| Description | In 1849, the first mission in Barnet was started by Rev Dr Faa del Bruno. By 1853, enough funds had been raised to buy land in Union Street and the foundation of a church was laid, but the only buildings ever actually completed were a presbytery, which was to include an industrial school, and a classroom which was fitted up to be a temporary chapel. In 1858, Fr George Bampfield succeed Dr Faa del Bruno. While teaching at St Edmund's College, Ware, Fr Bampfield had started a mission at Waltham Cross where he later took up residence. He would travel to Barnet to hold Mass on Sundays until 1865, when he moved there permanently. Bampfield had the presbytery and other buidlings demolished and began building a church on the site.
Fr Bampfield wanted Barnet to become a centre for missionary activity and in 1870 founded the Institute of St Andrew. This comprised a congregation of priests who taught in the local schools, wrotet articles for the press, and established new missions in Sudbury, Kelvedon, New Barnet, Hitchin, and North and East Finchley. Fr Bampfield was succeeded by Fr Francis Spink, a senior member of the Institute of St Andrew, as the parish priest for Barnet in 1900. However, Fr Spink was unsuccessful in clearing the debts that the Institute of St Andrew had accumulated over the years and was forced to close the Institute and all the schools and sell their property in 1912.
In 1913, Fr (later Canon) John Hookway, another member of the Institute of St Andrew, succeeded Fr Spink and became Rector of the parish of Barnet. He successfully raised enough money to complete the building of the church begun by Fr Bampfield, and the building was consecrated by Cardinal Bourne in 1931. When Canon Hookway died in 1939, his place was briefly taken by his assistant, Fr Stephen Shaw, who moved to Hillingdon in 1940. Fr John Taylor then became parish priest at Barnet.
The church suffered damage during the war which was repaired and, under Fr Francis Donovan, who succeeded Fr John Taylor in 1956, and Fr Francis Kenney, who in turn succeeded Fr Donovan in 1964, the church was remodelled and redecorated. New accommodation for the priests was also planned, and the old Presbytery demolished to make way for a new one. However, on 20 June 1973, fire destroyed the church. A new church was built in 1973-75, using octagonal ‘template’ church, designed by Lanner Ltd of Wakefield, to accommodate about 240 seated adults.
By 1999 it was clear that the numbers attending Mass at weekends – averaging about 1000 – could only be accommodated satisfactorily by enlarging the church. In 2006 a formal project was set up to explore how this could be done. After proposals to construct an entirely new church were rejected on grounds of expense, the decision was taken in 2016 to build an extension to the existing church. After exile from the church for nearly a year to allow the building work to take place, it was solemnly reopened on 3rd September 2017 by Cardinal Vincent Nichols. A new altar was consecrated, a new font inaugurated, and the new sanctuary with new ambo and tabernacle was used for the first time. New underfloor heating, sound and lighting systems came into use. The feature frontage window, showing the risen Jesus with the church's patrons, Mary Immaculate and St Gregory the Great, was designed by Sally Scott. |