St. Ignatius Church, Stamford Hill

Introduction

The architect, Benedict Williamson, designed the church in the spirit of the early Middle Ages, drawing influence from old churches of Spain, France and Belgium.

History

After Herbert Vaughan became Archbishop of Westminster in 1892, nearly 300 people petitioned for a parish in Stamford Hill, and Cardinal Vaughan invited the Jesuits to open a parish, a primary school and a secondary school for boys. The first Mass was celebrated in Morecambe Lodge, a large house on the site of the present waste land, and the following year Burleigh House was bought to house the Jesuit community until the presbytery opened in 1928. A chapel was constructed out of the stables, coach house and stable yard of Morecambe Lodge, but soon it became clear that a proper church was needed. The church was built in two stages for financial reasons: the first part including the sanctuary opened in 1903 and the building was completed in 1911.

Architecture and furnishings

The exterior is faced in Belgian bricks similar to those used in the old churches of Bruges. The interior embellishments were not completed until 1925, including mosaic work in the Stations of the Cross, the Sanctuary, the Sacred Heart chapel and the Lady chapel. The chapel of St Joseph at the back of the church is dedicated to the men of the parish who died in the First World War, and their names are inscribed on the front of the altar.

The church was built 1894-1902 by Fr Benedict Williamson as a cruciform church with twin west towers on a very large scale. The church is built of red brick with white stone dressings and a tiled roof with stone corbelled cornice. The church has flying buttresses over the aisle roofs. The west front has a triple portal with reliefs in the tympana, including Christ in Majesty in the centre.

Above the portal are a row of windows, a rose window and blank arcading on top. The twin towers are very tall, of three stages, with pyramidal tiled roofs, and the south tower has a staircase turret. Inside, the church has a 4-bay nave with a barrel roof and a 2-bay chancel with a barrel roof. The crossing has a groin vault.

The church is in the late C12 transitional style. The sanctuary is covered with inlay and mosaics of figures of saints. The parish runs an Outreach to the local homeless, providing freshly cooked hot food Monday to Wednesday every lunchtime and ancillary support.

Sacraments and pastoral care

The First Holy Communion programme involves parents fully in preparing their children for First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. Wedding enquiries should normally be made no less than six months before the proposed date. Only sacred music can be used at weddings in the church. The parish's altar servers' Guild was affiliated to the Archconfraternity of Saint Stephen on 1 January 1945.