Record

AAW - Archives of the Archbishop of Westminster
- DOW - Diocese of Westminster
  - PAR - Parishes

Repository	Archives of the Archbishop of Westminster
Ref No	AAW/DOW/PAR/112
Title	Kentish Town, St Alexis
Level	Series
Description	The first centre of worship for the Catholic population in Kentish Town was established by the Rev Hardinge Fiorenzo Ivers, a convert priest. Fr. Ivers was an educated man, descended from an old propertied family of Kentish Town. Fr. Ivers travelled widely in Europe, and it was while in Lisbon that he was credited with saving Jesuits there from death at the hands of an angry mob. He was invited to Rome and was made a hereditary Count of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Gregory XVI. He was ordained a priest and then returned to Kentish Town to establish a physical Catholic presence. Fr. Ivers observed the “horrible state of spiritual destitution in which Kentish Town was plunged” and in 1846 he applied to Dr Giffiths, Bishop of London, to open his private chapel to the public as a preface to building a new church. Despite local opposition to these plans, which saw him arrested and briefly jailed, Ivers was able to open a temporary church dedicated to St Alexis in July 1847, with the help of donations of £100 from Bishop Griffiths and £50 from the Jesuits. The new church was very close to his residence and private chapel in Gospel Terrace, an address which no longer exists, but was located where Nos. 110-118 Highgate Road now stand. In a letter to the “Tablet” in 1847 Ivers wrote that “it was the first time since the reformation that the Angelus bells tolled in Kentish Town and the Blessed Sacrament was carried in the streets”. However, the presence of a Catholic church was not well received and the shop across the road from the church had a large sign up saying “no connections with the church over the way”. Thsi did not deter Ivers, who planned to build a larger, permanent church at Fitzroy Place (now 57-59 Highgate Road). The foundation stone of this building, designed by W. Wordell, a renowned Catholic architect of the time, was laid in October 1849, but it was never completed. A dispute broke out about the site between Fr Ivers and Cardinal Wiseman and the mission was closed. After a law suit and expulsion from the Church, Fr Ivers died in penury in College Lane in 1868.

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