I know people love the art and everything else in the Brompton Oratory in London.
But for me the winner for inspiring me has to be Westminster Cathedral - which some people see as an ugly building. But then those people probably don’t like St. Pancras railway station either.
Here’s some pictures for the inside of the building:
westminstercathedral.org.uk/art/art_tour.html
And here is the groovy outside:
request.org.uk/main/churches/tours/westcath/outside.htm
You can’t beat an exterior like that. Of course, some people hate it.
The first time I saw the building I didn’t have time to go in (and probably wouldn’t have done anything so rash as to enter a catholic church in those days). I was meeting a friend at Westminster Abbey (the Anglicans) and after looking on the map had decided to walk from Victoria train station to the Abbey as it really isn’t that far.
Half way there, wandering down Victoria Street with the hundreds of people and the hundreds of half-congested cars, the right hand side opens up into a large square and set at the back of the square is this building.
It was a major surprise to see it there, this large structure so at odds with the modern blocks of Victoria Street. Wow. Of course, I didn’t even know what the building was back then but the architecture drove me wild.
Far more exciting than Westminster Abbey.
This summer, having been received into the Catholic Church at Easter I was able to spend a day alone in London. I went to the lunchtime mass at the Oratory and then the early evening mass at the Cathedral. During the afternoon I’d spent a couple of hours in the Cathedral exploring it and praying. Wonderful. And another hour that day in the large catholic bookshops very nearby. Bliss.
The peace and atmosphere of the cathedral is utterly at odds with the rushing and noise outside. And the fact that, unlike many UK cathedrals, it is still primarily a place of prayer and worship is fantastic.
Hopefully I can get back there next summer.