and Hardinge Road for the erection of a school and church, but nothing came of this and the land was subsequently sold and the site of the present church, on Barrow Hill acquired. A temporary chapel was erected in 1862 and a permanent church, to designs by E. W. Pugin, was opened on 22 August 1865. Despite extension in 1892 this remained a small church and, amidst local controversy, was demolished in 1990 to make way for the present, much larger building, for which the foundation stone was laid on 21 May 1990. The church opened on 28 April 1991.

Description

The church is essentially square on plan with a dominant pyramidal roof and lead spirelet. On the east side there is a shallow sanctuary projection. The church probably has a steel frame, the low walls are brick-faced externally and the roof is covered with natural slates. The pyramid roof has an almost continuous band of patent glazing and an integral metal profile gutter. The walls have brick mullioned windows. Together with the church hall the complex forms an L-plan with the entrances on the inner face of the L. The church entrance is a rather gaunt open porch with brick sides which break through the eaves and finish in a triangular gable. This main entrance leads into a narthex from which there is a crying chapel to the right and other ancillary accommodation to right and left. A corridor on the left leads to the hall, toilets and kitchen. The 1892 foundation stone of the enlargement of the old church is re-set in the corridor wall. The narthex is divided from the main church by a full height timber and glass screen, with stained glass from the east window of the old church set into it.

The interior is large and lofty, its timber lined roof rising to the full height of the pyramid, an impressive space. The walls are plastered and painted but it is the immense roof which dominates, with its bands of patent glazing. The Victorian font has been re-used from the old church and the altar, tabernacle stand and ambo incorporate elements from the old church. The domed tabernacle has elaborate brass and enamel detail, and is a more recent introduction, having been brought from the chapel of the former diocesan seminary at Wonersh; it was designed by F.A. Walters. To either side of the altar (somewhat hidden from view) are stained glass windows depicting The Holy Sacrament and The Word, 1997 by David Griffiths of Cathedral Studios, Canterbury. There are also several wooden statues from the old church, carved in Belgium.

Entry amended by AHP 19.09.2024

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Ashford town grew rapidly in the post-war period and continues as a major growth town in Kent, set to double in size by 2030. In the 1950s housing estates sprang up in south Ashford around Brookfield, as part of London County Council overspill. Mass was said in a prefabricated building in Woolreads Road. In 1960 the church hall was built and served as a Mass centre. It was designed by Archard & Partners and illustrated in the Catholic Building Review the following year. St Simon’s School opened in 1972 and the parish of St Simon Stock was established in 1987. Designs for the new church are dated 1989 by Stocks Design Build of Garforth, Leeds. Douglas Harvey-Browne, a chartered surveyor of Chatham was appointed by the diocese as project manager. According to Fr Richard Harvey, parish priest at the time, he worked closely with the in-house architect at Stocks to arrive at the design which was apparently inspired by the church of San Clemente, in Rome,

Description

An L-plan building of church and presbytery, both accessed from a shared lobby. Steel framed with concrete block infill, faced in brick and with a concrete overlapping Roman tile roof. The entrance lobby is set in the angle of the L and a covered walkway runs along the internal elevations of the L creating a cloister-like effect, with a round- arched arcade on reconstituted stone columns of rudimentary design without entasis and the capitals and bases of a simple square abacus and torus moulding. The colonnade is taken across the corner on the diagonal and here a Venetian form of opening is used, set beneath a broad gable. This L represents the welcoming arms of Christ, according to Fr Harvey. Elsewhere the exterior is characterised by large areas of unrelieved brickwork with round-arched windows set low down (in the church) and in two tiers (presbytery). They are linked, at ground floor level, by a continuous soldier course of yellow bricks.

The interior is largely plain, with a canted ceiling; somewhat oppressive with the windows set so low down. There is a west gallery (incomplete, with only ladder access) and rooms below with glazed walls. The one note of ornament is the marble reredos, brought from the upper chapel of the convent of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart, Foxgrove Road, Beckenham. Attractive reliefs of angels of adoration to either side in Carrara  marble. The Risen Christ over the altar is of more contemporary design but also came from the convent in Beckenham. There were originally Stations of the Cross in the same style but these have been removed and replaced by more traditional-looking Stations.

