With the establishment of the Archdiocese of Westminster in 1850, the church of St Mary, Moorfields in Finsbury Square (previously the seat of the Vicar Apostolic for London) became the pro-Cathedral.

After the death of Cardinal Wiseman in 1865 the idea of a purpose-built cathedral was mooted as a memorial. In 1867 a site in Carlisle Place, closer to Victoria Station than the present cathedral, was acquired and Henry Clutton produced various designs for a Gothic cathedral on an ambitious scale, to compete with the medieval Gothic of Westminster Abbey. However, schools rather than a cathedral were the chief priority of Archbishop (Cardinal from 1875) Manning, Wiseman’s successor (‘could I leave 20,000 children without education, and drain my friends and my flock to pile up stones and bricks?’. Instead (in 1868) he chose George Goldie’s church of Our Lady of Victories, Kensington, then under construction, to be the pro-Cathedral, replacing St Mary Moorfields. This was a more convenient location than Finsbury Square, being closer to the diocesan seminary at Hammersmith. A stock brick palazzo on the corner of Carlisle Place and Francis Street, built in 1867 as the Guardsman’s Institute, served from 1873 (until 1901) as Archbishop’s House.

In 1884 the Carlisle Place site was sold when a larger, four-acre site became available at Tothill Fields, site of the former Middlesex House of Correction. Cardinal Manning’s solicitor Alfred Blount set up a company which acquired the site, sold the western half (site of the present cathedral) to the diocese and sold the eastern half for development.

Plans to build a cathedral were not developed until Herbert Vaughan succeeded Manning as Archbishop, in 1892. Vaughan was from an old Catholic family and his uncle, Bishop William Vaughan, had built the cathedral at Plymouth. At Hertford, he had commissioned a new church in the Gothic style from Henry Clutton in 1859-61 (qv). Without a competition, he appointed John Francis Bentley, a pupil of Clutton, to draw up plans for the cathedral.

Bentley’s initial instructions from Vaughan were to produce a design in the Early Christian style. This was partly on grounds of economy, insofar as the building could be run up relatively quickly with the ornament added later as funds permitted. Vaughan also did not want his cathedral to compete too much with the Abbey, at the other end of Victoria Street. Bentley’s preference was for Gothic, but recognising that this was not going to be accepted, he suggested that the new cathedral should be in the Byzantine style. This he was not unfamiliar with, as demonstrated in his proposals for the virtual rebuilding of the Warwick Street chapel (qv, completed only in part).

In order to inform his design, Bentley travelled to Italy, with the intention of continuing to Constantinople. This was prevented by a cholera outbreak, but Bentley later said that Lethaby and Swainson’s book on Santa Sophia (1894) and San Vitale at Ravenna ‘really told me all I wanted’.

The foundation stone was laid on 29 June 1895. Bentley lived to see the shell (but not the campanile) completed, dying in 1902. Vaughan died in 1903, the year of the cathedral’s opening.  In that year Edward Elgar conducted the first performance of his Dream of Gerontius in the newly-completed cathedral. The cathedral was consecrated in 1910.

Vaughan was buried at Mill Hill, but in 2005 his remains were translated to his chantry chapel to the east of the north transept porch (see below). In 1907 E. W. Pugin’s monument to Cardinal Wiseman was transferred from Kensal Green cemetery to the crypt at the east end of the new cathedral. Here there is also a monument to Cardinal Manning, by Marshall, from 1908. Later archbishops and cardinals have been buried in the main body of the cathedral.

After Bentley’s death, work continued under the successor practice of Bentley, Son & Marshall, John A. Marshall having a much larger role than Bentley’s son Osmond. As a rule, Bentley’s plans and intentions were followed, at least for the major furnishings. Bentley intended that the vaults should be entirely covered with mosaics, but apart from a few sketches, there are no detailed designs. An indication of his desired finish can be seen in the Holy Souls chapel, where he worked closely with the artist W. Christian Symons.

A chronological sequence of the main furnishings is given below. Chief amongst these are the baldacchino and cathedra, the fitting out of the chapel of St Andrew, and the addition of Eric Gill’s Stations of the Cross, all completed early on, or by the end of the First World War.

In the 1930s there was something of a departure, with mosaics by Gilbert Pownall added in the apse, over the choir arch and in the Lady Chapel. These were in the Italo-Byzantine style of Palermo and Monreale, the model favoured by Cardinal Bourne. A campaign against this programme was instigated by the writer and convert Edward Hutton, as a result of which Pownall’s mosaics in the apse were removed by Bourne’s successor, Cardinal Hinsley, and a Cathedral Art Committee established (in 1936) to approve and oversee all future art works. This committee lapsed with Hinsley’s death in 1943 but was reconvened by his successor Cardinal Griffin in 1945, after criticism in the letters page of The Times of further mosaics approved by the Cardinal. Re-constitution of the committee led to the appointment of the Russian artist Boris Anrep, whose most notable contribution is the mosaics in the Blessed Sacrament chapel.

There was a lull in mosaic decoration after the Second Vatican Council; cash was short and progress towards the completion of the cathedral was not considered a pastoral priority. The cathedral escaped the destructive reordering that befell many historic churches at that time, although various radical schemes were mooted. A forward altar was introduced, but has since been removed. Under Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor a scheme was advanced to move the great high altar forward by twenty seven inches, to allow for westward celebration under Bentley’s baldacchino. This was abandoned primarily on structural grounds; under his successor Archbishop Vincent Nichols, an alternative solution has been realised, whereby the wall behind the high altar has been moved back by about twelve inches. This work, carried out with great care by Nimbus Conservation under the direction of the cathedral architect Michael Drury RIBA (of St Anne’s Gate Architects, Salisbury), was completed in time for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the cathedral in 2010.

The major change in the post-Vatican II years was external, with the creation in 1975 of a piazza in front of the cathedral, opening up the view from Victoria Street (architects Elsom, Pack & Roberts). In 2010 the piazza was resurfaced and redesigned by Westminster City Council, work which included a new granite ramped approach to facilitate wheelchair access to the cathedral (architects St Anne’s Gate Architects of Salisbury, contractors Cathedral Works Organisation (CWO)).

Apart from a lettered mosaic over the north door to commemorate the Papal visit of 1982, mosaic decoration did not pick up again until the late 1990s. Since then there has been an active and highly successful programme of mosaic decoration in the chapels and perimeter aisles, overseen by the Art and Architecture Committee and enabled in great part by the fundraising efforts of the Friends of Westminster Cathedral.

