Viewing the new building at the Oxford Oratory

Earlier this evening,together with other members of the Oratory's Benedictine Oblates group, I was given atour of the newly developed building for which the Oratory has been raising funds. This is Phase One. The building work is now completed, although some fitting out works remains to be carried out before His Grace the Archbishop of Birmingham is comes to celebrate Mass and bless the completed work on August 4th.

This evening we saw the impressive conversion of the old parish centre, complete with new kitchen and bar, the library created in the room above - originally these housed the parish school. The library promises to be a fine galleried room with space to house the sizeable Oratory library, including the Gaisford collection, part of the library of Mgr Graham Leonard and the remains of G. K.Chesterton's library and related manuscript material.

Beyond this lies a set of new rooms for Fathers of the Oratory and guest accomodation, giving the community the ability to expand. What is striking about the extension and conversion is the skill of the architect in creating so much space on a limited site and the care in providing the finishing touches to make it a properly finished building.

After all the work of fund raising and the wait to see what was going on behind the screened-off area it was very satisfying to see what has been achieved, to look forward to the completion of this Phase, and then, of course, to go on to Phase Two...

There is more about the project on the Oxford Oratory Appeal website.