The 1886 Church of Our Lady of Grace & St Edward, serving the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

parish of Chiswick, stands on the south side of

Chiswick High Road Chiswick High Road is the principal shopping and dining street of Chiswick, a district in the west of London. It was part of the main Roman road running west out of London, and remained the main road until the 1950s when the A4 was built acro ...

, on the corner with Duke's Avenue.

History

The parish was founded in 1848. A school was started around 1855, and a church was opened by

Cardinal Wiseman Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (3 August 1802 – 15 February 1865) was a Cardinal of the Catholic Church who became the first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850. Bor ...

on the present site in 1864. It was replaced by the present building in 1886, opened by Cardinal Manning. The debts incurred were paid off and the church consecrated in 1904. The square tower was added after the First World War by Canon Egan as a war memorial. The east wall facing Duke's Avenue was damaged by a bomb in 1944; the wall and roof were restored in 1953, with the addition of a porch and baptistery by Donald Plaskett Marshall. The church is paired with two local churches, St Dunstan's,

Gunnersbury Gunnersbury is an area of West London, England. Toponymy The name "Gunnersbury" means "Manor house of a woman called Gunnhildr", and is from an old Scandinavian personal name + Middle English -''bury'', manor or manor house. Development Gunne ...

and St Joseph's, Grove Park.

Architecture

Exterior

The Grade II listed building is a red brick

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...

by the architects Kelly & Birchall, who specialised in churches in the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

and Gothic Revival styles. The main door, with a round pediment, faces north on to Chiswick High Road. There is no apse; the side walls are stepped. The ground floor is designed with intentionally blind window panels. The building is ornamented with substantial amounts of moulded and rubbed brick and

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

decoration in

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought a ...

. The rubbed brick pilaster capitals were carved by Joseph Cribb. The tall rectangular yellow-brown brick bell-tower was added by

Giles Gilbert Scott Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (9 November 1880 – 8 February 1960) was a British architect known for his work on the New Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Battersea Power Station, Liverpool Cathedral, and ...

in 1930; a rather more ornate tower was included in the original plans. The roof is covered with pantiles. File:Design for Our Lady of Grace, Chiswick 1886.jpg, Architects' design, 1886 Our Lady of Grace, Chiswick brick detail.jpg, Decorative brickwork, carvings by Joseph Cribb Our Lady of Grace, Chiswick, war memorial plaque.jpg, War memorial plaque erected by canon Edmund Egan, 1930

Interior

The interior is decorated with painted plaster: the walls are white, the ceiling mainly red, and ornamentation gold. The ceiling is divided into rectangular coffers with white borders. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

is built to the same width and height as the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, separated by a high round arch. The nave is flanked by lower aisles, and separated from them on each side by four round Corinthian columns; the chancel has one column on each side. File:Our Lady of Grace, Chiswick interior facing altar.jpg, Interior, facing altar Our Lady of Grace, Chiswick interior Choir detail.jpg, Detail of chancel Our Lady of Grace, Chiswick interior facing doors.jpg, Interior, facing doors

References

External links

* Buildings and structures in Chiswick Churches in the London Borough of Hounslow Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster Roman Catholic churches completed in 1886 Grade II listed Roman Catholic churches in England Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Hounslow Roman Catholic churches in London {{DEFAULTSORT:Church of Our Lady of Grace and St Edward, Chiswick