English Martyrs Walworth

A Brief History of English Martyrs Walworth

The Building Continues

Land for the Church, Presbytery and St. Augustine's House was bought in 1893 and the
site was covered with dilapidated houses and shops. The rent from these helped towards
the cost of the building and they were only demolished when building work began.

The Presbytery

By the end of 1895 work on the parish house had been completed, a building in the
"Georgian" style on five floor levels including a basement. It was built on the site of
two shops, 142 & 144 Rodney Road. The cost of land was high so the building is high and
narrow with few rooms on each floor. A concern at the time was that the basements of
surrounding houses flooded to a depth of some 18" owing to the shallowness of the sewers
and that the whole district was below the level of the river Thames.

St. Augustine's House

The house opened on 3rd February 1903 and "it was established for young men in business
who aspired to the secular priesthood". It's function was to provide men with a half way
house between work and the seminary. Students began to come to Walworth for this
purpose even before the house was built and they lived in the presbytery. Life
was strict with the day beginning at 6.55am with Mass and ending in prayer at 10.00pm.
The men worked at their normal jobs in the daytime and studied in the evening. By 1975,
however, its use as a pre-seminary had come to an end and a community of Franciscan
Missionaries of Mary moved in to work as parish sisters. For eleven years they worked
in the parish taking particular care of the young and the elderly. In 1987 the Carmelite
Friars who had come to the parish in 1980 established their house of formation in
St. Augustine's and this continued until they moved to larger premises in North London.
St. Augustine's house is now home to a small community of Sisters of the Cenacle engaged
in retreat ministry and counselling.

The Church

By 1902 enough money had been raised to begin work on building the Church and the
foundation stone was blessed on 15th February that year by Bishop Bourne. Many of
the subscribers were present for the ceremony. The first Mass was celebrated in the
Church on 19th March 1903 at 7.00am. The Church was consecrated on 27th November
1919 and what had been a mission officially became a parish on 29th June 1929.

Across the years the Church has been renovated and altered. In 1983-84 the sanctuary
was extensively re-built in line with the liturgical reforms of Vatican II and new heating
and lighting were added in 1988.