Walworth, English Martyrs

Like most other districts of South London, Walworth was a rural village a hundred years ago. By 1840, however, it was a thickly populated quarter of the Metropolis. Prior to the establishment of the present mission, the district was attended by clergy from St. George's, though as far back as 1843 or 1844 a demand for a chapel was made in the columns of the Catholic press.

In 1889 a census of Catholics in the district was carried out under the direction of Fr. Reeks, John Newton, Esq., of Old Kent Road, &c. Shortly after this, Bishop Butt took a house in Northampton Place, where religious instruction was given to children on Sunday afternoons. Then a room over a shop (29 North Street) was hired, and finally "two miserable dilapidated cottages" (Dean's Buildings). A boys' and girls' school, designed by Mr. Leonard Stokes, was opened March 10, 1890, and on the following Sunday Mass was said in one of the class-rooms of the building. This "school chapel" continued till the opening of the present fine church, early in 1903. The style is Early English from design by the late F. W. Tasker, Esq. The high altar is surmounted by a life size crucifix, and there is a large and handsomely built Lady Chapel. Cost of erection, about £5,500. A fine presbytery, in the Georgian style, adjoins the church. [...]

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