St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church

Paddington originally formed part of the Sacred Heart Parish, Darlinghurst. However, history has recorded that by the 1860s, the Catholic population of Paddington “began to be very numerous, for there were many Irish girls employed as domestic servants in the neighbourhood and in adjoining Woollahra. These experienced great difficulty in hearing Mass, on account of the distance of Darlinghurst or Waverley, so the residents decided to erect a school-church of their own”.

The school-church was erected in 1866 on the site of the present school building, built of Australian hardwood. It was used as a school until 1929. By 1890 a quarter of Paddington’s residents were Catholic, and nine percent were Irish born. Paddington was more Irish and Catholic than most other metropolitan areas. Plans were established for a new church, which was to be named after St Francis of Assisi and built adjacent to the old wooden school building.

The foundation stone was blessed and laid in 1889, a ceremony attended by about 1000 people.  Cardinal Moran officially opened the new church on Sunday 22nd June 1890. Only the nave of this church (the nave of the current church) was ever completed, and all the mosaic ornamentation around the rose window facing Oxford Street has long since disappeared. Although considered a large church when erected, St Francis soon became overcrowded, despite the celebration of five Masses each Sunday.

In 1915, in spite of war conditions, it was decided that work completing a new church on the site should continue. But it became clear that even if the church were completed according to the original plan, it would still be too small for Paddington’s Catholic population.   A new church was commissioned, but it was to be constructed in two phases. Phase 1 included the sanctuary, sacristies and transepts. Phase 2 would have required the demolition of the 1890 church to make way for the far grander nave.  

The foundation stone was laid in 1917. However, the cost of completing the church immediately was prohibitive and it was decided to make use of the existing portion of the old church as a temporary nave of the new.  However, phase 2 never eventuated, so the present church consists of the nave of the 1890 church designed by John Barlow, and the transepts, sanctuary and sacristies of the 1919 church designed by Bart Moriarty.

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