Dome

Front elevation, side view of the portico; The London Oratory is a Catholic oratory, a community of lay-brothers and the name given to the London Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri. It is housed in an Oratory House, next to the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Brompton Road. The Oratory was founded in 1849, the year after John Henry, Cardinal Newman had established the Birmingham Oratory. Pope Pius IX commissioned Newman to introduce the Oratorian Order to England. Together with their Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary the community of the Oratorian Fathers is often popularly, though incorrectly, referred to as the 'Brompton Oratory'. The London Oratory is famous in particular for the solemn celebration of the Roman liturgy, especially in Latin, and for its preservation of the traditional place of music in the liturgy, which is currently served by three choirs. It is semi-private. The Italianate taste of the Oratorians found its fullest expression in the Brompton Oratory, London (1880-1884), designed by Herbert Augustine Gribble (1847-1894), the façade of which supports a monumental statue of Newman by Léon Joseph Chavalliaud (1850-1911). Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/ (accessed 6/15/2009)