St Winefride Church is

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

South Wimbledon South Wimbledon is an area of Wimbledon in south-west London in the London Borough of Merton, England. History Toponymy It is marked on an Ordnance Survey map of 1876 as New Wimbledon and on a 1907 map as South Wimbledon. The name is derived fr ...

in the

London Borough of Merton The London Borough of Merton () is a London borough in London, England. The borough was formed under the London Government Act 1963 in 1965 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Mitcham, the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon and the Merton ...

. It was founded as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

of Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon by the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

in 1905. It is Grade II listed building and was designed by

Frederick Walters Frederick Arthur Walters (5 February 1849–3 December 1931) was a Scottish architect working in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, notable for his Roman Catholic churches. Life Walters was born on 5 February 1849 at 6 South Terrace, Brompton, Lond ...

.British listed builindgs
retrieved 16 March 2014

History

In 1877, The Jesuits came to

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

at the request of Edith Arendrup, a member of the

Courtauld Courtauld is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Adam Courtauld Butler or Adam Butler (British politician), DL (1931–2008), British Conservative Party politician and MP *Augustine Courtauld (1904–1959), often called August Cou ...

family, from

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, sharing its SW15 postcode with neighbouring Putney and Kingston Vale, and takes up a far western strip, running north to south, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large counc ...

where they had their novitiate, Manresa House. She asked that Mass be said in her house until a church was built. The Jesuits also went to South Wimbledon for the Catholics there and said Mass in St Mary's School. In 1884, Edith Arendrup commissioned the construction of Sacred Heart Church in the area. It was finished in 1887 and designed by

.History
from Winefride Church, retrieved 16 March 2014 By 1903, the number of Catholics were growing in South Wimbledon and it was decided to build another church in the parish to accommodate to increasing congregation. The same architect of Sacred Heart Church, Frederick Walters, was asked to design the church. Construction started in 1904 and finished in 1905. The Jesuit influence on the church is shown by there being a statue of Saint Ignatius close to a statue of the parish patron, Saint Winefride. In 1961, the Jesuits handed over administration of the church to the

Archdiocese of Southwark The Archdiocese of Southwark () is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in England. It is led by the Archbishop of Southwark. The archdiocese is part of the Metropolitan Province of Southwark, which covers the South of England. Th ...

who continue to serve the parish. In the 1980s the church was reordered with the altar being brought forward. Stained glass was added to some of the windows and a central heating system was installed at this time. The church has a hall on Bridges Road, this continues as parish hall and was renovated in 2004.

Parish

There are three Sunday Masses in the church, one at 6:00pm on Saturday evening, and then at 9:00am and 11:00am on Sunday morning. There are weekday Masses at 9:30am from Monday to Friday and another at 10:00am on Saturday. Within the parish is St Mary's Catholic Primary School which a relationship with the church. It openly states that 'The education that the children receive at St Mary's has Gospel Values at its very core.'Welcome
from St Mary's Catholic Primary School, retrieved 16 March 2014 The school is a feeder of the Jesuit secondary school

Wimbledon College Wimbledon College is a government-maintained, voluntary-aided, Jesuit Catholic secondary school and sixth form for boys aged 11 to 19 in Wimbledon, London. The college was founded in 1892 "for improvement in living and learning for the greate ...

Interior

St Winefride's Church interior, South Wimbledon.jpg,

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 ...

St Winefride's Church east window, South Wimbledon.jpg, East window

References

External links

St Winefride Parish site

St Mary's Catholic Primary School site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Winefride Church, South Wimbledon Roman Catholic churches in the London Borough of Merton

Churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark Grade II listed Roman Catholic churches in England Romanesque Revival church buildings in England 1905 establishments in England Frederick Walters buildings 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom

History

Parish

Interior

See also

References

External links