Church of Saint Joseph, Bunhill Row

Introduction

The church is located within the basement of a large school building of 1901, built of London stock brick laid in English bond.

History

Saint Joseph's was a founding member of Shoreditch Citizens, which merged into Islington & North London Citizens. A fire destroyed the Christmas Crib, probably caused by a still-alight match. In 1901 the current chapel was built in the basement of a large new school block, as a chapel of ease to St Mary Moorfields.

Architecture and furnishings

The interior is of six bays, marked by the beams of the flat ceiling, with an organ by Nicholson. The church contains two stained glass windows of the 1820s from the old St Mary, Moorfields, the original pro-cathedral of the diocese. The easternmost windows on both sides have stained glass windows from the 1820s from the old Moorfields pro-Cathedral, depicting the Agony in the Garden and the Good Shepherd. Two other stained glass windows, the Descent from the Cross and the Death of St Joseph, were destroyed in the Second World War.

A stained glass window of 1947 depicts St Anthony and is dedicated to the memory of the Brandi family. Above the entrance is a statue of St Joseph, given by St Mary, Chelsea. Off the north side is a small Lourdes grotto created in 1993 with a statue from the previous school building. The sanctuary has a timber altar and other matching modern furnishings in wrought-iron. The Stations of the Cross are modern, replacing in the 1980s a set of nineteenth-century German Stations.

Music and liturgy

Each Lent and Autumn the parish holds Saturday morning prayer and study groups with its Ecumenical Partners. The parish has a Carmel-in-the-City spirituality group. The church was dedicated on 14 October 1993.

Parish life

The parish holds frequent social gatherings in the Parish Hall after Sunday Mass and at other times, including an International Fiesta, Christmas Bazaar and Spring Sale. Saint Joseph's responded to street violence by enlisting over 30 safe-havens locally and lobbying for the real London Living Wage. Saint Joseph's is in an Ecumenical Partnership with Jewin Welsh Church, Saint Giles Cripplegate, and Wesley's Chapel & Leysian Mission.

The parish offers home visits from a priest or parish Eucharistic Ministers to those who would value them. The parish is committed to City Pregnancy Counselling and Psychotherapy (CPCP).

Sacraments and pastoral care

The parish prepares children for first Confession and first Holy Communion from Year 3 and above, and for teenage Confirmation from Year 9 and above. The parish prepares adults to complete their Christian Initiation.

Visiting

The church is the southern-most Catholic parish in the London Borough of Islington. The church is the successor to a school-chapel of about 1850. The site was bought in 1815 by the Associated Catholic Charities, who established an orphanage and schools. In 1993 the church interior was redesigned by Anthony Delarue 'in a vaguely Florentine Renaissance manner … to bring beauty and a sense of holiness into the building'.

On the south side of the building, near the southwest corner, is a small bellcote fixed at the level of the first floor. The church is accessed via a gateway and stairs at the southwest, with a 1993 gateway by Anthony Delarue featuring Doric pilasters, the Papal tiara in the pediment, and a gable cross flanked by pineapples. The entrance leads into a small narthex at the south. The other windows are filled with decorative leading and small panels of bottle glass.

A blind arch on the north side is filled with a large modern icon, Mary, Mother of the City, by Stephane Rene. Between the two west windows is a modern icon, Joseph of the house of David, near a statue of St Patrick. There is a statue of the Virgin on the north side, opposite a Sacred Heart statue. Saint Joseph's Quiet Garden is open from Easter until the end of October.