Fr Oakeley set up an altar to St Francis in 1850, and in 1851 obtained for the chapel from Pope Pius IX the Plenary Indulgence of the Portiuncula. At that time, there were few Franciscans in England, and the chapel must have been one of the earliest Post-Reformation Franciscan shrines. Edward Armitage, an important Victorian painter, provided two large canvases on the side and back walls.

The Institution of the Franciscan Order was painted in 1887 to replace an earlier fresco, which had decayed. It shows St Francis receiving confirmation of the rule of the order from Pope Innocent III. The richness of the clothes and the jewels of the mitres and tiara contrast with the poverty of the Franciscan habits.

On the back wall of the chapel is a painting of the meeting between St Francis and St Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers. They lived at the same time and both founded new religious orders: the Franciscans famous for their humility and simplicity of life, and the Dominicans for their scholarship and zeal. The two paintings highlight the universality of the Catholic Church, home to the rich and the poor, to the simple and the intellectual.

The statue of Our Lady is German and was brought to the church in 1850, probably from Munich. It attracted anti-Catholic protesters in its early days, but was also the subject of great devotion. Indeed, one Maria Dobson made a solemn deposition in 1851 that she had seen the Madonna move her eyes, prompting her to convert to Catholicism.

The walls were first painted by H.A. Bulmer in the 1850s at a cost of more than three times that of any of the other chapels. The patterns are very like those used by the architect Pugin. The amount of gold paint used makes it somewhat richer than usual.

The altar is one of the finest in the church, with marble patterning and carvings. The heads represent the four Evangelists, the angel for St Matthew, the lion for St Mark, the ox for St Luke, and the eagle for St John. The Lamb of God at the centre reminds us of the words ‘This is the Lamb of God’ used by St John the Baptist of Jesus and repeated before Holy Communion in every Mass.

In penal days, St. Cuthbert Mayne was arrested for having a Lamb of God medal about his neck, and was later executed. Even in the 1850s, when the church was decorated, there was some prejudice against this symbol, some referring to it as the ‘Pope medallion’.

The tabernacle set upon the altar is carefully decorated with corn and bunches of grapes, as also is the back of the altar, the reredos. On the plinth above the altar is a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.