| Description | In 1969, Fr (later Canon) Harold Winstone, was asked by Archbishop Cardinal Heenan to establish a new parish in Manor House, London. Originally based in a local pub, the parish centre then moved to the hall of the nearby International Catholic Students Hostel in Portland Rise. In 1972, Canon Winstone then commissioned architect John Newton of Burles, Newton & Partners, to produce plans for a new church, to be built on the site of a former brothel in Henry Road.
Originally, the church tabernacle was placed in a recess visible from both the church and the weekday chapel (when separated by screens). Later, the parish priest moved the main altar to a central position on the west wall, whereas originally it would have been off-centre, near the tabernacle. The building has the hall in the basement, the church on part of the ground floor and the presbytery beside it, mostly on the first floor. The building itself is aligned on a northwest-southeast axis but the altar is set against the west wall. The west elevation has a prominent staircase tower with a circular relief of St Thomas More (based on Holbein’s portrait) and a cross with a crown of thorns. The complex includes offices for the Catholic Association for Racial Justice.
In 1973, Canon Winstone established a link with St Edward’s College in Totteridge, North London, a training centre for the Missionaries of Africa (formerly the White Fathers). Each year two students would be sent on a placement with the parish, and parishioners would be invited to College social events and to attend the College's end of year Mass. When St Edward’s College relocated to Jerusalem in 2006, thereby ending the relationship with the parish, the Rector of Missionaries for Africa, Father Joe Buholzer, presented the Parish with the large crucifix, made in Switzerland, which now stands behind the church Altar. Around the church hang the Stations of the Resurrection, temporarily replacing the ceramic Stations of the Cross, also presented by Fr Joe Buholzer, which hang on the Garden wall.
In conjunction with establishing the new parish in Manor House, Canon Winstone also founded the St Thomas More Centre for Pastoral Liturgy. Originally based in a house next door to the International Catholic Students Hostel, the Centre and parish finally merged with the opening of the new, purpose-built church, hall and offices in 1975. Although it was never formally recognised as the national liturgical centre for England and Wales as Canon Winstone hoped, it nevertheless became an important centre in the post-Vatican II era for liturgists and pastoral musicians from around the world. In the mid-1980s, the music of a number of composers whose work had been distributed and promoted by the Centre started to be published in the USA as "Music of the St. Thomas More Center," and in 1991, this led to the composers concerned establishing an independent enterprise, The St Thomas More Group, which continues to this day.
In 1983, Canon Winstone left the parish of Manor House, and retired as director of the St Thomas More Centre, when he became parish priest of St Thomas More, Knebworth. The Centre under its new director, Michael Shaw, expanded its work to such an extent that it had to move offices to Hendon, thus ending the link with Manor House parish. After Michael Shaw left, however, the work of the Centre changed direction and it became simply a distributor and bookseller. In 1995, the Diocese of Westminster decided to close the Centre for economic reasons. |