| Description | Deptford was initially served by priests from St George’s Fields, Southwark, until a parish was established at Greenwich. In 1842 a separate mission was established at Deptford by Fr William Marshall to serve the local Catholic community, many of them Irish immigrants, who worked in the shipyards and on the railways in that part of London. In 1843, a temporary chapel was opened , a gift of Canon Richard North, the parish priest at Greenwich. Plans for a permanent building in the High Street were realised in 1844, when on 22 June the first stone was laid for a new church designed by Canon North, who was also the patron. Originally consisting only of a nave, Mass began to be said their in August 1845, and the church was then formally opened in 1846. The interior was at that time richly decorated, including a stencilled ceiling, a decorated dado and murals on the chancel arch. Of the latter, only a Crucifixion scene survives. In 1855, a four-storey battlemented presbytery was built to the south of the church. At the same time, a statue of Our Lady was placed in the church. In the 1850s, there was also a campaign for the enlargement of the church. In his fundraising appeal of 1859, the parish priest Fr Joseph North described how the congregation was too poor to be able to fund the extension and appealed for outside donations. The appeal was successful and the chancel and Lady Chapel, built again to designs by Canon North, were opened in December 1859. A few days later, the High Altar was consecrated. A life-size crucifix was given to the church in 1871, commemorating a mission preached by Fr Plunkett, a Redemptorist priest.
On 19 May 1890, the church was consecrated by Bishop Butt. In 1904 the interior was redecorated. In May 1906 the adjoining hall, formerly the Mechanics’ Institute, was acquired by Fr Felix Segesser. However, this amenity was lost again, when Fr Segesser left the parish ten years later. In 1942 church and presbytery were damaged in an air raid, destroying stained glass windows in the nave. In 1958 a grotto to Our Lady was built from stones from the former Catholic chapel in Brockley Cemetery, which had been destroyed by bombing.In the 1970s and 1980s there were several improvements. Under Fr Gerald Flood the roofs were repaired, the brickwork repointed, a porch added to the west front, and the nave benches rearranged so as to form a central aisle. Under his successor, Fr James McGillicuddy, the interior was repainted, the sanctuary reordered and a Reconciliation Room created in the narthex. At the same time, the large crucifix was moved to its present location over the narthex doors into the nave. A new Parish Hall was built between 1989 and 1991 at the rear of a new building erected on the site of the former Mechanics’ Institute. |