Church of St Francis of Assisi, Notting Hill

Introduction

The church was opened on 2 February 1860, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

History

In 1882 the church was lengthened westwards. The church was spared any serious damage during the Second World War, merely being hit by an incendiary bomb in the spring of 1941. The church was built in 1859 by Jackson and Shaw to the design of Clutton and opened on 2 February 1860, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1861 Bentley continued the aisle round the apse to form a Lady Chapel, added a baptistery at the west end of the aisle, and built a presbytery and school.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is a low brick church with apsidal east end, four bay nave, no clerestory, and north aisle. The Lady Chapel is fitted in tangentially to the northeast, also apsed.

The high altar was constructed in 1863 of inlaid marble, glass mosaic and mastic inlaid in alabaster. The altar of St John the Evangelist was designed in March 1861, with paintings by Westlake. The font cover (1865) was designed and donated by Bentley as a thanksgiving offering for his own baptism in the church three years earlier. The Stations of the Cross were painted on slate by Westlake between 1865 and 1870.

The monstrance in richly jewelled silver gilt (1864) was the only Byzantine design made by Bentley before Westminster Cathedral. Clutton built the church in 1860, with the Lady Chapel and Baptistry added by Bentley in 1863. Bentley's fittings include the high altar and font, both richly decorated with contrasting marbles and supported by stumpy columns with stiff leaf capitals.

Parish life

Altar servers assist the celebrating Priest during Mass and may be in primary or secondary school. Teams of parishioners are responsible for cleaning the church. Kalayaan, an independent charity for migrant domestic workers, was founded in the parish centre in 1987. The parish holds an annual collection of clothes and two second collections after Sunday Masses for Mary's Meals every year.

Sacraments and pastoral care

Confirmation preparation is for those in Years 9-13, involving weekly meetings, with enrolment advertised in the Parish Newsletter every December and the programme usually consisting of ten sessions on Monday evenings from January to June.

Visiting

The church's courtyard contains a bust of St Francis from 1982 by Arthur Fleischmann, who also created the fountain of 1986. A slate plaque installed in the courtyard in 2018 records the names of parishioners who died in the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017. Words of St Francis are displayed below the Calvary near the entrance to the church. A holy water stoup was placed in the porch in May 1913 for the use of those visiting when the inner door was closed. The church's collection of over 200 Bentley drawings is on loan to the Royal Institute of British Architects' Drawings Collection housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum.