Sacred Heart Churchyard

Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church was built between 1886-1901 by architect Frederick Walters (1849-1931), a large flint and stone church on a sloping site purchased for the purpose by Edith Arendrup, a wealthy Catholic convert. On 17 June 1887, Mass was celebrated in the nave of the new church on the Feast of The Sacred Heart, and the rest of the building was completed over the following 14 years, with the West Front completed in 1901. The church was not consecrated until 1931. Frederick Walters, the son of RC architect Frederick Page Walters, was a follower of Pugin's architectural ideas. He opened his own practice in 1878 and established his reputation as a prolific architect of Catholic churches, schools and institutions. His design for Sacred Heart Church was in late Decorated Gothic style; on his original plan a large tower was to have been constructed but this had to be abandoned through lack of funds, replaced by twin turrets and large traceried window, below which is the main entrance. Until 2014 the church was served by the Jesuits of the British Province, since when it has been administered within the Archdiocese of Southwark.

Edith Arendrup (d.1933), a member of the wealthy Courtauld family, came to Wimbledon in 1877 and initially had a small chapel built onto her house in Cottenham Park Road since there was no Roman Catholic church in the district. She persuaded the Jesuits at Roehampton to say Mass here and soon those wishing to attend had grown to the extent that in 1883 she decided to build a new Roman Catholic church in a prominent position. She purchased building plots on the new Darlaston Road from the owner, Revd John Brackenbury, ex-Headmaster of Wimbledon School, but negotiated through a Protestant solicitor having heard he would never agree to selling the land for 'Popish purposes'. The nave was ready for use by 1887 but the church was not completed until 1901. The building of the church was also supported by Mrs Bertram Currie, another wealthy widow. It took until the 1930s for Catholics to be accepted into the community and in earlier years protests were made by Protestants opposed to 'the hotbed of Jesuit Popery'.

The churchyard has a large area of grass with a number of mature trees including oak to the south and west of the church on the boundaries with Edge Hill and Darlaston Road. Paths lead to the church from two entrance archways flanked by flint and stone piers. The Sacred Heart Parish Hall was built in 1962 on land between the church and Wimbledon College (q.v.), which had been opened by the Jesuits in 1893, following their purchase of Wimbledon School, and the new Presbytery was completed in 1982.