Description 

On plan, as Bradley/Pevsner point out (p.674), the cathedral is a ‘Byzantine translation of the sixteenth century scheme of the Gesù in Rome’, consisting of a nave with perimeter chapels, domed crossing, non-projecting transepts and raised sanctuary.  There are three large domes over the nave, of massed and unreinforced concrete. The series of domes perhaps owes something to San Marco, Venice, although the building is not centrally planned. The debt to San Vitale lies above all in the intention to adorn the tunnel vaults and domes with mosaic decoration mosaic, a plan still largely unrealised. Outside, the domes are not prominent; the single most prominent external feature being the 284ft campanile. This is more Italian than Byzantine in character, similar in height and design to that at Siena (Bentley wanted two towers, but was overruled by Vaughan, primarily on grounds of cost; aesthetically this was a happy decision). The combination of red brick and Portland stone banding in the external facing is redolent of Italian Gothic in its polychromatic effect, but also has contemporary resonances, for example in Norman Shaw’s New Scotland Yard (from 1887).

The cathedral is 360ft (109.7 metres) long, 156ft (47.5 metres) wide and 117ft (35.7 metres) high (up to the top of the domes). The span of the vaults is 60ft (18.3metres), the height of the main arches 90ft (27.4 metres). The building is described in detail in the list entry below, but this does not include the most recent furnishings. The following is a chronological sequence of the main fittings:

• 1899: Nave pulpit, made in Rome by Aristide Leonori, the design based on medieval Italian pulpits, with marble and inlaid mosaic (altered in 1934 by L. H.  Shattock, when the mosaic of Our Lady of Walsingham, by John Trinick, was added).
• c1900: Enthroned bronze statue of St Peter at the west end, after Arnolfo di Cambio.
• 1901: The huge suspended rood cross at the sanctuary arch, designed by Bentley and painted in 1903 by W. Christian Symons. Also the large marble font in the southwest baptistery, made in Rome from Bentley’s designs.
• 1902: The cathedra, on the Gospel (left hand) side of the sanctuary, modelled on that in the church of the Lateran, Rome, with a walnut canopy of 1906, designed by Bentley, Son & Marshall.
• 1902-04: Mosaics in the chapel of St Gregory and St Augustine, with mosaics by J.R. Clayton of Clayton & Bell, and marbles chosen by Bentley.
• 1902-08: Holy Souls chapel. Bentley had designed the bronze screen and in his last years worked closely with Symons on the design and iconography of the mosaics and opus sectile work.
• 1904-08: Altar, canopy, communion rail and bronze screen to Blessed Sacrament chapel, by Marshall.
• 1905-08: The huge baldacchino, from Bentley’s designs, supported on eight yellow marble columns, the canopy designed by Marshall. The altar below is a twelve-ton Cornish granite monolith. Bentley prepared various more elaborate designs for the high altar, and Vaughan’s decision to have a huge plain granite block instead was a ‘crushing disappointment’ to the architect (de L’Hopital, 137). The altar was consecrated in June 1908.
• 1907: Fitting out of the chapel of St Thomas Becket (the Vaughan chantry), with effigy by Marshall (carved by Henry McCarthy) and screen by Marshall.
• 1908: Alcove conches and altarpiece in Lady Chapel, by Anning Bell; also most of the marbles in this chapel.
• 1909: Delicate iron light fittings by Bentley, Son & Marshall.
• c1910: Confessionals, by Bentley, Son & Marshall. Also altars in chapels of St George and the English Martyrs, St Patrick and St Joseph.
• 1910-16: Design and fitting out of the chapel of St Andrew, ‘a masterpiece of the Arts and Crafts movement’ (Bradley/Pevsner) designed by Robert Weir Schultz, the patron the Fourth Marquess of Bute. Schultz’s collaborators included Ernest Gimson (responsible for the exquisite stalls of 1912) and Bainbridge Reynolds (the screen).
• 1913-17: Marble lining of chapel of St Paul.
• 1913-18: The Stations of the Cross, by Eric Gill, and amongst his finest works. Very low relief square panels in his favoured Hopton Wood stone, with colour sparingly used in the letters and gilding for the haloes. On the floor beneath the fourteenth Station is a small epitaph to Gill, carved by his pupil Laurie Cribb in 1942.
• 1916: Mosaic in tympanum over the west front, by R. Anning Bell.
• 1921-22: Marble work in the apse, by Marshall. Farmer & Brindley were responsible for much of the marble work.
• 1921-32: The organ, by Henry Willis III, behind a screen by Marshall, 1927.
• 1929: A relief of Christ behind the high altar, by Philip Lindsey Clark.
• 1931: Bronze screen to the chapel of St George and the English Martyrs, by Shattock, behind which, in the chapel, is the shrine of St John Southworth, set up here in 1930.
• 1931-35: Mosaics in Lady Chapel, by Gilbert Pownall, influenced by the Norman-Byzantine mosaics of Sicily, the model favoured by Cardinal Bourne.
• 1934: Mosaic tympanum over the choir arch, by Pownall.
• 1947: Installation of stone reredos in the chapel of St George and the English Martyrs, depicting Crucifixion and St John Fisher and St Thomas More (commissioned from Eric Gill in 1938 and completed by Laurie Cribb after Gill’s death).
• 1955: Acquisition of a fifteenth-century alabaster sculpture of the Virgin and Child, now known as Our Lady of Westminster and placed towards the east end of the nave (south side), below the thirteenth Station.
• 1956-64: Marble work in the nave, including gallery balustrades, from Bentley’s designs.
• 1957: Mosaic panel of Blessed (St) Oliver Plunkett in south aisle, outside St Patrick’s chapel, by Boris Anrep.
• 1958: A bronze plaque of St Thérèse of Lisieux in the south transept, by Giacomo Manzù (replacing a mosaic panel of St Thérèse).
• 1960-61: Mosaics in the Blessed Sacrament chapel, by Anrep.
• 1963: Mosaics in chapel of St Paul, by Justin Vulliamy, assisted by Anrep.
• 1982: Lettered tympanum mosaic of north door at west end, by Nicolete Gray, commemorating the visit of Pope John II.
• 1998-99: Bronze plaques of St Benedict and St Vincent de Paul in the south transept, by Bryan Kneale. Mosaic panel of St Patrick in south aisle outside entrance to St Patrick’s chapel, by Trevor Caley.
• 2001: Mosaic of St Alban in north aisle outside St Joseph’s chapel, designed by Christopher Hobbs and made by Tessa Hunkin of the Mosaic Workshop.
• 2003: Two marble panels and a mosaic panel commemorating John Henry Newman and The Dream of Gerontius (Elgar’s setting of Newman’s poem was first performed at Westminster Cathedral, in 1903) in north aisle outside Holy Souls chapel, by Tom Phillips RA.
• 2003-06: Completion of mosaics in chapel of St Joseph, designed by Christopher Hobbs and made by the Mosaic Workshop.
• 2006: Completion of mosaics in chapel of St Thomas Becket (Vaughan chantry), by Christopher Hobbs.
• 2010: Mosaic panel of St David in south aisle outside chapel of St Paul, by Ivor Davies, made by Tessa Hunkin of Mosaic Workshop (blessed by Pope Benedict XVI on 18 September 2010). Adaptation of area behind high altar to allow for westward celebration of the Mass, carried out by Nimbus Conservation under the direction of Michael Drury RIBA.
• 2012: Completion of mosaics in the chapel of St George and the English Martyrs, by Tom Phillips.

