Church built by Parliament designer Pugin needs £1m for restoration

St Augustine’s Ramsgate, which AWN Pugin described as “my own child”, fell into disrepair over many years and now its tower is damaged while its roof leaks and its famed windows are falling apart. 

The Grade I-listed building was in danger of closing down completely last year when the Benedictine monks who were running it left.

Now the Roman Catholic church, where Pugin himself is buried and which is next-door to the home where he designed the Gothic Revival interiors of the Houses of Parliament, has been given a £110,000 grant by English Heritage for essential repairs.

But this needs to be matched within a few months by the Friends of St Augustine’s Church and the Archdiocese of Southwark, who are now responsible for it.

They have already reconnected its electricity and heating, and opened its doors once more to visitors.

It is just the start of an estimated £1m fundraising project, to be carried out in five phases, which is needed to restore the distinctive flint-covered church, which was completed by Pugin’s sons after his early death in 1852.

As well as structural damage to the tower, the church suffers dry rot while its windows are warping and the stone and ironwork surrounding them are crumbling and rotting away.

Concerts, open days and lectures will take place next spring to help find more funds for the church, which now has a weekly congregation of about 50 worshippers, while a reception was held at the House of Lords earlier this week to win over influential politicians.

Fr Marcus Holden, the parish priest for Ramsgate and chairman of the Friends of St Augustine, said: “We cannot overestimate the importance of this church.

“If Pugin is one the greatest ecclesiastical architects of modern English history, and St Augustine's is his personal ideal church, then this site is of vast importance. It is significant at so many levels: spiritually it's the monument of St Augustine's landing, historically it's a centre piece of the 19th century Catholic revival, architecturally it's Pugin's masterpiece and artistically it's full of his best. I'm delighted that St Augustine's is now being recognised for what it is and preserved for future generations. It has been extremely encouraging to see how people both locally and nationally, from different backgrounds and with a variety of expertise, have come together in this project. We have turned a corner in the path of rescuing the church but there is a long way to go and much help is needed."