St Mary’s Chapel, now known as St Mary’s Church, is a Grade II* listed Roman Catholic church.
St Mary’s was the first Catholic church to be built in Hampstead after the English Reformation of the 16th century. The Abbé Jean-Jacques Morel, a refugee from the French Revolution, was its first pastor. The little chapel was completed in less than a year and opened its doors to worshippers for the first time in August 1816.
By this time with the final defeat of Napoleon, the majority of French refugees in Hampstead had returned to France and the congregation numbered about a hundred on a regular basis although these numbers were increased in the summer months by itinerant Irish hay-makers who worked in the fields around the village. Education was a priority for the Abbé Morel and he undertook the religious education of both boys and young women at several private Catholic schools in Hampstead. Sometime after the building of the chapel in Holly Place, two schools, one for boys and the other for girls, were set up next to the presbytery and was supported by subscriptions from wealthier parishioners.
St Mary’s Church is located near the top of the hill at Holly Place on Holly Walk, nestled in a row of Georgian houses between Church Row and Mount Vernon. No taller than houses numbered 4 and 5 to either side, the Church’s distinctive façade with bell tower and statue of Virgin and Child was designed by architect William Wardell as the first addition to the original building at the time the law was changed to allow bells to be rung from Catholic churches in 1852.
The sanctuary is decorated with tile mosaics and the painting of the Assumption of Our Lady was a gift from one of the founders of the chapel, George Armstrong, on behalf of his only daughter Frances Hall. This painting can be seen in the earliest photograph of the interior dating from 1878.
In the 19th century a school was built behind the church but demolished in 1907, the land being used to build the present day sanctuary and side chapels. Considerable repairs were made to the presbytery (rectory) in 1978 so that the upstairs now houses the pastor and downstairs a parish centre. The church was closed during 1990 for major building repairs removing the ceiling to reveal the roof timbers that adorn the church today.
St Dorothy’s Convent is nearby at 99 Frognal. Previously it was home to one of St Mary’s more notable parishioners General Charles de Gaulle who lived there with his family for about a year during the Second World War. The Sisters of St Dorothy’s organise CCD classes for children of the parish who are not attending Catholic schools. South of the Church, the buildings now at numbers 1 and 2 Holly Walk were part of the St Vincent’s Convent and Orphanage in the 1800s[2][3][4]and later expanded to take in numbers 3 and 4 (the current presybytery).