List description

99/15 The Metropolitan Cathedral Church of the Most Precious Blood (Westminster Cathedral)

GV I

Roman Catholic Cathedral. Commissioned by Cardinal Vaughan: built 1895-1903 to the designs of J F Bentley; consecrated 1910; interior fitting-out continued by John A Marshall of Bentley’s office. Red brick, Portland stone bandings and dressings on Cornish granite plinth, with concrete foundations and vaults. Saucer domes of brick and concrete, three over nave and one over sanctuary. Narthex flanked by baptistery and porch, aisled 3-bay nave with 4 aisle chapels to (liturgical) north and three to south, where western one is substituted by base of 284ft campanile; narrow two-bay transepts beyond which the apsed choir and sanctuary is flanked by apsed and aisled chapels. Sacristy to rear. Free Byzantine style. Complex west facade stepping forward in lower stages with central entrance in semi-circular arch with decorative voussoirs, columned jambs and mosaic by Robert Anning Bell in tympanum and sculptured medallions of 12 Archbishops of Canterbury. Blind round-arched arcading to upper tier, flanked by polygonal towers with corner buttresses supporting domes. Two-storey wings to either side with round-arched arcading and plate tracery. Further domes over the polygonal corner turrets to the banded bulk of the nave. Square campanile with polygonal buttressing at top supporting cupola. Side elevations with Diocletian windows, paired round-arched and plate traceried windows divided by angular buttresses in each bay; these rise behind flat roof from less moulded ground-floor aisles, and similarly the gabled transepts are shallowly moulded. Sanctuary towers are polygonal with shallow, blind arcading and onion domes over corner buttresses. Three-bay sacristry with Diocletian windows to ground floor, round-arched lancets above.

The interior has never been completed, yet is magnificent – the nave for its volume and (especially) the chapels for their wealth of enrichment, most of it mosaic in keeping with Bentley’s intention and much of it to his design. The walls lined with veined marble in cream and green to springer level. The brickwork above left rough for future mosaics where not yet installed. Narthex, for which Bentley left complete designs, with columns of Norwegian granite and marble floor. Organ by Henry Willis and Sons over. Nave has broad galleries over aisles, supported at the centre of each bay by paired monolithic columns, the Carrara marble capital of each being a different design. Stations of the Cross by Eric Gill, 1913-18. Pulpit remodelled and enlarged 1934 by L H Shattock. Rood by Christian Symons. Statue of St Peter copied from that at St Peter’s, Rome, c.1900. Pendant lights of 1909. Aisle chapels separated by further single columns of rare marble. The Chapel of the Holy Souls completed to Bentley’s fully worked out designs, in black and white marble and with carefully overseen mosaics by Christian Symons 1902-3. Altarpiece shows Christ enthroned. Marble floor 1906, bronze gilt grille 1908. Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs, also developed as a war memorial from 1915; largely designed by Marshall with altarpiece by Eric Gill, 1946. Figure of St George by Lindsay Clarke. Shrine to St John Southworth (1592-1654), reintered here in 1930. Apsed chapel of St Joseph with fine altar by Marshall, and monolithic panels of c.1992. On south side, from the west the baptistery, with font by Bentley. Statue of St John the Baptist. Marble screen and steps lead to the Chapel of St Gregory and St Augustine, with altarpiece by Henry Holliday set into design by Bentley (drawn up in detail by him and which he later simplified) with mosaics by Clayton and Bell 1902-4. Chapel of St Patrick and the Saints of Ireland, clad in Irish marbles with memorials to the Irish regiments of 1914-18, designed by Marshall in the 1920s; the altar also by him, 1910; statue of St Patrick by Arthur Pollen. The green hue of this chapel is in contrast to the blue and white of the neighbouring Chapel of St Andrew and the Scottish Saints, the gift of Lord Bute and the work of R Weir Schultz 1910-14. Lean openwork screens of white metal by W Bainbridge Reynolds; sculpture by Stirling Lee, stalls by Ernest Gimson (considered amongst his finest works) with kneelers by Sidney Barnsley, reliquary by Harold Stabler and altar cards by Graily Hewitt. Chapel of St Paul similar to Marshall’s work for that to St Joseph, 1913-17. Transepts with doors and confessionals by Bentley and Marshall, the latter a standard design for the Cathedral also found in St Patrick’s Chapel and elsewhere. Mosaic of St Joan of 1909-12 by Christian Symons in north transept, where also is the Chapel of St Thomas of Canterbury – the Vaughan Chantry. Effigy of Cardinal Vaughan by Marshall and carved by Henry McCarthy; Marshall’s also the marble and mosaic decoration, as designed by him in 1907. Sanctuary has marble and jasper arcades supporting arcaded tribune above. High altar of Cornish granite, with baldacchino of Veronese marble on marble floor, designed by Bentley in 1901 and executed by Farmer and Brindley in 1905-6. Bas relief by Lindsay Clark; mosaic in tympanum over high altar by Gilbert Pownall, of Christ in Glory. Fittings by Marshall, 1908-10. Sacristy to rear not seen. Crypt under sanctuary dedicated to St Peter, with tombs to Cardinal Wiseman by Edward Welby Pugin and to Cardinal Manning by Bentley (but only partly carried out) and mosaics by Christian Symons. Bentley left designs for the marble work. The northernmost of the aisles to the apsed chapels either side of the Sanctuary forms the Shrine of the Sacred Heart and St Michael. Black Panderma marble installed by Farmer and Brindley with contrasting white marbles and rosso antiquo highlights; mosaic of the Holy Face the last work of Christian Symons, 1910. Alabaster statue of the Sacred Heart by Farmer and Brindley and bas relief of St Michael on altar frontal completed by 1919. Silver lamp before the statue by Osmond Bentley and J A Marshall, who also designed the electric light pendants. Linked by screens is the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, marble clad between 1904 and 1909, enclosed by grilles and gates 1907 by Marshall, above which is represented the ‘Pelican in her Piety’. Altar rail 1908, tabernacle and suspended canopy 1909, all by Marshall. Mosaics by Boris Anrep, completed in 1962. – The Lady Chapel is clad in richly-coloured rare marbles, completed c.1914. White marble altar, with mosaic of Our Lady with the Holy Child by Anning Bell executed by a Miss Martin, who also did those to the apse recesses. Other mosaics by Gilbert Pownall, C15 Nottingham alabaster statue installed 1955, marble floor 1956. Sources Winegride de L’Hopital, Westminster Cathedral and its Architect, vol. I, 1919. Westminster Cathedral, popular guide, n.d. Westminster Cathedral Bulletin, July-August 1993.

