Our church began in a very humble way in 1854. A Mr. Thomas Kelly, an Irish builder, who owned 83 Culford Road, offered the first floor of his house as a chapel and free and free board for a priest. This generous offer was accepted and the very first Mass was said in a little room in Mr. Kelly's house by Dr. Henry Manning, with about six people present.
Dr. Manning (later Cardinal Manning), himself a convert to Catholicism, was a good friend of Father William Lockhart. He recommended Father William Lockhart to Cardinal Wiseman as the first parish priest and the Institute of Charity was persuaded to start a mission in Kingsland. Accordingly, Father Lockhart moved into 83 (later re-numbered 164) Culford Road, which stood on the site of our present school car park. The back parlour of this house served as the sanctuary of the chapel and the drawing room in front, which opened upon it by large folding doors, formed the body of the chapel. At the other side of the entrance hall, two small rooms served as Father Lockhart's study and bedroom. Here the first public Mass was said at Easter in 1854. One early account said that about fifteen people attended, but by Christmas of that year the congregation was spilling over into the corridors, down the front steps and on to the pavement.
The following year a storage shed behind his house (also owned by Mr. Kelly) was converted into a chapel and this converted shed housed a regular congregation of about 75. At the same time, our first primary school was started, by curtaining off a part of this church building for use as a schoolroom during the week. In May 1855 the Institute of Charity sent Father William Lewthwaite to assist Father Lockhart. Father Lewthwaite worked mainly in the Clapton area, which was at that time part of our own parish, and was involved in supervising the building of Saint Scholastica's Retreat, a home for the elderly. He said the first Mass in this home. It was on the site of this home that Saint Scholastica's Church was built in 1962.
By July 1856 an adjoining, recently built paper-dyeing factory, had been acquired and the upper floor skilfully converted into a church by William Wilkinson Wardell (1823-1899) who designed many Roman Catholic churches, including Saint John the Baptist in Hackney, and who subsequently designed Saint Mary's Cathedral in Sydney and Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia. He was acquainted with and influenced by A.W.N Pugin, the leading Gothic Revival architect of the Victorian era, also a convert to Catholicism. The altar was quite elaborate with a decorated frontal and with a reredos divided into three sections. In the centre was a painting of Our Lord holding a host. It was nearly life-size. On the right was Saint Augustine of Hippo and on the left Saint Thomas Aquinas. All the figures were painted against a gold background. Mr Barff, a convert Anglican clergyman, was the artist. All this building work was, of course, done by the faithful Mr. Kelly.
The ground floor became the school and there stairs up to the church. This building was situated at the corner of Culford and Tottenham Road. Cardinal Wiseman opened it on 29th September 1856. Externally, however, this building still looked like the factory that it was originally designed to be, with a flat roof and small wooden windows running along its length and therefore the church was again extensively remodelled by E.W. Pugin, the son of A.W.N Pugin. The old wooden windows were replaced by stone windows with tracery in Gothic style. Stained glass windows depicting events in the life of Our Lady were installed. The old flat factory roof was removed and a high sloping roof of Gothic style built instead. A choir gallery was built on the far end. This remodelled church was reopened on 24th February 1860. This church remained in use, substantially unaltered, for the next 100 years. From this church there remains a life-size crucifix, now attached to the outside wall of our school, facing De Beauvoir Road. It used to be inside the old church suspended above the sanctuary.
Chapel in the convent gardens of
the Ursuline Sister in Culford Road.
Built in the early 1900s
The Parish of OLSJ / The Parish School
