A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3, Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1962.
This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.
'Teddington: Roman catholicism', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3, Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington, (London, 1962) pp. 79. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol3/p79 [accessed 23 April 2024]
ROMAN CATHOLICISM.
There appear to have been one or two Roman Catholic families connected with the linen-bleaching works in Teddington in the mid-18th century. (fn. 1) In 1882 a Roman Catholic chapel was opened in Hampton Wick, and in 1884 the present Roman Catholic school was built in Fairfax Road, South Teddington. The ground floor served as a school and the upper floor as a chapel until the present Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Kingston Road was opened in 1893. (fn. 2) Built of red brick in the classical style, with nave, aisles, and a short apsidal chancel, this consisted at first of five bays and was extended westwards in 1935 by another two bays. The church was consecrated in 1944. In 1957 it generally had a congregation of about 550 each Sunday. (fn. 3)
A convent of three or four Sisters of Charity of St. Paul was established in Hampton Wick about 1885. They took over the management of the Roman Catholic school which had recently been started in South Teddington and also ran a convent school of their own. (fn. 4) In 1910 the sisters moved to the present St. Paul's Convent next to the church in Kingston Road. In 1957 there were eight sisters. (fn. 5)
In 1955 the Sons of Divine Providence opened an old people's home at no. 27, Lower Teddington Road. For some years before that a private chapel in a house nearby had been served from the parish church in Kingston Road. (fn. 6)
A mission was established in 1920 at St. Margaret's House, Wellington Road. It was taken over six years later by Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, who erected the chapel in Princes Road in 1928. It is dedicated to the Sacred Heart and St. Margaret Mary and is a temporary unceiled building with a short chancel. It has a congregation of about 750. (fn. 7)