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The Salvatorians came to Wealdstone in 1901 and took charge of a mission there, later opening a school for boys. In 1928 they found it necessary to provide a house of studies for students for the priesthood and they were encouraged by Cardinal Bourne to establish a college and parish at Abbots Langley (Langley House). The first public Mass was celebrated in the chapel (the former billiards room) at the house on 29 September 1928. In 1930 Salvatorian sisters arrived and did important work establishing school facilities.

Various improvised or temporary arrangements served for a church until the present building was built in 1962-63 from designs by John Rochford of Sheffield and Manchester. It was erected on a flat site adjoining Breakspear College, and was officially opened and blessed on 28 June 1963. It had seats for 544 and cost £34,861. The sacristies connected with the college. The college closed in the 198os and has been converted into flats.

Description

The church is built of concrete and has a facing of light red-brown bricks. It was originally roofed in copper but after many years of problems this has now been replaced by felt. The windows have also been replaced in UPVC. Nevertheless, the church has a good deal more architectural interest than many of its time. There is plenty of visual incident, such as the apsidal projection for the repository (presumably originally for the baptistery) beside the main entrance, the separately articulated sacristies, chapel and shrines. Most of the building has a thin fringe of a clerestory beneath an overhanging low-pitched roof. Over the main entrance is a large sculpted panel by David John of Reading, cast in aluminium and filled with fibreglass: the large figure of Christ is surrounded by the emblems of the Evangelists.

The internal planning just predates the changes for the Second Vatican Council, and consists of a three-bay nave with narrow aisles. In addition there is a half-bay narthex (with gallery over) and at the opposite end a 1¼-bay sanctuary. There are also transepts facing the sanctuary for additional seating; that on the left is glazed in and has its own altar. The supports for the roof are square concrete piers and the roof itself has a steel structure with African hardwood boarding on the underside designed to create a quasi-vaulted effect; it has triangular penetrations which correspond to the raised portions of the clerestory. The facing material of the walls comprises grey-brown Thermalite blocks laid side on with an exposed edge and a recessed joint.

Fittings and furnishings include fine metal Stations of the Cross by Alan and Sylvia Rochford of Nuneaton. Recently a stained glass window was added in the south transept, from designs of John Corley of Kent (information from Chris Fanning).

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In the early nineteenth century there was a small base of local Catholic activity centred on Acton House, home of the Selby family, where there was a chapel in the basement. In 1848 a little chapel in King Street was opened for public worship; this was for the most part served by priests from Turnham Green, and closed in 1858 due to financial difficulties (but not before designs were prepared in 1855 by E. W. Pugin for a permanent church and schools). The mission was re-established by Fr James O’Donnell in 1878, and in 1882 a temporary corrugated iron church was opened in Strafford Road, South Acton. This was closed in 1902 when a permanent church seating about 500 and dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes was opened in the High Street, at a cost of £5000, on land which had been acquired in 1892. The mission priest at this time was Fr Charles Rivers, an Anglican convert. The new church was built from designs by Edward Goldie (1856-1921), a Catholic architect who continued the practice of his father, George, after the latter’s death in 1887. Goldie junior’s masterwork was St James’s, Spanish Place (opened 1890, qv).

In 1928, after Fr William Foley succeeded Fr Rivers, a building around the corner in Berrymead Gardens was acquired to serve as the parish presbytery. New benches supplied by Holly & Pike were installed in the church (still in situ). Also about this time oak altar rails provided (since removed) and the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes moved from the south to the north side of the church and given an oak reredos and statues of St Anthony of Padua and St Patrick. In its former place a Sacred Heart shrine was put up. A new stone font was installed in the baptistery, along with new iron gates. New Stations of the Cross were presented by individual members of the congregation and designed by Benedictine monks of Maria Laach Abbey (Germany). The tympanum over the main entrance was carved with the papal tiara and crossed keys. During the time of Fr John Halvey (from 1955) a new marble altar was installed in the Lady Chapel and a marble pulpit in the main body of the church. In 1959 the oak altar rails were replaced by marble rails with brass gates and marble high altar was installed, raised on marble steps and fitted into the marble panels lining the apse. This altar has been brought forward (and the altar rails removed) in post-Vatican II reordering. The church was refurbished and enhanced in the 1990s.

Description

The church is oriented south; all directions in this report are liturgical.

The church occupies a hemmed-in site and is designed in an Italian Romanesque style. It has a five-bay nave, transepts (lower than the nave), a round-apsed sanctuary, lean-to aisles, a southeast sacristy, and a round-apsed chapel north of the sanctuary which now serves as the baptistery. It is built of yellow stock brick with stone dressings. The principal façade is the west front: this has a central portal with three orders of shafts, with carving of the Papal tiara and cross keys in the tympanum (c1928). Above the portal is a wheel window with eight lobes, framed by saw-tooth detailing: the gable is decorated with lozenge patterning. The fenestration of the nave and aisles is round-arched and the clerestory windows are tall.

The interior is plastered and has a simple elegance found in many inter-war Romanesque-style Catholic churches: ornament is stripped away and the building relies for its effect on line and proportion. The arcade, with utterly plain arches, is low and has rectangular piers with projections which rise as pilasters to the wall plate. Over the crossing is a concrete dome (contemporary with Bentley’s use of concrete in the domes of Westminster Cathedral). At the west end the two western bays of the nave are taken up by a deep gallery which appears date from c1970. The sanctuary is covered by a semi-hemispherical roof, gilded by IFACs in the late 1990s. A modern, utilitarian projection has been added to the west part of the south aisle, forming a porch and an additional seating area (the First World War memorial has been resited here).

The sanctuary is richly embellished with marble for the floor, dado and reredos. The baptistery too has marble in its floor. Similarly the Lady altar in the north transept is splendidly treated in terms of marble and mosaic: the statue is flanked by four delicate panels of lilies. These features mainly date from the 1950s. The Stations of the Cross were presented by individual members of the congregation c1928; these are coloured, in low relief, in Northern Renaissance style and were designed by Benedictine monks of Maria Laach Abbey. The congregational seating consists of benches and kneelers, modern (late 1990s) oak copies of the 1928 originals.

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The parish was founded in 1922, using what the VCH describes as a ‘breeze-block hall in Old Oak Common Lane’. The present church, seating 500, was built in 1960-61 (foundation stone May 1960), from designs by John Newton of Burles, Newton & Partners. Like its ‘sister church’ of St Aidan, Coulsdon, Surrey, which was completed in 1964-66 from designs by Newton, the church contains furnishings by Graham Sutherland and Pierre Fourmaintraux, as well as other furnishings of note.

The church was consecrated in 1972.  The bell tower was reduced in height in 1987 due to concrete failure (architect Derek Arend Associates) and the nine Whitechapel bells sold to a church in Australia.

