| Admin_History | In 1791 a chapel was built on the corner of Spanish Place and Charles Street, largely through the efforts of Doctor Thomas Hussey who had been a chaplain at the Spanish Embassy.
In the year 1827 the official Spanish connection with the chapel ceased and it was handed over to the London Vicariate.
A recurring anxiety from 1827 was the fact that the chapel was on leasehold property and the lease was not renewable. Funds were raised with a view to purchasing a site and building a new church. The site of the present church, immediately opposite the old chapel, came up for sale at £30,000, the exact sum which had been collected. The site was purchased and the design for a new church was made an open competition. Edward Goldie won the competition and the present edifice, partially completed, was opened on Michaelmas Day, 1890.
The Church was consecrated on 28th April, 1949, by His Lordship Bishop Craven. The consecration had been planned on two previous occasions but had had to be postponed - in 1935 because of the death of Cardinal Bourne, and in 1940 because of the second World War. |