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 List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

churches in London. The church is

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

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 Birm ...

, 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 Hampstead Heath (locally known simply as the Heath) is an ancient heath in London, spanning . This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band ...

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 ...

. The nearest stations are

and Chalk Farm tube stations both on the

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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 Overgrou ...

and Gospel Oak railway stations 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 George Basil Hume OSB OM (2 March 1923 – 17 June 1999) was an English Catholic bishop. He was a monk and priest of the English Benedictine monastery of Ampleforth Abbey and its abbot for 13 years until his appointment as Archbishop of West ...

. 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 List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. 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 corona ...

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 ...

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 The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or ...

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 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 Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

school of St Dominic.

References

External links