History of St Marys

In 1851 Cardinal Wiseman sent his most prestigious convert, Henry Edward Manning, to Bayswater to found a community whose mission would be to revitalize the clergy and faithful in the new diocese of Westminster. Manning drew his inspiration from St Charles Borromeo, who had founded an order of Oblate priests to renew the diocese of Milan in the sixteenth century. Manning founded the Oblates of St Charles at Bayswater, and had considerable success in evangelizing northwest London.

In 1865, Manning was made second Archbishop of Westminster, and later Cardinal. However he closely followed the work of the Oblates, and often returned here.

The Oblates of St Charles founded many parishes in Westminster and North Kensington. Another Oblate, Herbert Vaughan, was to follow Manning as Cardinal Archbishop. The Church was enlarged and beautified, notably by Francis Bentley, later architect of Westminster Cathedral. For over 100 years, the Oblates ministered to the people of Bayswater and Notting Hill - first to the largely Irish population but later to the Carribean and other ethnic communities that make up the exciting mixture that is this part of London.

In the 1970s, Cardinal Heenan, perhaps feeling that the Oblates' quasi-monastic regime was unsuited to busy city life, dissolved the Oblates, and the parish passed to the secular clergy of the Diocese of Westminster.

In recent years, Fr Michael Hollings was an outstanding and much loved parish priest, as remarkable for his holiness as for his outreach to the marginalized. He ran this parish as an 'open house', never turning away any stranger, and often giving up his bed for someone in need. Rich and poor alike were welcome at his table, and his radical concern for the poor made him a fitting successor to Cardinal Manning, and, indeed, St Charles. After his death and to commemorate him, the parish raised funds to build the Father Michael Hollings Centre where the homeless or lonely can turn for food and company.

With the conversion of the old schoolhouse, next to the Church, and the creation of flats, new parish facilities and the Fr Michael Hollings Centre, the parish begins a new era. With financial security, and space to expand its facilities, St Mary of the Angels continues to fulfil the vision of our founders in Bayswater and Notting Hill.