St. Patrick's Friary - Waterloo, London

St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church was orginally built as a school-chapel in  the  late  19th  century  by  notable Scottish architech F.A. Walters. The main frontage of the church which is hidden away on Cornwall Road, is in a simplified Neo-Romanesque style and has some nice detail. The church and school make a positive contribution to the Waterloo conservation area, and the parish has become a popular place for commuters and city workers to pray, and celebrate mass during the week. Although the interior of the church could never be described as beautiful, or even typically attractive, it does harken back to an earlier time when Christans would gather in upper rooms and hidden places to avoid persecution. There is something warm and inviting about St. Patrick's - something distinctively Catholic.

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The church forms part of a school building built in 1897, which was initially served from the Cathedral (Archdiocese of Southwark), but since 1964 the parish has been in the care of Friars. Original plans for the church drawn up by Walters show that originally, the chapel was proposed to be in a more convenient location on the ground floor, and It is not quite clear why the chapel was subsequently placed on the upper floor. The drawings also show a more ambitious scheme than that realised, with a tower.

The Conventual Franciscans were invited to take over care of the parish of St. Patrick’s in 1964 and the Presbytery on Whittlesey Steet (opposite) has become the main Curia House for the Order in Great Britain & Ireland.

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