Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon
Catholic church in Wimbledon, London, UK
Sacred Heart Church is a Catholic parish church in Wimbledon, South West London initially run by the Jesuits, that serves the Catholic community of Wimbledon and surrounding areas. It is in the Archdiocese of Southwark and is situated next to Wimbledon College and Donhead Preparatory School. The main entrance to the church is on Edge Hill road, but the church can also be accessed from the adjacent Darlaston Road.
History
Founding
The church was founded by Edith Arendrup, a member of the wealthy Courtauld family who came to live in Wimbledon in 1877. At the time, there were few Catholics in the area, so she convinced the Jesuits at Roehampton to start a Mass-centre at her house in Cottenham Park. Seven years later, she commissioned the construction of a large church in a prominent position on the slopes of Edge Hill. The Grade II* listed building was designed by Frederick Walters, a young architect, who designed it in the late Decorated Gothic style.
Construction
The nave of the newly built church opened on 17 June, the feast of the Sacred Heart, in 1887. Construction continued for fourteen years while the rest of the building was completed: first the sanctuary and south aisle in 1895, then the back chapels in 1896, the north aisle and sacristy in 1898, and finally the west front in 1901. The original plan called for a large tower on the west front, but money ran out and it was replaced by twin turrets and a massive, traceried window.
“Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon” enters the record as catholic church in Wimbledon, London, UK. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sacred, Heart and Church can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7397169. Authority coordinates are 51.418, -0.219. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1877, 1887, 1895 and 1896.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.