The Roman Catholic Mission Chapel of St. Mary in Horseferry Road, Westminster closed in March 1903. The buildings were sold off and the proceeds used to help repay the debt associated with the building of the new Westminster Cathedral. The parish was provided with a chapel in the new Cathedral building. Many of Father Green’s parishioners were unhappy with the loss of their chapel and for those who weren’t drawn to the Cathedral he established a chapel of ease. The chapel which was dedicated to St. Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes, was attached to St. Mary’s School Rooms in Great Peter Street. Mass was said at the chapel on Sundays and holy days and the chapel was always crowded.
Special services were held on the Feast Day of Saint Jude (28th October) in 1904. There was a solemn High Mass in the morning. In the evening a picture of St. Jude by Miss A. M. Wilson was unveiled and blessed and a solemn benediction given by The Rev. Msg. Arthur Jackman, Private Secretary to Cardinal Bourne.
I don’t know when the Chapel of St. Jude closed. The last mention of it I have found is in April 1908 when a mission to mothers was held there. It seems unlikely there would have been a need for it once the Church of the Sacred Heart*, which could accommodate 800 worshippers, opened in 1928 in Horseferry Road. The chapel may have continued to be used by the school until it relocated in 1959.
*Lady Malcolm of Poltalloch left money in her will which was used to purchase the former Wesleyan Chapel on Horseferry Road. The chapel was converted into a Roman Catholic Church for the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration whose convent was a flat in Westminster Mansions. The Church of the Sacred Heart was consecrated in March 1928.