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During World War II the army occupied Wye College and Mass was said by the army chaplain there. Subsequently Fr Leonard Whatmore said Mass in the stable chapel of the Old Vicarage in Bridge Street, owned by his mother. In the late 1940s the diocese purchased Mrs Whatmore’s house. In 1954 the present church of St Ambrose was built, probably as a dual-purpose church and hall.

Description

A utilitarian rectangular structure built of Fletton bricks with a concrete tile roof. Flat-roofed projections on the north side, one the sacristy, the other the porch and lavatory.  A Celtic cross on the west gable is the only external indication that this is a church. Plain horizontal windows on the north and south sides, set high up, under soldier course lintels. Metal framed casements with leaded lights. One tall rectangular window at the east end and three smaller windows at the west end, the outer ones blocked. The interior is plastered and painted. The trusses are boxed in and painted to match the walls and underside of the roof; the effect is somewhat claustrophobic. Victorian pine pews from E. W. Pugin’s demolished church of St Teresa, Ashford. The east end was altered in 1973 when a recess was created in the wall for the tabernacle. Two, possibly eighteenth-century, benches are placed to either side of the sanctuary and came from the chapel at Calehill House, Little Chart which served the district prior to the building of St Teresa’s, Ashford. Bronze crucifix mounted on a wooden cross. Nineteenth-century Stations of the Cross, possibly from St Teresa’s, are quite elaborate but probably from a catalogue. There is a chamber organ at the west end.

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Aylesham is a planned village built for the miners of the nearby Snowdown colliery.  The village was laid out in 1926-7 by J Archibald, C. T. F. Martindale and (Sir) Patrick Abercrombie is a vaguely Beaux Arts manner, with a central grassy square. The first Catholic church was erected in 1929, extended by the addition of a school in 1934, bombed in 1941 and restored in 1948. In 1950 a new site was purchased at one end of the central square and a design for a church in a modern style was procured from J. W. Poltock ARIBA. In the event, parish funds did not extend to such a building and a pre-fabricated structure was purchased from a firm in Salisbury, who doubtless had experience in providing such structures for the army.

Description

The church has a rectangular plan, with small rectangular projections in the middle of both sides and at the northeast corner. The exterior is single storey, with a curved overall roof. The walls are faced with precast pebbledash panels and the roof is a timber structure covered with felt. The principal entrance is at the west end, where the central doorway has a canopy on thin struts and is flanked by two rectangular metal framed windows. The end of the arched roof is faced with metal sheeting. The side walls have widely-spaced curving buttresses and between them are pairs of rectangular metal framed windows. The interior is a single large space with a modern parquet floor, and board linings to the walls and the curved ceiling. The windows are all clear glazed. At the west end is a deep gallery; the space beneath is used for toilets and other small rooms. The furnishings are simple; apparently the altar furniture was made locally.

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In 1887 the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration acquired land on the west side of the newly-laid out Nightingale Square and built a convent; its chapel, dedicated by Bishop Butt in 1890, was made available to local Catholics. Soon afterwards, the nuns gave some land adjoining the convent for a church, presbytery and elementary school, and designs were prepared by Leonard Stokes. Bishop Butt is said to have objected to the narrowness of the nave as designed by Stokes, insisting that it should be widened to 30 ft. The foundation stone was laid by Coadjutor Bishop Bourne in June 1896 and the church was first used in February 1897 (the priest was Fr Warwick). The builder was J. T. Scott of Blomfield Street, London Wall. Stokes’s original designs included a school (which opened in September 1897), attached presbytery and tower. However, money was short; neither the presbytery nor the tower was built, and judging from an early photograph, the west elevation of the church as built was very plain indeed. According to the account in The Architectural Review ‘the extreme simplicity of the exterior […] has to some extent been dictated by the amount of money at disposal, and by the stipulation that any decorative effect in the design should be entirely confined to the interior’.

A permanent chapel for the nuns was added on the north side of the church in 1901. For this the nuns used their own architect from Belgium rather than Stokes; the design is said to have been modelled on a chapel belonging to the community in Ghent. The west porch was added by 1915 in the time of Fr John Moynihan, who also added the pulpit and the east and west windows. Under Fr William Thomson the school was extended in 1922 (and again in 1935), and the south aisle widened (with crypt), sacristy added and Stations of the Cross installed in 1931. On 17 May 1934 the church was consecrated by Bishop (later Archbishop) Amigo.

