| Description | The parish of All Hallows, Kenton, as it was originally known, was founded in 1932. The first parish priest was Fr Maurice Beckett OBE, who had previously been a chaplain at Westminster Cathedral since 1919, after serving as an Army Chaplain to the Forces in Italy. Fr Beckett borrowed money to purchase a site on Kenton Road and Claremont Avenue to build a parish hall which served temporarily as a church. In 1938, more land was purchased at the end of Clifton Road (the site of an old sewage farm) to build a primary school. However, plans for this and the new church had to be deferred until well after World War II.
In 1953, the new primary school (which became St Bernadette's First and Middle School) was opened by Archbishop Bernard Griffin. A secondary school, St Gregory's, was opened in 1957 by Archbishop William Godfrey, built on land in Donnington Road that had been purchased in 1942.
Mass attendance had grown steadily over the years and Fr Joseph Williams, who had succeeded Fr Beckett in 1947, employed architects Sterrit and Kaye to design a new church. The foundation stone was laid on 10 March 1962 by Cardinal Godfrey, nd the church was blessed and opened for use by Fr Williams in 1963.
In 1965, Fr Michael Lynam succeeded Fr Williams as parish priest and arranged for the Solemn Consecration of the church by Bishop Gerald Mahon, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, assisted by Canon Joseph Williams, in June 1971. In November 1974, Fr Lynam commissioned Walker & Sons of Brandon, Suffolk, to design and build a pipe organ for the church. An inaugural recital was given on 19 February 1976 by Jane Parker-Smith. Fr Lynam retired in April 1975 and was succeeded by Canon Maurice O'Leary, former Director of the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council.
The re-ordering of the Sanctuary to accord with the Revised Liturgy was first discussed in 1975 at a parish meeting and work was finally approved and implemented in 1982, designed by architect Austin Winkley. Further building work, including renovation, re-design and decoration of the church was completed in September 2011, adding a new parish room at the back of the church. |