Our Lady of Victories, Kensington

Our Lady of Victories, in Kensington, London, is a Roman Catholic church that was one time the Pro-Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Westminster. It stands at 235a Kensington High Street, one of the busiest and most fashionable streets in Central London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

It was built in 1957, to designs by Adrian Gilbert Scott, and its 1930s entrance screen, is by Joseph Goldie. It has been a Grade II listed building since 13 May 2016.

The resumption of regular Catholic services commenced in 1794 after a break of nearly 250 years, as French aristocrats, priests and nuns fled the French Revolution and found a welcome in Kensington, and the continuity of public Mass has been unbroken in the Parish since then.

Prior to the re-opening of Catholic churches, Mass in this period was said in Catholic embassies or in private houses. In 1866 the Carmelites opened the first Catholic church in the district. The parish church of Our Lady of Victories opened on 2 July 1869, the Feast of the Visitation, and became the Pro-Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Westminster. The Westminster Cathedral (in Victoria) was not built until 1903 so until that time, Kensington’s church was the foremost Catholic church in England.

Many great occasions took place here. At Queen Victoria's 50th Jubilee in 1887 High Mass was celebrated in the presence of Cardinal Manning, sung by the Papal Envoy and attended by all the Hierarchy and leading Catholics in England. The following year, the jubilee of 50 years of priesthood of Pope Leo XIII was the occasion of another glittering assembly in the church, during which the famous "God Bless Our Pope" was sung for the first time in public. This hymn and another, "Sweet Sacrament Divine", were composed by the curate of Our Lady of Victories, Fr Charles Cox. Sweet Sacrament Divine was composed by Fr Francis Stanfield.

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