Description

The façade is flush with a row of shops and the presbytery, and faces the west side of Old Oak Common Lane. The church has a five-bay nave with a further westerly bay containing a narthex (with a repository and baptistery and gallery), aisles, side chapels, sanctuary and sacristies. All that can normally be seen of the exterior is the entrance front. To the left is a red brick tower formerly carrying nine bells by the Whitechapel foundry and which bears a clock in its upper parts and near the base a statue of St Aidan. The body of the building has two registers: the lower is by far the shallower and has a central entrance behind a canopied porch, and on either side are displays of dalle de verre glass. The upper register has a large, nine-light window beneath a low-pitched gable. All this is very much what might be expected of church built in about 1960.

The inside, however, is more impressive. The general layout is conventional enough but the details are handled more successfully than is often the case. The nave is wide and is flanked by aisles each of which open out into chapels in the two easterly bays. The openings into the aisles are almost square and the slender, also almost square piers are of reinforced concrete, rising to the top of the building. Lighting is provided by the large west window and also a deep clerestory with narrow strips of glazing framing large blind panels: this glazing is abstract and is graded from off-white/yellow to dark tones (mainly blue) higher up; this is the work of Arthur Buss of Goddard & Gibbs, 1961. At the far end of the sanctuary the wall is blind although the side windows are tall and are richly glazed. The roof covering consists of a series of triangular spaces with boarded infilling.

Fittings and furnishings. An unusual amount of attention and expense was lavished on these:

• Stained glass. Extensive use is made of brightly coloured dalle de verre glass by James Powell & Sons and designed by Pierre Fourmaintraux: it is original to the building of the church. The side windows of the sanctuary depict English saints and martyrs, abstractly treated. More bright glass of the same type, but purely abstract, appears in the windows with either side of the church entrance. The Goddard & Gibbs glass in the clerestory has already been noted;
• Painted Crucifixion against the blind wall of the sanctuary by Graham Sutherland, 1963, reminiscent of his work at Coventry Cathedral. This was completed in situ by Sutherland. It has recently been conserved by IFACS;
• Head of Christ in the left-hand chapel, a work of some nobility by George E. Campbell, 1971;
• The solid wall of the baptistery is decorated with small blue tiles and features two pairs of stylised angels with the Dove between, by Adam Kossowski;
• Stations of the Cross: arranged along the walls of the chapels, with concrete representations standing on ledges, backed by mosaic work, by Arthur Fleischmann;
• Saints carved in limewood by Arthur J. J. Ayres, George Campbell, P. Lindsey Clark and Kathleen Parbury.

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The site was acquired form Sir Cyril Black in June 1962. Its irregular shape suggested the idea of a five-sided building with the sanctuary at the apex of the two long sides. Work began in September 1966, a commemorative stone was laid on 1 April 1967 and the church was complete in November of the same year.

Description

A decidedly 1960s design with a strong external appearance but, in the words of The Buildings of England, an ‘ungainly profile’. Its form is best understood from the inside out. The reinforced concrete framing is cranked inwards and rises in three stages. The infill consists of a lower level of bare, light brown brick. Its walls are formed in three stages: first an area of bare brick walling, then an inward sloping stage bounded by timber bands, and finally a continuous clerestory. Externally the lower stage is of bare brick and the sloping stage is aluminium-clad. The roof is flat. The light, spacious interior is a good deal more appealing than the exterior.

There are no furnishings or fittings needing specific mention other than a crucifix by Michael Clark and the dalle de verre glass in various windows.

The post Acton West – The Holy Family appeared first on Taking Stock.

The mission was founded by the Passionists of St Joseph’s, Highgate (qv). In 1928, an iron chapel was built in Hatchard Road. This was enlarged in 1931. In 1938, the building and mission were transferred to the care of the diocese. St Gabriel’s mission became part of a combined parish with St Mellitus, Tollington Park (qv). Only in 1964 did St Gabriel’s, Upper Holloway (later renamed Archway), become an independent parish. At that point Canon George Groves bought the present site.

Work on site started in April 1966 and the foundation stone was laid by Bishop Casey on 6 May 1967. Cardinal Heenan opened and consecrated the church on 17 December 1967. Gerard Goalen was the architect, Noel O’Connell the structural engineer and Marshall Andrew & Co. the contractors. Goalen also built the adjoining two-storey presbytery. After the completion of the church, the temporary church became the hall until 1973-74, when a two-storey community centre was built on its site. Goalen was again the architect.

In c.1981, Gerard Goalen & Partner converted the baptistery into a meeting room (now the sacristy). The church was reordered by Carmel Cauchi, who altered the sanctuary steps, plastered the walls (originally of exposed brick) with a pattern of blind arches, enclosed the deep coffers of the ceiling, and provided new sanctuary furnishings. At some point the original configuration of the crying chapel, and the organ and choir which used to flank the sanctuary was altered.

Description

The church faces northwest. This description uses conventional, liturgical orientation.

The church was built as a concrete structure faced in dark grey bricks in stretcher bond outside and pale bricks inside (since plastered over). The plan is roughly rectangular with curved corners and aligned on the short axis. There are two square projections at the west, and skylit circular projections to the north and south. The roof is a flat concrete deck surrounded by a raised clerestory whose inner face is glazed and whose outer slope is clad in aluminium.

The west elevation is structured by two symmetrical glazed projections of square plan with rounded corners. These originally housed the baptistery, now the sacristy, (north) and the entrance porch (entered from the south). Between them is the foundation stone and above them a concrete bellcote with three bells and a metal cross. The remaining three external walls are notable for the absence of windows – in order to minimise the noise from the busy road. To the north are two small circular projections for shrines and a porch at the northeast, possibly the entrance to the original crying chapel (which required a pram shelter by the door). At the south is a further projection (now a confessional). At the east is a tall projection with a tall hidden window focusing light on the sanctuary.

Internally, the absence of windows is hardly noticeable, due to the effective hidden lighting by means of a clerestory above the ceiling. The ceiling is suspended over the nave like a canopy on eighteen piers. Originally, the ceiling was painted dark with deep coffers. These have since been filled with suspended panels and the whole ceiling painted white. The sanctuary wall has large inscriptions (‘Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again’, added by Carmel Cauchi) above a large bronze fibreglass sculpture of the Risen Christ – one of several sculptures by Willi Soukop RA (1907-95). The sanctuary furniture is plain, of polished stone (Carmel Cauchi). To the left of the altar is the brass tabernacle, which is sunk into the wall and surrounded by four bronze angels (Soukop). On the other side of the altar is a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary with the Child (Soukop).

The two niches at the north hold further Soukop statues of the Sacred Heart and St Gabriel. At the west are two marble plaques to previous parish priests, as well as a more conventional statue of St Anthony. The Stations are square bronze panels, possibly also by Soukop. The benches are of concrete and polished hardwood, in four blocks arranged in a fan shape.

The post Archway – St Gabriel appeared first on Taking Stock.

