Our History
The church was built in 1868 for the United Methodist Free Church, replacing a small Wesleyan Methodist chapel of 1828. The architect is not known. In 1909, the building was sold to the West London Ethical Society who rented it from about 1946 to the West London Unitarian Fellowship.
In March 1954, it was bought for £22,000 (plus £1,000 for the organ) by Fr Horace Tennant, Superior of St Mary of the Angels, Bayswater. It was opened for Catholic use by Cardinal Griffin on 12 September 1954.
Queensway became an independent parish in 1973. In the early 1990s, the hall was refurbished and renamed Carpenter Hall, after Fr Philip Carpenter, the first parish priest.
In 2000-02, the architect Gerald Murphy oversaw the refurbishment and reordering of the church (cost: £300,000).
This included the removal of a 1920s sloping floor and its replacement by a new floor at the original level, the removal of the altar rails, new pews, new sanctuary furniture (including a freestanding altar to replace the old wall-fixed one), a reconciliation room within a former light well, a new organ and a new lighting system.
The church was consecrated by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor on 21 April 2002.
Fr Francis Wahle (RIP)
The Parish was lead for 12 years by Fr Francis Wahle who had a remarkable childhood. Fr Francis died peacefully on 14 May 2024.
Living in Austria and having Jewish Grandparents, he was considered ‘racially Jewish’ following the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. He was aged just nine during Kristallnacht, ‘the Night of Broken Glass’; a night in November 1938 which resulted in the destruction of over 7,000 Jewish businesses.
This prompted his family to seek safety for Francis and his sister, and they were evacuated on the ‘Kindertransport’ – escaping the horrors of the Holocaust.
Click the link below to find out more about Fr Francis Wahle’s Obituary:
Fr Terence McGuckin (RIP)
Following Fr Francis’ service in our parish as Parish Priest was Fr Terence McGuckin. Originally from Cork, Republic of Ireland, Fr Terence took a journey of faith and discernment before becoming a priest. Serving in the Diocese in various parishes, he came to Queensway in 2004-2009, serving our community before his final appointment at Our Lady of the Rosary, Marylebone – right next door!
Due to health complications, Fr Terence retired from active ministry and settled in Coventry. He died peacefully on 14 August 2024, Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe and the Eve of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Click the link below to find out more about Fr Terence McGuckin’s Obituary: