St Vincent de Paul, Becontree

Introduction

The first church, a temporary building, was built in 1923. In May 1933 the present church was opened, built from designs by Geoffrey Raymond of Scoles and Raymond.

History

In 1927 the parish was erected and the first resident priest appointed. Many of the leaded lights were apparently replaced after bomb damage in World War II. The church was consecrated in December 1973. In 1989 the sanctuary was reordered by Richard Hurley of the Dublin firm of Tyndall Hogan Hurley. In the 1989 reordering a new altar was installed on a broad stone platform at the east end of the nave, and a half-height timber screen divided the sanctuary from the body of the church.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built in dull red brick with stone dressings and concrete tile roofs. The plan comprises an aisleless nave with a western narthex, a small south-western baptistery, and a short sanctuary narrower than the nave. The narthex has canted sides, three large pointed doorways with small paired windows between, and a stepped parapet with stone coping. The west gable has a large five-light window with flowing tracery and a triple-trefoiled window above.

The side elevations are divided into five bays by plain buttresses, each bay having a large rectangular three-light window with a hood-mould. The nave has a boarded and painted hammer beam roof, plain plastered walls, and a parquet floor. At the west end is a timber organ gallery with a passage below. The sanctuary has a boarded pointed ceiling, windows in the side walls, and a blind east wall with an elaborate pinnacle reredos of stone and gold mosaic.

The sanctuary arch is flanked by lower pointed arches leading to the Lady Chapel and the chapel of the Sacred Heart, which have rib vaulted ceilings. The remaining timber benches are likely original. The tympanum of the main west door has a carved and painted stone and mosaic depiction of the Sacred Heart. The nave altar is a single block of Bath stone carved by Angela Godfrey.

The church has a white marble Gothic font of unusual rectangular form. The church has a naturalistic bronze eagle lectern. The parish livestreams services through its YouTube Channel for the sick and housebound.

Parish life

This church served as the mother parish for several other parishes in the region, playing a foundational role in establishing the Catholic community in Becontree and Dagenham. The parish aims to unite its local community through weekly masses and the services provided through its ministries. The parish runs a separate Adult Confirmation Programme for those aged 18 or older. The parish offers the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).

The parish continuously prays for parishioners who are sick and housebound. The church has full facilities for the disabled, a loop system for hearing aid users, and is registered for Catholic marriages. Visitors come to St Vincent, Becontree, for its historical and spiritual significance as the first Catholic place of worship on the Becontree Estate.