Our Lady of Lourdes Building Project

If you have passed by Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Rothamsted Avenue recently, you may have noticed significant building work taking place and wondered what was happening. The work is to build an undercroft beneath the church, which will create a new hall which can be used for children's work, hospitality, small group teaching, a shop, and other functions.

The need for more space was identified several years ago. The idea of building an undercroft was first considered in 2001 because there was no suitable place on the church site for meetings and social and non-liturgical events, examples of which are given below.

On occasions, when events in the church are followed by a get together, people have to take their food and drink into the church itself.

"We are blessed in having many families with young children in the parish but this means that the upper room cannot accommodate all the children for children's liturgy and access to the room is not easy for little ones.

"At ecumenical events there is no possibility for us to offer hospitality to our visitors, as happens when we visit their churches.

'At Your Word Lord' and subsequent faith-sharing groups have highlighted the need for a meeting space in the vicinity of the church that is suitable for those less physically able who cannot access the upper room.

At present our First Communion candidates have to leave after Sunday Mass and go to St Dominic School for instruction. This can involve 50 families in a logistical challenge.

But having identified the need, there were no developments for five years.

Then, during a parish visitation by Bishop George Stack and at a large meeting of those involved in catechetics, the lack of facilities was referred to and the parish priest was asked to develop a plan for an undercroft. It is clear that such a facility would give a meeting space almost equal to the size of Lourdes Hall.

Following the meeting, and in conjunction with the diocesan surveyor, Mgr Turner consulted experts to see if such a project were feasible. The experts, comprising a builder, engineer and architect, decided it would be possible to build an undercroft and suggested a way of doing it.

At a subsequent meeting of the Parish Council there was agreement that the proposal should go ahead. The project proposes that as well as a new hall, there will be a new shop, tea-making area and wheelchair wc. Access to the undercroft will be by a new external staircase excavated in the forecourt of the church.

The main work on the church will be done from within the building and the church will not be usable during this period. It is estimated that the building work will take a period of nine months between Easter and Christmas 2010.

During this period our worship will have to take place in different venues. Saturday evening Mass will be celebrated in St Nicholas Church. Morning Mass will also be in St Nicholas on weekday mornings, except for Wednesday and Saturday when Mass will be celebrated in the Convent in Kirkdale Road.

Funerals will be celebrated at St Nicholas.
First Communion, Confirmation, and Marriage will be celebrated at St John Fisher, Redbourn.

The future of Lourdes hall is not affected by the construction of an undercroft. Parishioners and non-parish organisations use the hall for many different functions. We are also fortunate that the hall is a source of income to the parish and this will be an important feature in the years ahead.

Click here for details of service times and locations during the building work. Note that the first mass on Sunday is now 8.30am, not 8.00.