Benedict Williamson (1868–1948) was an architect who designed many

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

churches in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

who later became a

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' re ...

Early life

He was born in 1868 as William Edward Williamson in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He studied law for a time and then went on to train as an architect in the office of ''Newman & Jacques'', architects and surveyors in Stratford. In 1896, he was received into the

Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in the Church of the Immaculate Conception run by the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

Mayfair Mayfair is an area of Westminster, London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. It is between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and one of the most expensive districts ...

. There he took the name Benedict Williamson.Evinson, Denis
Catholic Churches of London
' (Sheffield, 1988), pp. 253-4

Architect

For the next ten years he practised as an architect, being in a partnership with John Henry Foss calling the business ''Williamson & Foss''.
Directory of British Architects, 1834-1914: Vol. 2 (L-Z)
' ed. Brodie, Antonia (London, 2011) p. 166 In 1903, he did extension work for St Michael's Abbey in Farnborough. He designed the tower in the style of the

Solesmes Abbey Solesmes Abbey or St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes () is a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes, Sarthe, France, and the source of the restoration of Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine monastic life in the country under Dom Prosper Guéranger after the ...

. The design was for four towers, which were to overshadow the red-brick house, but the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

put an end to construction. In 1906, he designed the Church of St Boniface in

Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre-Anglo-Saxons, Saxon times. The name is of Anglo-Saxon ori ...

for the Archdiocese of Southwark. The original inspiration for the church came from Tre Fontane Abbey, but he progressed away from the prototype plan. The foundation stone was laid on 17 November 1906 and the church, still unfinished, was opened for worship on 18 April 1907.History
from St Boniface Tooting, accessed 1 April 2013 It was the last church he designed before going to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, because that year he entered the Beda College in Rome where he studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1909 for the Archdiocese of Southwark. He still continued to do architectural work while he was a priest. In 1911, he did work for the

, designing St Ignatius Church in

Stamford Hill Stamford Hill is an area in Inner London, England, about northeast of Charing Cross. The neighbourhood is a major component of the London Borough of Hackney, and is known for its Hasidic community, the largest concentration of orthodox Ashken ...

, London. Five years later, he was the architect for the Diocese of Northampton, designing Our Lady Immaculate and St Ethelbert's Church, Slough and Sacred Heart Church, in

Southwold Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the North Sea, in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth, Suffolk, River Blyth in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. In 1912 he designed St. Casimir's Lithuanian Church in Cambridge Heath, London. For the

Lithuanians Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

, Williamson designed a building of London stock brick whose walls are punctuated by large round windows. After the

, in 1922, he was behind the building of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

, London. At the time he was inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb that year and incorporated Egyptian patterns into the interior design of the church.History
from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, accessed 1 April 2013 In 1927, in collaboration with his original partner John Foss, he helped with the completion of St Boniface's Church in Tooting, adding a tower, arches and Egyptian designs.

Author

In 1921 he published ''Supernatural Mysticism'', an enthusiastic book of some 260 pages, which carries a commendatory Introduction by Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster. In later life he became a supporter of the Italian leader

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

and wrote the introduction to a book about him ''A Revolution and its Leader'' by Augusto Turati (London, 1930). He died in 1948 at the age of 80 in Rome. An appreciation of his life was written by Henry Edward George Rope, a fellow convert who, in 1915, had taken over the editorship of ''The Catholic Review'' of which Benedict Williamson had been the founding editor two years earlier. He also wrote a book about the

Lateran Treaty The Lateran Treaty (; ) was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, agreements between Italy under Victor Emmanuel III and Benito Mussolini and the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to settle the long-standing Roman question. The treaty and ass ...

of 1929, called ''The Treaty of the Lateran''.The Treaty of the Lateran
retrieved 26 April 2018.

Gallery

File:St Ignatius Stamford Hill, London N15 - geograph.org.uk - 362935.jpg, St Ignatius Church, Stamford Hill File:Fulham, Catholic Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help - geograph.org.uk - 863988.jpg, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Fulham File:Lithuanian Roman Catholic Church of St. Casimir - geograph.org.uk - 1717292.jpg, St. Casimir's Lithuanian Church,

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common la ...

File:Tower of Our Lady Immaculate ^ St Ethelbert Catholic Church, Slough - geograph.org.uk - 3459586.jpg, Our Lady Immaculate and St Ethelbert's Church, Slough Sacred Heart of Jesus, Southwold, August 2010 - geograph.org.uk - 2036364.jpg, Sacred Heart Church, Southwold

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williamson, Benedict Architects from London English ecclesiastical architects Romanesque Revival architects Converts to Roman Catholicism 20th-century English Roman Catholic priests 1868 births 1948 deaths Architects of Roman Catholic churches