St Dominic's Priory Church (formally named "Our Lady of the Rosary and St Dominic") is one of the largest

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

churches in London. The church is Grade II* listed building on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

. It has been served by the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) since 1861, the community living in the adjacent Priory. In October 2016, the church was solemnly inaugurated by the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster,

Vincent Nichols Vincent Gerard Nichols (born 8 November 1945) is an English cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. He previously served as Archbishop of Birmin ...

, as a diocesan shrine, with a designated mission of promoting the Rosary.

Location

The church and

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

are in Southampton Road just south of Hampstead Heath and close to

Belsize Park Belsize Park is an affluent residential area of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden (the inner north-west of London), England. The residential streets are lined with mews houses and Georgian and Victorian villas. Some nearby localities ar ...

. The nearest stations are

and

Chalk Farm tube station Chalk Farm is a London Underground station near Camden Town in the London Borough of Camden. It is on the Edgware branch of the Northern line between Belsize Park and Camden Town stations. For ticketing purposes, Chalk Farm falls in Travelc ...

s both on the

Northern line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, tw ...

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with small parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred north-northwest of Charing Cros ...

branch, and

Hampstead Heath railway station Hampstead Heath railway station is in the London Borough of Camden in north London on the North London Line, between and stations, and is in Travelcard Zone 2. Since 11 November 2007 it and the service there have been run by London Overgro ...

and

Gospel Oak railway station Gospel Oak railway station is in the London Borough of Camden in north-west London. It is on the North London line (NLL) and is also the western passenger terminus of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line – known informally as GOBLIN. Passengers us ...

s on

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, all about 15 minutes walk away.

History

The Dominican Friars came to the area in 1861 with a community of Friars in the Priory, a community of Dominican Sisters nearby in Constantine Road and a group of Lay Dominicans who meet each month at the Priory. The priory was opened in 1867 and the Priory Church dates from 1883. The church was opened largely thanks to Countess Tasker, its great benefactress. The road leading down to the Priory (Tasker Road) was named in her memory. In 1900 a pillar from the chapter house of the London Black Friars (the medieval predecessor of St Dominic's Priory) was discovered during archaeological work in Blackfriars and was removed to the east end of St Dominic's church. The Priory Church is still named Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Dominic, as the current notice board makes clear. In 2021 the apse and High Altar of the church underwent cleaning and restoration including the re-gilding of the diapered walls of the apse. The Stations of the Cross, painted by Philip Westlake in 1887, were also restored and a new lighting system installed in the fourteen Rosary Chapels. During the 1990s the Traditional Catholic Mass (in the Roman Rite, rather than the Dominican Rite) was re-established at St. Dominic's at 11.15 am every Sunday. This was by request of the late Cardinal Hume. Currently a Sung Mass in the traditional Dominican rite is sung in Latin every Sunday at 6pm, and this is celebrated at the High Altar. The 12 noon Solemn Mass in the Ordinary Form is also celebrated at the restored High Altar every Sunday. Two memorials in the church commemorate individuals who were killed in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. A large stone tablet by the main door to the church lists the names of soldiers from the area who died in the war. It is made from a large block of stone from a quarry from the French battlefields and was unveiled in 1921. The lettering of the tablet was carved by

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...

.War Memorial: Priory of Our Lady of the Rosary and St Dominic - WW1 Tablet (WMR-58341)
War Memorial: Priory of Our Lady of the Rosary and St Dominic - WW1 Tablet (WMR-58341)
accessdate: August 14, 2017 A sculpted stone statue of

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronat ...

by the Rosary Chapel marks the death of a soldier killed at

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality c ...

in 1915.War Memorial: A Soldier Killed at Ypres - WW1 Tablet (WMR-58341)
War Memorial: A Soldier Killed at Ypres - WW1 Tablet (WMR-60510)
accessdate: August 14, 2017 A Soldier Killed At Ypres (IWM 60510)

Design

The design is based on the structure of the Rosary prayer: fourteen side chapels flank each side of the nave. Each chapel commemorates a Mystery of the Rosary: Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious. The fifteenth Mystery (the 5th Glorious Mystery) is depicted in the apse of the church around the main High Altar. It is thought that when this church was completed in 1883, it was the first in the world to have distinct side chapels for each Mystery of the Rosary. Each chapel has its own altar with a stone-carved reredos depicting a particular Mystery of the Rosary. The Luminous Mysteries, added by Pope John Paul II in 2002, are commemorated in a Rosary Garden located behind the Lady Chapel of the church, and accessible via the Lady Chapel porch or by Alan Cheales Way. The church was built by Charles Alban Buckler (1824-1905), the son of

John Chessell Buckler John Chessell Buckler (8 December 1793 – 10 January 1894) was a British architect, the eldest son of the architect John Buckler. J. C. Buckler initially worked with his father before taking over his practice. His work included restorations ...

who designed numerous churches of which this was probably his best.Oxford Dictionary of Architecture, p123, accessed 4 March 2016

Community

Both friars and sisters serve the local parish community, with a weekend attendance of about 500 men, women and children, as well as pilgrims and visitors to the Shrine. In the months of May and October, the Shrine hosts a torchlit Rosary Procession every Saturday evening which brings in visitors from across the diocese. The Friars are also engaged in a wide range of local social activity including hospital, university and school chaplaincy, prison ministry, adult education and third level teaching of theology, scripture and philosophy, publishing, post-graduate study, and preaching. Dominican Sisters from the St Joseph Congregation (Lymington) serve the parish every weekend, and they are engaged in sacramental catechesis for children. St Dominic's is also the residence of the Prior Provincial of the Dominican friars in England and Scotland. Next to the church is the diocesan-run Catholic primary school of St Dominic.

References

External links