St. Aloysius, Somers Town

Introduction

The church is a mid-1960s design with a conspicuous brick drum, retaining most of its original 1960s fittings. The parish runs groups for prayer, social action, Sacramental preparation, youth work and support of others. The parish runs a Confirmation programme.

Architecture and furnishings

The main body of the church is an elliptical brick drum with a continuous concrete clerestory set on a raised flat-roofed brick podium, bookended by the taller presbytery and narthex. A broad flight of concrete steps leads to the main entrance at the right hand end of the podium, with a sunken area to the remainder allowing light to the windows of the lower hall. The main front elevation of the podium has four large rectangular windows, with a small copper drum over the baptistery next to the entrance. Internally, the glazed narthex leads directly into the body of the church, with the space under the drum containing the sanctuary and main seating area supported on concrete columns with a continuous ambulatory.

The floor of the church is Genoa Green terrazzo, the walls are faced with grey Tyrolean plaster, and the ceiling of the drum has Parana pine boarding. The wooden benches are original. To the right of the sanctuary is a recess for the reserved sacrament with a ceramic mural by Adam Kossowski. There are several fibreglass statues by Gordon Bedingfield.

The drum clerestory has abstract stained glass by the Whitefriars studio, who also provided the baptistery window. The large windows in the north wall depicting the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary are by Goddard & Gibbs, added in the 1990s.