Our Lady of Loreto & St Winefride Catholic Church, Kew is the parish church for the Roman Catholic parish of Kew Gardens in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The church is located at 1 Leyborne Park in Kew.
The Society of Mary first established a Catholic mission in a temporary chapel at 14 Kew Gardens Road, which opened for public worship on 26 October 1898 with Father Michael Cummins as the first parish priest, and was named Loreto House.[5] The Society of Mary continued to serve the parish until 1984.[6]
The church is dedicated to both Our Lady of Loreto and Saint Winefride. The founder of the Society of Mary had made a pilgrimage to the Loreto shrine in Italy in 1833 after asking for the Pope's approval to establish the society; and Saint Winefride was the favourite saint of one of this church's principal local benefactors, Miss Frances Elizabeth Ellis (1846–1930) of Clapham Park, whose inheritance from her father, a wealthy Brighton businessman, enabled her to help found many churches.[7][8]
Designed by the architects Scoles & Raymond,[3][note 1] the church was opened in 1906[9] and the side aisles, baptistery and chapels were added in 1968. The sanctuary was remodelled in 1977[4] and the church was refurbished and decorated in 1998. A parish hall, which also includes a smaller meeting room, is located next to the church.
After a bequest in 1979 by a parishioner, Mrs Moya Rinkenback, paid off the church's debts, the church was dedicated and consecrated on 27 April 1979 by Archbishop Michael Bowen, the Archbishop of Southwark.[4]
Second World War Royal Air Force fighter pilot and flying ace Brendan "Paddy" Finucane (1920–1942), whose family lived at 26 Castlegate, Richmond,[10] was a former altar server at the church.[11]
A school for infants, St Winefride's School, which was associated with the church and parish, operated from the 1910s until the early 1950s.[12]
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