Church of our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Westminster

Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Gregory, Westminster

51°30′40″N 0°08′17″W / 51.51123°N 0.13792°W / 51.51123; -0.13792Coordinates: 51°30′40″N 0°08′17″W / 51.51123°N 0.13792°W / 51.51123; -0.13792
Location	Soho, Westminster, London
Country	England
Denomination	Catholic
Website	Church of our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Westminster
History
Consecrated	24 July 1928
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Designated	24 February 1958
Architect(s)	Joseph Bonomi the Elder
Years built	1789–90
Administration
Metropolis	Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
Diocese	Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster

The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Gregory is a Roman Catholic church on Warwick Street, Westminster. It was built between 1798 and 1790 to the designs of Joseph Bonomi the Elder,^[1] and as the only surviving eighteenth century Roman Catholic chapel in London^[1] is a Grade II* listed building.^[2]

History

The origins of the church lie in the chapel established in the 1730s at the Portuguese Embassy on Golden Square. At this time, with the English Penal Laws in force, most Roman Catholic chapels existed under the protection, and within the precincts of, foreign embassies.^[1] Responsibility for the chapel passed to the Bavarian embassy in 1747 but it was destroyed in the Gordon Riots in 1780. The replacement church was designed by Joseph Bonomi the Elder, an Italian architect and draughtsman, who had moved to London in 1767 to work in the practice of Robert and James Adam.

The church has attracted many prominent Catholic worshippers, including Mrs Fitzherbert, mistress of George IV,^[3] and the young Cardinal Newman.^[3] In 1983, the funeral mass for Ralph Richardson, a regular worshipper, was held at the church.

Exterior

The exterior is of plain brick, stained red in 1952.^[1] The brick facade was deliberately "unassuming",^[1] in response to the destruction of the earlier chapel, and the gilded stars and angels which now decorate the facade date from the 1950s.^[1] It is of three bays and two storeys.^[2]

Interior

The interior retains some of its Georgian decoration, but the church was restored and altered in the Victorian period, firstly in renovations carried out by John Erlam, in 1853,^[4] which also saw the installation, over the altar, of the bas-relief of the Assumption, by John Edward Carew.^[1] A second period of restoration took place from 1874, under the direction of John Francis Bentley,^[1] the architect of Westminster Cathedral.

Notes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Bradley & Pevsner 2003, p. 393
1 2 "Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church – Westminster – Greater London – England". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
1 2 "About the Parish". Parish.rcdow.org.uk. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
↑ "Golden Square Area: Warwick Street". British-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 January 2015.

References

Bradley, Simon; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2003). London 6: Westminster. The Buildings Of England. Yale University Press. ISBN 0 300 09595 3.

External links

Churches in Westminster

Ancient parish churches (pre-1800)	Savoy Chapel St Anne's, Soho St Clement Danes St George's, Hanover Square St James's Church, Piccadilly St John the Evangelist, Westminster St. Margaret's, Westminster St Martin-in-the-Fields St Marylebone Parish Church St Mary le Strand St Paul's, Covent Garden Westminster Abbey

Anglican daughter churches	All Saints, Margaret Street All Souls, Langham Place Annunciation, Marble Arch Grosvenor Chapel, Mayfair Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks Henry VII Chapel Holy Trinity, Marylebone Holy Trinity, South Kensington Queen's Chapel, St James St Augustine's, Kilburn St Cyprian's, Marylebone St Gabriel's, Pimlico St James, Paddington St James the Less, Pimlico St John's Wood Church St Mary, Marylebone St Mary on Paddington Green St Matthew's, Bayswater St Matthew's, Westminster St Paul's, Knightsbridge St Peter, Vere Street St Peter's, Victoria St Saviour's, Pimlico

Other denominations	Church of our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Westminster Crown Court Church, Covent Garden Dormition Cathedral Enon Chapel French Protestant Church of London, Soho Immaculate Conception, Farm Street Notre Dame de France One Mayfair Church Regent Hall, Oxford Street Saint Charles Borromeo church St. James's, Spanish Place St John's Wood Road Baptist Church St Patrick's, Soho St Sophia's Cathedral, Bayswater Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family in Exile, Mayfair Ulrika Eleonora West London Methodist Mission West Street Chapel, Westminster Westminster Cathedral Methodist Central Hall Westminster Chapel, Victoria

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