Church of St James, Twickenham

The Church of St James, Twickenham is a Roman Catholic church at 61 Pope's Grove, Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is dedicated to St James the Apostle. It is a building of Townscape Merit. The Church was opened in 1885 by Cardinal Henry Edward Manning and consecrated by the Cardinal in 1887. For a few years before then Roman Catholic mass was celebrated in a mass centre in Grosvenor Road in the centre of Twickenham.The Parish of St James is one of the very few parishes with its own Pope. Alexander Pope, the Catholic satirist and poet lived in Pope's Villa a short distance away in Cross Deep from 1718 until his death in 1744. He gave his name to Pope's Grotto which now links St Catherine's School and Radnor House school under Cross Deep.The church ...is a relatively modest Gothic Revival building which takes its cues from thirteenth century architecture.. It was paid for by James de Lacey Towle, hence its dedication to St James. The paintings in the church include a copy of a Raphael of the Madonna and child donated by Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff in about 1900, and a representation of St James 'Matamoros' (conqueror of the Moors) executed by Vicente de Arroyabe in 1995, and donated by a parishioner, Mrs Evelyn Dunning. These two paintings are on either side of the high altar. In a side entrance on the west side of the church there is a painting of the church by Dutch born writer and artist, the late Hilda van Stockum.The fleur de lys carvings on the ceiling above the sanctuary bear witness to the support given to the parish by the French Royal Family who lived in the locality for several decades. The side altar dedicated to the apparition of the Sacred Heart to St Margaret Mary Alacoque also illustrate the church's association with France. Princess Marie-Amelie of Bourbon-Orleans was born in York House (now used by the London Borough of Richmond,)in 1865. She married King Carlos of Portugal and gave birth to King Manuel II, who became an important benefactor of the parish after he settled in Twickenham following his exile from Portugal in 1910.