About the Parish

Our parish is over 150 years old. It grew from the needs of Irish labourers working on the viaduct of the Great Western Railway. Masses were celebrated for years in private houses, when the parish was officially opened in 1853. By the 1860’s a church was built, designed by Edward Pugin, son of Augustus Welby Pugin. This church served the growing community for nearly a century, but by the 1960’s the church was too small, and was replaced in 1967 by the present building, designed in the post-war style, a concrete building of striking design.

It was dedicated to Our Lady and St Joseph and boasts a prominent sculpture of the Holy Family outside and above the main doors. In 2010 a number of works were done inside the church (mainly in the sanctuary area) which improved greatly its looks. Moreover, in September 2018 we started the biggest renovation project this parish has ever had! Since then we have completely renovated the entire Presbytery (Priests’ house), all the sacristy (including chalices,  vestments, liturgical books, etc), adjacent corridors and the Flower room; we have also completely renovated the outside of the church and about 80% of its interior. An enormous amount of work was done to the church… in fact a number of parishioners told our Parish Priest that “our church has become the Postcard of Hanwell!” We have also renovated our three car parks (which included the demolition of 5 very old garages, thus gaining more space for parking). Furthermore, in August 2021, after five and a half months of renovation, we have re-opened our parish hall. We completed then the first phase of the renovation of the hall. It looks magnificent! We are now near the end of the second phase of the renovation of the hall. In this second phase we demolished and re-designed all the toilets (men, women and special needs). We installed a brand new fully functional kitchen, new toilets for women and special needs and an office at the back of the hall. If you have not yet seen our new parish hall, do pop in to see it… it is now a joy and a pleasure to be there! It is open to everyone on the weekends only for the time being, while the works are still going on. We are hoping that at the end of next week we will complete all these works, please God!

After all this enormous amount of renovation works, our parish looks a lot more beautiful, clean, safe and dignified place of worship. After all, beauty speaks of love… beauty speaks of God!

Every Sunday over 1000 parishioners come here to celebrate the Eucharist and receive hope, light, joy and strength to live their lives. We do this by listening to the Word of the Lord through the readings that are proclaimed during Mass. Thus we are fed through the immense gift of God’s Word and the sacred Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. Even though we are people who come from all over the world, yet in Jesus Christ we become one body!

Last but not least, in our parish, there is also a Parish Centre, which houses a Social Club and a hall which is used for many activities throughout the week. Here our Catholic Faith is taught, shared and celebrated. Here families meet and new friendships are forged. Come and join us!