Step into the church

Originally Herbert Gribble's design for the High Altar included a great baldachino or ciborium.  The High Altar as it is today is however still very impressive standing, as it does, in a sanctuary which is some 70 feet deep. It is ordered for the solemn celebration of the Church's liturgy and has escaped the ravages of some of the re-ordering schemes which followed Vatican II.

The carved choir stalls are inlaid with ivory and together with the elaborately inlaid wooden floor were the gift of Ann, Duchess of Argyll to the first church, completed in 1854. There are two seven-branched candlesticks in the sanctuary. They are modelled on those in the Temple of Jerusalem as pictured on the Arch of Titus. Standing on marble plinths, they were the gift of the Marquis of Bute.

The altar in St Wilfrid's Chapel is in the Flemish Baroque style and dates from the first half of the eighteenth century. It was originally the High Altar in the monastic church of St Remy at Rochefort in Belgium. It came to the oratory from St Servatius' church in Maastricht (Netherlands), having been taken there in 1811 following the suppression of St Remy.

The whole chapel was given by Mrs Bowden as a memorial to Father Faber, first Provost of the London Oratory. The body of Father Faber who died in 1863 was burried in the floor before the altar of this chapel in 1952. Father Faber had chosen St Wilfrid as his patron.St Wilfrid's chapel also contains the altar of the English Martyrs.  

Above the altar is the only known religious painting by Rex Whistler.  In the form of a triptych, it shows SS Thomas More and John Fisher on either side with an execution scene at Tyburn in the centre. SS Thomas More and John fisher were canonised in 1935 and the Fathers commissioned this painting in 1938 to commemorate the event.

The Lady Altar originally stood in the Chapel of the Archconfraternity of the Rosary in the Dominican church in Brescia.  In the nineteenth century the church was demolished and its contents put on the market.  By a happy chance it was discovered by Father Keogh who had it transported to England and with some re-arrangement erected in time for the opening of the Oratory church. The statue on the right is of St Pius V, a contemporary of St Philip Neri; that on the left is St Rose of Lima, the first canonised saint of the New World.

The statue of Our Lady, known as Our Lady of Victories, is not part of the original altar but rather dates back to the earliest days of the Oratory in King William Street, London.  The Madonna and child have always been traditionally vested in cope and crown.

The Chapel of St Patrick is noteworthy for the two wood panels each side of the altar.  They are Mannerist paintings of very refined composition showing the Circumcision and the Presentation. The painitings are attributed to the Flemish painter Frans Floris (c. 1517-70).

Like many others in the church, this altarpiece was designed by Gribble.  It is in a severe black and white scheme and frames a full-length painting of Our Lady of Sorrows. Father Faber commissioned the painting from Ferenc Szoldatics (1820--1916), a Hungarian painter of the Nazarene School.

The baroque pulpit billows out into the nave, between the Seven Dolours Chapel and St Philip's Altar. It dates from 1930 and is the work of Commendatore Formilli, who is also responsible for much of the mosaic work in the building.

St Philip's Altar designed by Gribble, was the gift of the Duke of Norfolk and bears the arms of the Howard family. The painting is a copy of Guido Reni's original in St Philip's room at the Chiesa Nuova in Rome. A wax effigy of the saint, dressed in Eucharistic vestments, lies beneath the altar and is exposed for view on Tuesdays.

The Baptistery is decorated in an austere fashion imitating the effect of Florentine pietra dura. The octagonal font in red breccia marble is a half scale reproduction of the one in Orvieto Cathedral.