page_title: Uxbridge
section_title: Church of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Michael
hierarchical_section_title: Uxbridge / Religion / Churches / Church of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Michael
caption_attribution_description: English: Our Lady of Lourdes &amp; St. Michael R.C. Church One of a few large buildings to survive the modernization of Uxbridge's town centre. Mainly due to luck, I think. Situated on the side of the busy A4020 Oxford Road.
context_page_description: Uxbridge is a suburban town in west London, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. 15.4 miles west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbridge historically formed part of the parish of Hillingdon in the county of Middlesex, and was a significant local commercial centre from an early time. As part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century it expanded and increased in population, becoming a municipal borough in 1955, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965. It is a significant retail and commercial centre, and is the location of Brunel University London and the Uxbridge campus of Buckinghamshire New University. The town is close to the boundary with Buckinghamshire, which is locally the River Colne.
  Several historical events have taken place in and around the town, including attempted negotiations between King Charles I and the Parliamentary Army during the English Civil War. The public house at the centre of those events, since renamed the Crown & Treaty, still stands.
context_section_description: After St Margaret's turned Protestant in the 16th century, there was no official Roman Catholic place of worship in Uxbridge until the late 19th century, following the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act. In 1892 Father Michael Aloysius Wren bought a presbytery at 37 Lawn Road, next to which a temporary church was built of corrugated iron, dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes and St Michael. St Mary's School was also founded on Rockingham Road at this time. Fr Wren was helped by his nephew John, who acted as his assistant priest. They covered an extensive area, including the modern Catholic parishes of Ruislip and Hillingdon.
  The mission grew from strength to strength, and by 1907 the congregation numbered 150, with school attendance at 60. In time plans were made for a larger, more permanent church. This was the brainchild of Father Thomas Moloney, who bought the current presbytery and acquired the land that stood at the back so that a church could be built. The foundation stone was eventually laid on Low Sunday 1931 by Archbishop Alban Goodier, an English Jesuit who had been Archbishop of Bombay between 1919 and 1926. The new church, in Oxford Road, was designed by the diocesan architect, T. H. B. Scott. It was built of brick in the Romanesque style, seating 350. The church was built quickly and opened by Cardinal Bourne on 29 September 1931. It was officially consecrated on 14 May 1936, after its debts were cleared.
caption: Church of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Michael
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