St Antony of Padua (Forest Gate, London, UK) is embarking on the biggest and most ambitious restoration project in its 147-year history. After much consultation in recent years, the Diocese of Brentwood and English Heritage gave permission to St Antony’s at the beginning of 2020 to proceed with the restoration of the sanctuary.

The sanctuary works include the cleaning and repairing of the stonework behind the altar including the reredos (the original decorative screen). This work began in March 2020 at a cost of approximately £0.5M.

In addition to the sanctuary restoration, time has come to undertake important renovations to the remainder of the church if we are to continue to enjoy this outstanding iconic Catholic building in east London.

The improvements we need to make to the church are:

• Repair and refurbish all toilets in the church (including disabled toilets)
• Repair the flooring throughout the church
• Repair the pews & kneelers
• General decoration
• Lighting and electrical
• Fire alarm system
• PA system

A technical team of construction professionals and our appointed architect, Anthony Delarue, worked together to look at what the building needs to meet our current and future needs.

Our cost plan indicates the total amount we need to restore the sanctuary and make good the rest of the church is £1.5M. The cost of restoring the sanctuary is approximately one third (£0.5M) and was mostly covered by the generous donations so far. The remaining work will be in excess of £1M.

We know this is a huge amount of money, but these works are now critical to the future of the church. To neglect these works at this time would see the demise of the church. But if we share this financial challenge together, we will be able to afford to undertake the works. Let us come together in an expression of our grateful response to God’s love in our lives.

We invite you to watch the documentary about St Antony’s: https://youtu.be/NZkd_fr0wrw
And read our Case for Support which can be downloaded from: http://stantonysforestgate.com/ 

Printed copies of the Case for Support are available at St Antony’s or you can request a copy by post.

St Antony of Padua
56 St Antony’s Road, Forest Gate, London E7 9QB
020 8472 0433
stantonysforestgate.com
forestgate@dioceseofbrentwood.org