In 1899 the Sisters of the Order of the Good Shepherd opened a convent and an Inebriate Home for Catholic women in a property called ‘Ecclesfield’. The convent chapel was used for Mass by the few Ashford Catholics, offered by a priest from Beaumont College, Windsor. In 1906 a resident priest was appointed, with a brief to build a church. Opened the same year, this was a simple brick structure designed by Leonard Stokes. In 1925 a house and site for a new church were purchased in Fordbridge Road. Designs for the church were provided by Giles Gilbert Scott and he regarded it as one of his favourite works. The foundation stone was laid on 21 July 1927. The first part to be opened consisted of the sanctuary, sacristies and three bays of the nave. In 1938 work continued on the nave but was halted by the outbreak of war. Then, in 1958, work began again and the complete church was opened on 13 March 1960; the building of the campanile (to a revised design) was supervised by Scott’s office manager and partner, Frederick G. Thomas. A major reordering took place in 2006 under George Mathers; he designed the south porch,  and a new stone altar, lectern and sanctuary flooring. More recently, the nave and aisle floors were re-laid with tiles and stonework, to replace linoleum (Ormesby of Scarisbrick, in collaboration with architect Jane Ferra; information from Chris Fanning).

Description

The church is oriented to the northeast. Directions in this report are all liturgical.

The church, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, is built of thin, dark red Dutch bricks and has a roof covering of Italian pantiles. In style, it is a free adaptation of Early Christian Italian architecture and consists of a nave and sanctuary (a single vessel), narrow nave aisles, north and south chapels (at right angles to the body of the building, sacristies (beneath the sanctuary) and a modern (2006) south porch. The exterior is characterised by its considerable bulk and height, tall, sheer walls, and an impressively high clerestory. There are no external buttresses. The roofs have prominently overhanging eaves (which dispense with the need for gutters). All the fenestration is round-arched, that in the clerestory being the most prominent, having tall, three-light windows with a hemisphere set above a triple-opening arrangement. The faces of the tall, plain campanile are unadorned and the tower culminates with small, triple belfry lights and a low pyramidal capping. The parish centre is attached to the church at the east end and extends out to the northeast of it. Part of it incorporates the original presbytery where the first priest of the new church is said to have simply occupied the extraordinarily cramped quarters on the first floor.

The interior is a long, uninterrupted space, the walls of which are covered in rough render and sloping inwards slightly to counter the lateral thrust of the roof. This has a low-pitched tie-beam roof, delicately decorated in a style which Stamp suggests is, perhaps, Swedish in character. At the west end is an organ gallery set above a broad semi-circular arch. At the east end there is no window and the east end is raised high above the sacristies; in all there are fourteen steps, the first three of which were installed (brought forward) as part of the 2006 reordering. There are eight bays to the nave and the six easterly ones have low semi-circular arches to the narrow aisles: there are no mouldings or carved decoration, only very slight bulging out where capitals might be expected to be. Only the twin columns in opening north and south of the sanctuary have any decoration (spiral ornament and foliage and other decoration). The sanctuary floor tiling dates from 2006, that in the nave from c2010.

Fixtures and fittings:

• Reredos. A large triptych reredos designed by Scott, with figures of the Evangelists either side of a central canopy. The folding wings have multiple panels with triangular motifs.
• Statues. A series of fine wooden figures of saints standing on stone corbels between the nave piers, carved by Anton Daprè (an Austrian artist living in Twickenham) and his sons. (Close inspection was not possible as they were veiled for Lent at the time of the visit, but one was noticed to be dated 1930).
• Font. Original; octagonal with geometric decoration.
• Unusually low, sturdy bench seating.
• Forward altar and ambo of limestone, dating from the 2006 works, incorporating carved panels by Stephen Foster.
• Original wrought-iron light fittings in the aisles (in the nave until 2006).
• Organ. A large instrument brought from a disused church in Egham and rebuilt in 1974.
• Figure of St Michael. Opposite the main entrance but formerly surmounting the central part of the reredos.

The post Ashford – St Michael appeared first on Taking Stock.

The parish was founded in 1913 and a church built on land next to The Boot public house in the High Street. In 1926 a second church was built on the same site, with the first church altered and enlarged to serve as a presbytery (this still stands at no.69 High Street). The second church was demolished once the present church had been opened. This was built on land further to the south near to the London Road, an area of new housing development. In 1974 planning permission was obtained for a new and larger church, but this scheme was abandoned on account of cost. The present church was built from designs by Eva and Liam Bannon, of Dublin and Baldock. The structural engineers were Gregory & Bradley of Bedford. The church was designed to seat about 275 people, and was part of a planned complex of church, sacristies and presbytery, with a planned parish hall coming later. Work started in September 1975, and the completed church was consecrated on 17 December 1977.

The flat roof of the church soon developed leaks, and a new pitched roof was added in 1987 by Chris Fanning, Diocesan Surveyor.

Description

The church is square on plan, with entrances in each of the polygonal projections at the corners. These are not in use, apart from that on the internal face, towards the car park. The church is built of red brick with a black painted concrete ring beam above. There are slate roofs over the corner projections and a (later) hipped slate roof over the main body of the church with an aluminium cross at the apex. On the north side of the church, visible from the main road, is a freestanding metal campanile of latticed construction, housing one bell.

The interior has not been inspected. The plans reproduced in the CBR show the seating arranged along the diagonal axis, and the sanctuary in the southwest corner. The CBR description refers to ‘inner main beams in laminated plywood providing a “St Brigid’s Cross” profile on the ceiling with only one beam bearing on each of the floor (sic) walls’. 

The post Baldock – Holy Trinity and St Augustine appeared first on Taking Stock.

The mission was established in 1849 and a church dedicated to Mary Immaculate and St Gregory was built in Union Street in 1860 by the convert priest, the Revd. George Bampfield (who also established missions at Cheshunt and St Albans, qv). This was consecrated on 15 December, 1931. It was replaced by the present church in 1975, built by Lanners of Wakefieldafter a design by Steel Bretman & Partners, architects. At the time of inspection (October 2012) the narthex was due to be enlarged to a design by Kyle Smart Associates. The presbytery next to the church was designed by Scott & Jaques.

Description

The church consists essentially of two intersecting tent-roofed octagons of unequal size with a flat-roofed single-storey narthex on two sides of the lower octagon and flat-roofed sacristies on all four sides of the taller octagon. The space between the two roofs is glazed. The external walls are faced with red brick laid in Flemish bond and the tent roof is covered in clay tiles. The rectangular windows of varying size have all been renewed in uPVC. 

Internally the floor is covered in parquet, the walls are faced with artificial stone against which the glulam timber trusses of the roof are conspicuous. The sanctuary is simply a raised dais. The fittings are simple, modern and all of timber.

The post Barnet – Mary Immaculate and St Gregory the Great appeared first on Taking Stock.

