Church of Our Lady & St Alphege, Bath

This is a Roman Catholic church and presbytery by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. The church was opened July 1929 and consecrated in 1954 (1,000 years after the birth of the patron saint, Alphege). Presbytery completed 1958. Internal carvings largely by William Drinkwater Gough.

The Church of Our Lady and St Alphege was built in Bath in response to an increase in the Catholic population of the city during the 1920s. Bath’s Catholic population was in the care of both the secular and regular clergy during this period. The former served the Church of St Mary in Julian Road to the north of the city; and the Benedictine community at Downside served the Priory Church of St John the Evangelist in the central South Parade. A site in Oldfield Park, alongside the railway, in the south of the city was selected for the new church. The architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who was working on the nave of the Abbey Church of St Gregory the Great, at Downside Abbey (which was completed in 1925 and is listed at Grade I) was commissioned to design the new church.