Brompton Oratory

John Henry Newman was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1845. He later founded the Birmingham Oratory, dedicated to Saint Philip Neri. Other former Anglicans, including Frederick William Faber, briefly established a London Oratory in premises near Charing Cross. Faber's growing following purchased a 3.5-acre (14,000 m²) property in November 1852 for £16,000; in the (then) rapidly developing suburb (and former village) of Brompton, later subsumed under the name of the South Kensington tube station. An Oratory House was built first, followed shortly by a temporary church; both designed by Joseph John Scoles. An appeal was then launched in 1874 for funds to build a church.[1] Within the Oratory House is a chapel, known as the Little Oratory.[2]

The church still belongs to, and is served by, the Congregation of the London Oratory (see London Oratory). There are four other oratories in the United Kingdom, the Birmingham Oratory, the Oxford Oratory the Manchester Oratoryand York Oratory, St Wilfrid's.

Catholic aristocrats who married at the church include John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute and Gwendoline Fitzalan-Howard (1872),[3] Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk and Lavinia Strutt (1937),[4] Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat and Rosamund Broughton (1938),[5] Peter Kerr, 12th Marquess of Lothian and Antonella Newland (1943),[6] Anthony Noel, 5th Earl of Gainsborough and Mary Stourton (1947) and Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith and Anne Palairet (1947).[7] Others who married at the church include Lord of Appeal in Ordinary Baron Russell of Killowen, traveller and landowner John Talbot Clifton and author Violet Clifton (1907) and Australian rules footballer Joe Fogarty (24 December 1916).[8]

After World War II, with the resettlement of thousands of Polish Allied servicemen (many of them Roman Catholics) coming to Britain, South Kensington became a temporary Polish hub. Nearby were the offices of the Polish government-in-exile, the Polish Hearth Club and Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum among other meeting places for exiles. Due to the generosity of the Oratory Fathers, a Polish Solemn Mass was held every Sunday at 1 pm from 1945 until 1962 while the Polish community migrated westwards in the capital and the Polish Catholic Mission was able to establish in 1962 a parish at St Andrew Bobola Church, Hammersmith.[9]

During the Cold War, the area between the pillars and the wall at the front of the Brompton Oratory was used as a dead drop by Soviet spies in Britain, from where they hoped to communicate with Moscow.[10]

In September 2010 decorative banners were erected at the Brompton Oratory to celebrate the beatification of Cardinal Newman during the Pope's visit to London.[11]

The church has strong ties with the nearby London Oratory School, which has Mass at the church for certain Holy Days of Obligation and feastdays. The school's annual patronal festival in honour of St. Philip Neri, is celebrated at the Oratory.

In front of the statue of St Peter, under the choir loft (a reproduction of that in St Peter's) that the medieval dedication of England to St Peter and Our Lady was repeated by Cardinal Vaughan, as a defiant riposte to the Erastianism of English official religion. The congregation is one of the largest Catholic congregations in London.

The London Oratory Choir is an adult, professional chamber choir serving the major liturgical celebrations in the Oratory Church, including solemn Latin Mass and Vespers on all the Sundays of the year and for major feasts. Dating from the establishment of the London Oratory on its present Brompton Road site in 1854, the London Oratory Choir is England’s senior professional Catholic choir, and has an international reputation as one of the world’s leading exponents of choral music within the traditional Roman Rite, noted especially for its performances of Renaissance polyphony and the Masses of the Classical Viennese school. Recent Directors of Music have included Henry Washington (1935–1971), John Hoban (1971–1995), Andrew Carwood (1995–1999) and Patrick Russill (1999–present).

The London Oratory Junior Choir was founded in 1973 by John Hoban to give boys and girls together an opportunity to serve the liturgy in a great church. In addition to singing regularly one evening service and one Sunday (English) Mass every week, the Oratory Junior Choir is also active outside the Oratory. Noted for its free tone and forthright delivery, it has appeared in all London’s major concert halls and at the Proms, with conductors including Andrew Parrott, Nicholas Kraemer and Sir John Eliot Gardiner (including prize-winning recordings of Monteverdi’s Vespers in St Mark's Basilica in Venice, and Bach’s St Matthew Passion). Since 1979 it has provided the children’s chorus for Royal Ballet productions at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It can also be heard on the soundtrack to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. From 1984 its Director was Patrick Russill, and since 2005 its Director has been Charles Cole.

The London Oratory School Schola choir was founded in 1996. Educated in the Junior House of the London Oratory School in Fulham (London), boys from the age of 7 are given choral and instrumental training within a musical environment underpinned by Catholic traditions. The Schola is regarded as one of London's leading boys' choirs and sings at the Saturday 6.00pm Mass in term time, at daily prayer services and at benediction in the School chapel. The Director of the Schola is Charles Cole. In addition to liturgical and concert performances, the choir has recorded The Lord of the Rings (film series) soundtracks. Its audio albums have mainly been joint albums with minor collaboration in performing Leonard Bernstein reflective, spiritual works or with soloist Roxanna Panufnik.[15]