The nuns left in 1931 and in 1933 the former convent was sold to the BBC. The sale included the former nuns’ chapel attached to the north side of the church. However, when the convent was sold again in 1963, the diocese exercised an option to re-acquire the chapel, at which point it was incorporated into the church, with new openings from the original narrow circulation aisle. This became the Lady Chapel, and the existing Lady Chapel became St Joseph’s chapel.  At the same time the baptistery and confessionals were moved to the west end of the new Lady Chapel, the high altar simplified, and new Cathedral glass inserted in the windows. In 1971 all three altars were reordered, and new stone floors installed in the sanctuary and St Josephs chapel; this work was undertaken by Messrs Bartlett & Purnell.

Description

The church was built in 1896-97 from designs by Leonard Stokes, and has additions of 1901, 1915 and 1931. The intended tower and attached presbytery were never built. The church is in a free Arts and Crafts version of late Gothic, built of brick laid in English bond, with stone dressings and a Westmorland slate roof. On plan it consists of entrance porch/narthex, nave with south aisle, narrow north circulation aisle, Lady Chapel (former nuns’ chapel) and sanctuary with side chapels. The exterior bears little resemblance to Stokes’s original design, the only feature in common being the horizontal brick banding. The five-light west window with Perp tracery is, with the porch in front, an addition of c1915; the latter is built of stock brick with red brick detail, and has a profusion of buttresses (which Stokes generally avoided). The entrances are on the sides of this porch; at the front is a crucifix commemorating the consecration of the church in 1934. Set back to the right (north) is the red brick gable end of the former nuns’ chapel of 1901, with a two-light Dec window, and to the left is the plain end wall of the south aisle, added in 1931.

The interior is more recognisably Stokesian, with a narrow north circulation aisle and hexagonal, capital-less piers dividing the five bays of the nave. The circulation aisle on the south side has been lost by the widening of the aisle in 1931. Between the arcades, wall shafts rise up to a cornice and a timber collar rafter roof. There is a modern gallery at the west end of the nave. At the east end there is a wide chancel arch leading to the square-ended sanctuary, which has a five-light Perp east window, short in its proportions to accommodate a reredos. On the north side of the sanctuary arches with metal gates connect to the nuns’ chapel. Other than at this point, the chapel was not originally linked with the church, but in 1963 three openings were formed between its nave and the north circulation aisle of the church. The nuns’ chapel is now the Lady Chapel; it has a pointed barrel vaulted timber roof with tie beams and crown posts.

The three altars (high altar, Lady Chapel and St Joseph’s altar) are all of polychrome marble, as are the two ambos (blessed in 1979), side walls and steps of the sanctuary. The tabernacle door is repoussé work, featuring the Pelican in its Piety. A wooden crucifix is attached to the east wall, said to be Oberammergau work of the eighteenth century. Over this, the five-light east window has post-war glass, Our Lady and Apostles at Pentecost. Other glass: at the west end, post-war glass, Christ flanked by Mary and Joseph; in the east window of the Lady Chapel, Madonna and Child, signed by Goddard & Gibbs; and in St Joseph’s chapel, a modern window depicting St Oliver Plunkett and St Benedict Joseph Labre. Otherwise the glass is Cathedral glass in pastel shades. There are statues of St Anne and St Joachim on either side of the chancel arch. The design of the altarpiece in the Lady Chapel (Douglas Purnell c. 1971) is based on the Visitation attributed to Luca della Robbia in the church of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas, Pistoia; it was carved by Dorigo Vigilio Prugger and painted by Henry Farmer FRSA. The altar in St Joseph’s chapel on the south side of the chancel is of verde antico and has  flanking relief tableaux by Prugger, 1964. The font is located at the west end of the Lady Chapel, behind gates; it is an octagonal design, given in memory of Fr John Moynihan, who died in 1917. The Stations are cast and painted three-dimensional pieces resting on cast corbels; they were installed in 1931. The seating consists of pine benches with panelled ends.

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