St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham

St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham is a Roman Catholic church on Ham Street on the western corner of Ham Common, Ham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The church is a former 19th-century school building, acquired in 1974 and converted for worship and community use.

St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham
LocationHam Street, Ham, Richmond TW10 7HT
CountryUnited Kingdom
DenominationRoman Catholic
Websitehttps://stthomasaquinasham.org/
History
Former name(s)St. Andrew's School (or just Ham School)
StatusChurch
Founded1974
Consecrated1974
Architecture
Functional statusActive
Completed1890
Specifications
Number of spires1
Materialsbrick and slate
Administration
ParishHam
DeaneryMortlake
Episcopal areaSouth West Pastoral Area
DioceseRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark
ProvinceSouthwark
Clergy
Priest(s)Father Robert Ellis
Laity
Parish administrator+44 (0)20 8948 8292

Services

Mass is held on Saturday evenings and on Sunday mornings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mass has been held online via Zoom.[1] There has also been daily rosaries held at 8:30pm remotely.

There is also a mass in German on Sunday mornings[2][3] to accommodate the local German-speaking population. (There is a German school nearby in Petersham.) A German priest is sent by the German-speaking parish of St. Boniface in Whitechapel,[4] London to hold mass. The German-speaking congregation also meets with the Lutheran German-speaking congregation at St Andrew's Church, Ham for ecumenical services.[5]

History

School

The building was constructed as Ham School in the late 1880s, replacing an earlier village school funded by the National Society. This early school accommodated boys in St Andrew's Church on the opposite side of Ham Common, and girls in the converted first floor of nearby almshouses. This failed to meet the new standards required by the Elementary Education Act 1870. Faced with the unpopular prospect of having a state controlled Board school imposed upon them, local ratepayers established a committee to construct a new school. Funds were raised from local charities, subscriptions and the National Society and the building opened in 1890 as St Andrew's School. Built with capacity for 100 boys, 101 infants and 101 girls, the school remained open until 1966, when it was replaced by the larger St Richard's with St Andrew's Primary School.[6] The building was used for various community functions throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Church

From the Reformation until 1856 there was nowhere for Catholics to worship in Ham. Between 1856 and 1870 a small chapel, St Mary's, was established in the grounds of Beaufort House, to the north along Ham Street. In 1952 a small plot further north in Ham Street, where 201–7 now stand, was bought by Richard and Mary Cave and the Chapel of Ease of St Elizabeth's, Richmond, was constructed there. Intended as a temporary structure, it served until the former Ham School site was acquired in 1974. The northern part of the former school building became the church whilst the southern section became the church hall, still used by community groups.[6] The single light stained glass window by Paul Quail, depicting "Heavenly Jerusalem", was added in 1990.[7]

  • Exterior of the church
  • Interior view of the church
  • Stained-glass window by Paul Quail

References
  1. "The Catholic Church of St. Thomas Aquinas, Ham". The Catholic Church of St. Thomas Aquinas, Ham. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  2. "Saint Thomas Aquinas". Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  3. "Services in Ham / Richmond:". St Bonifatius, London. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  4. "St. Bonifatius (London) – Wikipedia". de.wikipedia.org (in German). Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  5. "German Lutheran church "hidden in Ham"" (PDF). Ham and Petersham Magazine: 23. Autumn 2010.
  6. Chave, Leonard, ed. (1 May 2000). Ham and Petersham at 2000. Ham Amenities Group / Richmond Local History Society. pp. 18–9, 54–5. ISBN 9780952209942.
  7. Eberhard, Robert. "Stained Glass Windows at St. Thomas Aquinas (RC)". Church Stained Glass Windows. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
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