Saint Thomas More, Swiss Cottage

Introduction

Saint Thomas More in Swiss Cottage was built in 1968 to designs by Gerard Goalen.

History

The original church was a long narrow building, formerly the studio of the painter Philip de László (1869-1937). By 1950 the congregation had outgrown the existing church, and a second church was built on the site. Following construction of the new church, the previous church was converted for use as a parish hall.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is composed on an almost-elliptical plan, capable of seating 700 people, ensuring no member of the congregation is more than 40 feet from the altar. The consultant engineers were Ove Arup and Partners, and the contractors were John Murphy and Sons. The structure sits on substantial foundations comprising over 150 concrete piles, each around 17ft deep. The walls are faced in dark brown brick with an exposed concrete-framed clerestory and roof structure.

The sanctuary projects into the main body of the church, embraced by an ambulatory carrying a gallery to the south side. The interior walls are of bare-faced brown brick enlivened by vermiculated brickwork of double 'hooked' profile, which fully lines the ambulatory and forms large panels on the north wall. Eighteen slim fluted concrete columns support the rear clerestory and the timber gallery along the south (entrance) side. The floor is slightly raking, and is of concrete with a linoleum tile finish to the aisles, which converge at the sanctuary.

A Tinos marble altar and matching ambo are raised on the sanctuary platform, which is accessed by terrazzo steps and retains a steel communion rail. The tabernacle is located in a rectangular niche inset to the north wall, set on a Blessed Sacrament altar of Portland stone (relocated from the former Blessed Sacrament chapel). The church is approached by a flight of steps from the street, and the entrance bay sits forward to the south with stairs to the gallery and administrative rooms leading off it. At the top of the steps is a broad flat-roofed porch, projecting from the main body of the church, which presents as an elliptical drum-type structure, crowned by a rising concrete-framed clerestory fronted by a bellcote.

The bellcote consists of a rectangular enclosure of closely-spaced vertical members supported on two tapered concrete piers topped by a stylised cross finial. Universal access is provided via a north-west porch. There is a rear clerestory lighting the sanctuary, composed of glazed panels set between the deep concrete supporting beams, carried forward beyond the face of the wall. The roof is supported on deep reinforced concrete beams spanning from north to south.

To the west side of the church, the baptistery is raised on a marble platform and has a later travertine font with timber cover. A more conventional Madonna and Child in the Lady Chapel is by Mayer.

Music and liturgy

The church was designed to afford the maximum opportunity for participation by the laity in the Mass, reflecting the liturgical developments of the Second Vatican Council. The vermiculated brickwork panels were originally backed by polystyrene blocks intended to improve the acoustic.

Parish life

The parish offers RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, for adults usually baptised or received into full Communion with the Catholic Church over the Easter weekend. The parish runs courses for adults who have not been confirmed. The parish usually performs baptisms on a Saturday afternoon.