The importance of the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory in the history of Catholicism in London over the past three centuries can hardly be overstated. Founded as the chapel of the Portuguese Embassy in 1724, from its location on Warwick Street – just behind Regent Street in the heart of London’s West End – it has met the sacramental and social needs of Catholic Londoners without any significant breaks.
It later became the chapel of the Bavarian Embassy; even after the violence of the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in 1780, when most of its furnishings were destroyed, Mass continued to be offered. Indeed, it is the oldest place of continuous public Catholic worship on the same site in London and one of the oldest in the UK since the Reformation.
From its first beginnings the Warwick Street Chapel was open to Catholic laypeople for Mass, Vespers, Holy Week and confessions. There were never fewer than five and sometimes more than ten priests stationed here, far more than were required for the needs of the Portuguese ambassador and his household. There were as many as eight confessionals.
The reason why Catholic Londoners could freely attend Mass there, even during penal times, was the permission granted to access the chapels of the representatives of the Catholic powers under the terms of the Peace of Utrecht (1713-15).
There were, of course, other Catholic embassy chapels: on Hanover Square (Habsburg), in Soho (France), Lincoln’s Inn Fields (Sardinia) and Ormond Street (Spain). But the only one of these to survive in anything like its original form and on its original site is Warwick Street.
Its survival was the purest good fortune. When the Portuguese Embassy moved to Mayfair in 1747, the Bavarian Minister, Joseph von Haslang, took over Nos 23 and 24 Golden Square and so the chapel behind them continued to be available for public worship. One later member of the congregation was Maria Fitzherbert, the first wife of the Prince Regent (later King George IV).
The church was known as the Bavarian Chapel well into the 19th century, and long after it became a church in 1790. But its significance in London Catholic life extends beyond its longevity. The area around Golden Square and Soho – with its many foreign residents – became a centre of the Catholic faith. The saintly Richard Challoner, who was appointed Vicar Apostolic of the London District in 1758, lived in Old Gloucester Street in nearby in Bloomsbury, in a house which still survives.
Over a hundred years before the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy, Challoner would have known the church well. The Vicars Apostolic of London – bishops with pastoral oversight of the local Catholics without a formal diocesan structure – made the building their headquarters while living at 35 Golden Square. This included Nicholas Wiseman, later first Archbishop of Westminster.
Even into the 20th century the church played a major part in London Catholic life. In 1959, attendance on All Saints Day was around 3,000. However, the declining residential population of Soho, combined with the division of the parish in 1966 (whereby the Mayfair half of the parish went to the Jesuits in Farm Street) sent attendance into decline.
In 2013, Warwick Street was dedicated by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Wiseman’s successor as Archbishop of Westminster, as the mother church of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
The Ordinariate was established by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 to allow Anglicans to enter into the Catholic Church while retaining elements of their heritage.
I was named its Ordinary, and on Palm Sunday 2013 I celebrated our first Mass at Warwick Street. Once again this historic church began to play a role in the national life of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Mass is celebrated at the church both according to Divine Worship – the Ordinariate Use – and according to the Roman Missal.
In the years since we were granted use of the church, great and positive changes have taken place. The regular congregation has risen considerably and its musical tradition has been revived; many of the church furnishings and statues have been restored, new vestments have been acquired and the serving team has gone from strength to strength.
Perhaps more importantly, the church has continued to restore its reputation as a spiritual and social refuge from the din and anonymity of Central London. The building is generally open every day for private prayer and is seldom empty. Visitors are warmly welcomed and a monthly young people’s group is attracting considerable interest.
Since my recent retirement, the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has been blessed with its first bishop. The Rt Revd David Palmer is now Ordinary, and his recent ordination and installation have been a cause of great joy. While we reflect on Warwick Street’s glorious past, may we also be spurred on to even greater efforts to ensure that its future will be equally praiseworthy.
<em>Mgr Keith Newton is Ordinary Emeritus of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and a Protonotary Apostolic</em>
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