ROMAN CATHOLICISM.
Mary Talbot, countess of Shrewsbury, and Catherine Ewers, both
widows of Finchley, were indicted as recusants in
1625. (fn. 92) In 1692 Elizabeth, widow of James Allen,
denied that she had ever been a recusant (fn. 93) and in
1706 the curate reported that he could find no
papists in the parish. (fn. 94)
In 1893 priests from St. Andrew's institute, High
Barnet, opened a mission in St. Gabriel's, a greenhouse belonging to a nursery on the Great North
Road near Tally Ho Corner. In 1896 the mission
moved to a laundry at Albert Villa, Fallow Corner,
and in 1900 to a loft over a stable at no. 4 Percy
Road, (fn. 95) which on one Sunday in 1903 was attended
by 127 in the morning and 46 in the evening. (fn. 96)
There was a permanent priest from 1903, when a
room at the presbytery in Nether Street was
registered. (fn. 97) A mission hall dedicated to St. Alban was
opened in Nether Street in the same year and used
for worship until St. Alban's church was opened in
1909. (fn. 98) Built of brick with stone dressings, the church
is a simple basilica, with a tower at the west end.
At East End the former Congregational chapel in
High Road was opened in 1898 as St. Mary's Roman
Catholic church. (fn. 99) It had congregations of 188 and
56 at the morning and evening services on one
Sunday in 1903. (fn. 1) The church was destroyed in 1940
and services were held from 1941 at no. 279 High
Road, (fn. 2) where a church seating 400 was built in 1953.
One of the earliest European churches to contain
pre-cast concrete, it is a simple brick building with
stone dressings, next to a hall built in 1959. (fn. 3)
At Church End the chapel of Manor House
convent was used for public worship from 1919
until 1925, when the ground floor of Derwent House
in Gravel Hill was converted into a chapel dedicated
to St. Philip the Apostle. (fn. 4) St. Philip's hall, designed
by T. H. B. Scott and built on the site by 1930,
had by 1933 been transformed into the sacristies
of a new church. (fn. 5) The church, of yellow brick
in a simple basilican style, was enlarged in 1960. A
parish centre was opened in 1968. (fn. 6)
Finchley, with its large houses and proximity to
Hendon, where there were several Roman Catholic
institutions, (fn. 7) attracted many religious orders from
London or its inner suburbs. In 1864 the Sisters of
the Good Shepherd bought East End House on the
north side of East End Road, where until 1948 they
maintained a refuge for distressed Roman Catholic
women, including former prisoners. In 1900 they
aided 180 'poor penitents' and 130 younger girls.
New buildings on the site included a church in 1875
and a wing for the novitiate in 1886, when East End
House became the provincial house for the order.
After a fire in 1972 land was sold for housing and
most of the buildings were demolished, although
the original house remained. (fn. 8)
Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus established themselves in 1908 at the Grange in Nether Street, North
Finchley, which they renamed St. Michael's convent
and where they opened a school. (fn. 9) The French
Society of Marie Auxiliatrice in 1919 turned the
former billiards room at Bibbesworth manor-house
into a chapel to serve Church End until the foundation of St. Philip's church and also opened a school. (fn. 10)
Poor Sisters of Nazareth moved in 1921 from
Chiswick to a large house on the south side of East
End Road, where they cared for children and the
aged. Extensions were built in 1928 and 1936, a new
nursery was added in 1963, and the last children
left Nazareth House in 1974. Mass, which is often
attended by outsiders, has been celebrated in the
convent chapel since 1921. (fn. 11) Other religious orders
in 1976 included the Xaverian Missionary Fathers in
Nether Street and the Sisters of Our Lady of the
Cenacle, who had moved to Cyprus Road in 1974
from Whetstone, where they had opened a convent
or retreat house in 1972. (fn. 12)