Sacred Heart Church

Sacred Heart Church rises on the slopes of Edge Hill in Wimbledon, south-west London, one of the great Catholic parish churches of the capital — a Grade II* listed building in late Decorated Gothic that owes its existence to the vision and purse of one remarkable woman, and to the Jesuits who served it for more than 130 years.

The founder was Edith Arendrup, a member of the wealthy Courtauld textile family, who came to live in Wimbledon in 1877. Catholics were then few in the area, so she persuaded the Jesuits at Roehampton to begin a Mass-centre in her own house at Cottenham Park. Seven years later she commissioned a large church in a commanding position on Edge Hill, choosing as architect the young Frederick Walters, who would go on to a distinguished career in Catholic church building. The monument to her on the south wall says it plainly: "It was through her Christian vision that this parish of the Sacred Heart came into being; it was through her generosity the church was built."

The nave opened on 17 June 1887 — the feast of the Sacred Heart — and construction continued for fourteen years as the building grew piece by piece: the sanctuary and south aisle in 1895, the back chapels in 1896, the north aisle and sacristy in 1898, and finally the west front in 1901. The original design called for a great tower over the west front, but money ran out, and twin turrets with a massive traceried window took its place — to splendid effect. From 1898 the church gained a second benefactor in Caroline Currie of Coombe Hill, wealthy widow of the banker Bertram Wodehouse Currie, who paid for the north aisle, the baptistery, and a chapel dedicated to St Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits; the chapel contains a medallion of Mrs Currie, who died in 1902.

The parish the church anchored kept growing. In 1905 the Jesuits built St Winefride's Church for the congregation of South Wimbledon; in 1913 a Mass centre was established in Wimbledon Park, where the Jesuits built what became Christ the King Church, finished in 1928. Around the mother church itself clustered a whole Catholic educational quarter: Wimbledon College and Donhead Preparatory School for boys, served by the Jesuits, stand next door, with the Ursuline High School and Ursuline Preparatory School for girls nearby, all enjoying a close relationship with the parish and using the church for Masses through the school year.

In 1990 the church was re-ordered. A new high altar was installed, designed by David John, who also made the bronze reliquary beneath it containing relics of Roman and English martyrs — among them St Thomas More and St Edmund Campion, the Jesuit martyr, fittingly honoured in a Jesuit church. The tiled floor was designed by Austin Winkley, and Bishop Tripp, auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Southwark, dedicated the altar on the feast of the Sacred Heart, 22 June 1990. The church halls were refurbished in 2007–08, with improved access and a new youth room.

An era ended on 17 November 2012, when it was announced that the Jesuits would withdraw from the direct administration of the church after more than 130 years; on 10 January 2014 the parish passed to the Archdiocese of Southwark, which administers it today. The Jesuit presence remains close at hand, however: Jesuit Missions, the development and mission charity of the Society of Jesus in Britain, has been based on the same street since moving from Roehampton in 1961 — led for forty years by Tony Montfort — raising funds through ventures like the London Marathon for projects in developing countries and telling the stories of Jesuits and missionaries overseas. The parish itself remains vigorous, hosting a Christian Life Community fostering Ignatian spirituality and a social justice group promoting fair trade — Edith Arendrup's vision still at work beneath Walters's soaring Gothic arches.