Church of The Blessed Sacrament, Copenhagen Street

Introduction

The Church of The Blessed Sacrament, Copenhagen Street, in London, was founded as a parish in 1916. Cardinal Bourne opened the church on 24 June 1916. The church was paid for by Mr (later Commendatore) James J. Hicks KCSG, who died in 1916.

History

Building work on the church started in 1913. By the 1990s the church developed structural problems; the apse and three bays at the east were demolished as well as the presbytery, with planning permission of 28 May 1996.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is in a free domestic style, built of dark red brick, rubbed red brick and stone dressings (western half), and stock brick and red brick dressings (eastern half), with brick laid in Flemish bond. The interior is five bays long, covered by an exposed kingpost roof on corbels with struts and arch-braced collar beams. The modern font consists of a timber pedestal with a glass bowl, placed just outside the baptistery. Inside the baptistery, a marble pedestal supports a pieta (La Statue Religieuse, Paris), surrounded by statues of saints including Padre (St) Pio, St Antony, St Patrick, St Teresa and St Martin de Porres.

On the north side is a side altar to the Sacred Heart, with marble altar, tabernacle and statue, presumably the side altar described in c.1926 by Rottmann. The Stations, unpainted casts set into the pilasters, date from at least 1959. Above the gable of the central bay stands the shortened remainder of the original tall bellcote. The side bays feature recessed Romanesque doorways with splayed reveals and cushion capitals, set under gables. The furnishings by James Keegan, mason, include a forward altar on red marble columns, a marble lectern, and a white marble reredos adapted from an altar of the church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street.

Parish life

The Copenhagen Street Foodbank was established in 2018 as a project of the Blessed Sacrament RC Church and became a registered charity in October 2023. The foodbank provides for over 200 households each week, which amounts to 600-800 individuals. The foodbank is operated entirely by more than 50 volunteers.

The parish's First Holy Communion pathway is named Growing in Faith Together (GIFT). GIFT is intended for families with children aged between 5 and 11. The parish's confirmation programme includes young people from both Blessed Sacrament and Saint John's Parish.