Our Lady Of Lourdes church is the Catholic parish church of Wanstead

Wanstead

Wanstead is a suburban area in the London Borough of Redbridge, North-East London. The main road going through Wanstead is the A12. The name is from the Anglo-Saxon words wænn and stede, meaning "settlement on a small hill"....

, and is part of the Diocese of Brentwood.

History

A mass centre was opened in Wanstead in 1910 by the parish priest of Walthamstow. In 1918 it was transferred to the hall of the newly-opened St. Joseph's convent school, Cambridge Park. Wanstead became a separate parish in 1919, and the church was opened in 1928, and completed in 1934–9.

Architecture

The church was built in the Neo-Gothic style

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

. The church exterior is of red brick with cream stone edgings. Inside, the plan is that of a nave and two aisles on either side. At the back, over the entrance, there is the choir balcony, on which a new organ is being constructed. The interior walls are simply whitewashed, excluding the stonework. Behind the altar is an elaborate stone gothic altarpiece

Altarpiece

An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...

Recently, two stained glass windows were inserted in the left aisle.