Donation towards Restoration of church

We Need your Help
If you would like to support the work of restoring this beautiful and historic Bentley church of Our Lady of the Holy Souls, please send any donations to The Parish Priest, Our Lady of the Holy Souls, 68 Hazlewood Crescent, London, W10 5DJ. Please make cheques payable to Our Lady of the Holy Souls. Thank you 

PHASE ONE OF RESTORATION COMPLETED IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

Phase one of the restoration of the church, which began in September 2011, was finished a week before Christmas.  We were, therefore, able to celebrate the Christmas festivities with our new lighting system and re-decorated sanctuary.  The magnificently restored crucifix and the new Marian stencil on the east wall look stunning and are beautifully lit by the new spotlights.

RESTORATION WORK NOW UNDERWAY!

Our Lady of the Holy Souls church is a Grade II listed building, designed by John F. Bentley and completed in 1882.  Over the past couple of years we have as a parish been giving serious consideration as to how we might give back to Our Lady of the Holy Souls some of the beauty and dignity of which it was so sadly deprived in the late 1950s.  We have now been given permission by the Historic Churches Commission and the Diocese to proceed with the work of restoration.  The project is being undertaken in four phases:

Completed December 2011.

This phase included the installation of a new lighting system throughout the church; the restoration and suspension of the crucifix, the additon of a Marian "M" and crown motif stencil on the east wall of the sanctuary and the repainting of sanctuary vault, walls and organ loft.

Tiled Sanctuary Floor:  The existing sanctuary carpet will be to removed and replaced with a tiled floor, incorporating encaustic decorated tiles.   The original stone steps leading up to the sanctuary will also be repaired and cleaned.  

New Altar:  A new altar of Bath stone will be commissioned.  A central feature of this new altar will be the incorporation of a painted wooden altarpiece (possibly designed by Bentley himself).  The panel was originally created for the Holy Spirit altar (it depicts the personified representation of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit) and was later used as the Sacred Heart altar. 

New Retable.  The existing tabernacle plinth will be replaced with a wooden retable which will be integral to the reredos and stylistically blend with it. 

New Font:  The exisiting font will be replaced with one made of Bath stone in a more suitable design. 

Restoration of the Pulpit: The recently re-discovered original ornate Victorian pulpit will be cleaned, restored and re-fixed.

Nave Redecoration

This Latin gothic inscriptions (the De Profundis along the side aisles and verses from Psalm 24 along the west wall) will be uncovered and restored. The nave will be repainted in the same shades of pale yellow ochre as for the sanctuary.

Porch

The porch, which was added in 1921, was originally covered in fine painted decoration and images of saints which unfortunately are not recoverable.  However, the posts and panels of the porch will be decorated with a design, based on the original palette of colours.