The mission was started in 1849, with Mass said initially at 4 Sutherland Place. In 1851 work started on the present church, from designs by Thomas Meyer, about whom information is elusive. He is thought to have been a London architect, and also designed the Catholic church at Avon Dassett, Warwickshire. His drawings for the church at Bayswater indicate an assured hand, familiar with principles of Puginian Gothic design. Meyer also designed an earlier school chapel in the same street, probably on the site of the later primary school building north of the current presbytery. The church was initially dedicated to St Helen, in honour of Mrs Helen Hargrave, one of the two sister benefactresses. The foundation stone was laid on 2 December 1851 but work stopped once the building had reached the height of the aisle parapets due to lack of funds.

In 1856, the Oblates of St Charles were founded, with Mgr Henry Manning as their superior, and Cardinal Wiseman placed them at Bayswater. Work on the church resumed under Henry Clutton, who was related to Manning by marriage. The still-incomplete church opened for worship on 2 July 1857.

In 1869 a north aisle with eastern chapel was added from designs by J. F. Bentley, who had been articled to Clutton. (Fr H. A. Rawes, Superior of the Oblate Congregation from 1880, had given Bentley his first independent commission at St Francis, Notting Hill (qv)). This was the start of over three decades of addition and augmentation by Bentley, and is a case study of his stylistic development. The style of the north aisle is thirteenth-century French Gothic. A south aisle with Lady Chapel, added in 1872-4, displays the architect’s growing interest in Early English Gothic. Bentley also added a timber roof over the nave, chancel and aisles, and plastered the painted brick internal walls. In 1887 the north aisle was extended, in late Decorated style. Bentley also added numerous furnishings (including a rood beam, now removed) and stained glass windows.

The house for the Oblate community (now the presbytery) was built in c.1870 (by Clutton or S. J. Nicholl). In 1903, a new altar designed by F.W. Tasker was installed in the St Charles chapel. In 1912, George Powell furnished the Chapel of the Holy Ghost. Two years later, a new high altar by Jones & Willis was installed, followed by a new oak pulpit by Mr Weir in 1923 (since removed). In the 1920s, work was in progress on the unfinished tower and the current top stage was probably added then. (The spire envisaged by Meyer was never built.) In 1974, the Oblates left and the parish was handed over to the Archdiocese. In recent years, a glass narthex screen has been installed, the aisle floors repaved and disabled access improved (architect Jane Ferra); a new altar installed (Ormesby of Scarisbrick) and the interior redecorated and refurbished (IFACS), (information from Chris Fanning). The church was consecrated on 4 November 2007.

The church is fully described in the list entry, which was considerably expanded (and the building upgraded to II*) in 2016, following Taking Stock. The following supersedes the description in the original Taking Stock report.

List description

II*

Summary: St Mary of the Angels Roman Catholic Church in Bayswater, of 1851 to original designs by Thomas Meyer, completed in 1857 by Henry Clutton, with additions by JF Bentley.

Reasons for Designation: The Roman Catholic Church of St Mary of the Angels, Bayswater, of 1851 to original designs by Thomas Meyer, and completed in 1857 by Henry Clutton, with additions by J F Bentley, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Architect: of more than special interest as the combined work of distinguished architect Henry Clutton, building on the earlier work of Thomas Meyer, and John Francis Bentley, one of the most highly regarded Roman Catholic architects and designers of the Victorian age, best known for his work at Westminster Cathedral; * Architectural interest: a muscular and well-crafted church, distinctive in design and detailing and representative of three decades of addition and augmentation work by Bentley, illustrating his stylistic development; * Interior: the internal volumes are representative of the gradual evolution of the building, which, despite Bentley’s use of varied Gothic styles, adds up to a coherent and unified space of considerable architectural quality; * Furnishings: the church retains several fittings and furnishings of high quality, including several pieces designed by Bentley, which are representative of a range of Victorian decorative crafts, including the developing interest in polychromatic decoration. The work of Nathaniel Westlake is also represented in St Joseph’s shrine; * Intactness: the church remains substantially intact, including original liturgical layout, supplemented by later side chapels, and all salient historic fabric; * Group value: with the presbytery listed at Grade II*.

History: The mission was started in 1849, with Mass said initially at No 4 Sutherland Place, close to the site of the present church. In 1851 work started on the present church, from designs by Thomas Meyer, about whom information is elusive. He is thought to have been a London architect, also responsible for the Catholic Church at Avon Dassett, Warwickshire. His original drawings for the church at Bayswater indicate an assured hand, familiar with the principles of Puginian Gothic design. Meyer also designed an earlier school chapel in the same street, likely on the site of the later primary school building, sited north of the current presbytery. The church was initially dedicated to St Helen, in honour of Mrs Helen Hargrave, one of the two sister benefactresses. The foundation stone was laid on 2 December 1851 but work stopped once the building had reached the height of the aisle parapets due to a lack of funds. This followed closely on the heels of the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England, and the Archbishop of the newly created Diocese of Westminster, Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman, was engaged in trying to establish new centres of Catholic activity in the Diocese. Wiseman approached Henry Edward Manning, an Anglican convert, to set up a new community of priests in Bayswater, who received permission from Pope Pius IX to found the Oblates of St Charles, inspired by St Charles Borromeo, reforming Bishop of C16 Milan. Manning, along with three other priests, moved into a house at Bayswater, and work on the unfinished church resumed under Henry Clutton, who was related to Manning by marriage. The church was opened for worship on 2 July 1857 and at this time comprised of the nave, two aisles, chancel, N and S chancel chapels and the base of the SW tower. The dedication to St Mary of the Angels reflects the devotion of both Manning and St Charles to St Francis of Assisi, as a translation of the famous Assisi church Santa Maria degli Angeli, in Italy. In 1869 a N aisle with an eastern chapel was added from designs by J F Bentley, who had been articled to Clutton, including altars to St Joseph and the Sacred Heart. Bentley was given his first independent commission at St Francis of Assisi, Notting Hill, by Fr H A Rawes, Superior of the Oblate Congregation from 1880. This period was the start of over three decades of addition and augmentation work by Bentley, and stands as a case study of his stylistic development. The style of the N aisle is C13 French Gothic. A S aisle with Lady Chapel, added in 1872-74, displays the architect’s growing interest in Early English Gothic. Bentley also added a timber roof over the nave, chancel and aisles, plastered the painted brick internal walls, and designed the fine iron gates to the baptistery. He also designed the Chapel of SS Helen and Mary Magdalene (also known as the Chapel of the Relics), which formerly held great timber cupboards painted by NHJ Westlake (now removed), to hold relics brought from Rome. In 1887 the N aisle was extended, in late Decorated style, with the creation of an additional chapel. Bentley also added numerous furnishings (including a rood beam, now removed) and stained glass windows. The house for the Oblate community (now the presbytery) was built in c1870 (either by Clutton or SJ Nicholl). In 1903, a new altar designed by FW Tasker was installed in the St Charles chapel. In 1912, George Powell furnished the Chapel of the Holy Ghost; two years later, a new alabaster high altar by Jones & Willis was installed (containing the body of St Faustulus, which had previously been open to view in a glass case beneath the previous altar), followed by a new oak pulpit by Mr Weir in 1923 (since removed). In the 1920s, work was in progress on the unfinished tower and the current top stage was likely added during this time. However the spire which had been envisaged by Meyer was never built. In 1974, the Oblates left and the parish was handed over to the Archdiocese. In recent years, a glazed narthex screen has been installed, the aisle floors repaved and disabled access improved (architect Jane Ferra); a new altar installed (Ormesby of Scarisbrick) and the interior redecorated and refurbished (IFACS). The church was reconsecrated on 4 November 2007.

Details: St Mary of the Angels is a large stone-built Roman Catholic church, occupying a corner site on Moorhouse Road. The church was begun in 1851 to original designs by Thomas Meyer, but only partially completed. Building resumed in 1857 under the supervision of Henry Clutton. Outer aisles, side chapels and other additions were added by JF Bentley between 1869 and 1887. MATERIALS: the church is of coursed ragstone with ashlar dressings under a slate roof. PLAN: the church is conventionally oriented. It comprises a narrow seven-bay nave with clerestory and double aisles to the N and S and a tower to the SW. The sanctuary is square-ended and flanked by two side chapels to the N and one to the S. Sacristies are to the SE.

EXTERIOR: the church is in the Geometric Gothic-Revival style and is dominated by a robust heavily buttressed four-stage tower (belfry stage added c1920). The roofs are double pitched over the nave and aisles, the chancel demarcated by a lower ridge line embellished by cresting. There is a diminished pyramidal roof over the tower, covered in lead. The W front has a five-light traceried window, over a pointed-arched entrance flanked by cusped lancets. The aisles are lit by lancets, and the clerestory has spheric triangles characterised by a variety of tracery patterns. To the E, the windows are in the Decorated style, the main E window having five lights. The tower has pointed arched openings to its first stage, tall twin light Geometric windows to the second stage, intricate traceried circular windows to the third stage and louvred cusped lancets in pairs to the belfry. There are some carved gargoyle spouts to the sacristy, which terminates the S aisle and is lower, lit by paired lancets.

INTERIOR: the six-bay nave is unusually tall and narrow, giving onto double aisles to the N and S; the inner arcades are of clustered limestone columns with moulded heads; the N outer aisle has an arcade of robust circular columns with simple foliated capitals, alternated with deep rectangular piers. The arcade to the S outer aisle is similar but columns have plain capitals and the piers are embellished with slender paired shafts. The nave is covered by a waggon roof of stained timber, divided into panels by timber ribs, and having a deep double-cavetto cornice spanned by notched beams over pierced braces. The inner aisle roofs have flat ceilings supported on pierced arch braces; the N outer aisle has simple applied panelling, and there is a ribbed vaulted ceiling over the S outer aisle.

FURNISHINGS AND FITTINGS: • The former baptistery at the W end of the outer N aisle has iron railings and gates of 1868 by Bentley in a C12 style. In the spandrel of the two arches is a statue of St John the Baptist. • The former mortuary chapel of the Holy Souls in the base of the tower is now partly a repository and also houses a wheelchair lift. • The split organ on the W gallery is the original organ of 1857 by William Hill & Son. • The N aisle has a marble and alabaster altar dedicated to St Joseph, complete with reredos. It was designed by Bentley in 1874 and the reredos and frontal were painted by Westlake. • Between the two N aisles is a sculptural group of St John and the Virgin Mary sculpted by Mr Kirk, the brother of Fr Kirk OSC. • Further E in the outer N aisle is the Sacred Heart altar of marble and alabaster with mosaics of the Virgin Mary flanked by two saints. • At the E end of the outer N aisle is the St Charles Borromeo Chapel, added by Bentley in 1887. The altar dates from 1903 (F W Tasker), with a reredos by Hardman & Powell which includes a painting of St Charles. Set into the N wall is an oak cupboard by Bentley for the chasuble of St Charles. • The chapel at the E end of the inner N aisle was originally the Chapel of St Charles and in 1887 became the Chapel of the Holy Ghost. The mosaic floor, the metal side screens and the alabaster altar with marble panels date from 1912 (George Powell). A statue of Our Lady stands on the altar. • A square alabaster and marble font stands just W of the former Chapel of the Holy Ghost, of the same design as the forward altar and lectern and presumably from the same reordering scheme. • A crucifix hangs in front of the chancel arch. The sanctuary has wrought-iron communion rails, and screens to the side chapels. The forward altar and the lectern have alabaster tracery and marble columns like the font. The high altar (1914, Jones & Willis) has an alabaster reredos with depictions of the Presentation and the Finding in the Temple flanking the monstrance throne and outer panels of Saints Ambrose and Charles. The frontal depicts the Sacrifice of Melchisedech and the Supper at Emmaus. • The inner SE chapel is dedicated to Saints Helen and Mary Magdalen (by Bentley, 1876). It has a plain altar below a recessed stone panel painted with the saints’ initials which formerly held a relic aumbry by Bentley with painted doors by Westlake. Recesses on either side were apparently designed for similar aumbries but later filled with oak and glass cupboards from St Charles College. Above the reredos is a strong moulding with four angels holding the Instruments of the Passion. The two windows above are framed by another moulding with two angels and a central crucifixion. There are two statues of St Michael and St Theresa on stone pedestals. • The Lady Chapel in the outer S aisle was furnished by Bentley in 1872–74. This included a wrought-iron grille (1876) to the side, and an altar and reredos of Carrara marble with gilded Marian monograms and fleur-de-lys. It has been restored and refurbished by IFACS, with new stencil work, under the direction of the parish priest Fr Alan Robinson, in collaboration with Chris Fanning of the Diocesan Property Office. • The S wall of the outer S aisle has four built-in confessionals with decorative colonettes and cusped arched heads. • There are several statues in the nave and aisles, including Saints Patrick, Joseph, Augustine and Francis. • Apart from the clerestory and the W windows, all windows have stained glass. The six-light E window is by Jones & Willis; seven S aisle windows have been attributed to Lavers, Barraud & Westlake (dated between 1877 and 1880); while three in the N aisle are signed by the firm (1868–70). Confirmed designs by Bentley include two two-light windows with female saints in the Lady Chapel (1871); the three-light Pentecost window in the former Holy Ghost chapel; four windows in the St Charles Chapel (c1888–89); and a three-light window in the N aisle (1895–6). The easternmost window in the outer N aisle depicting St Vincent de Paul, the Madonna and St John the Evangelist is based on cartoons by John Hungerford Pollen for the Chapel of Studley Royal, North Yorkshire, which were adapted after his death as a memorial window to Pollen (1820–1902) and made by James Powell & Sons.

The post Bayswater – St Mary of the Angels appeared first on Taking Stock.