Other former Anglicans, including Frederick William Faber, briefly established a London Oratory in premises near Charing Cross.

Faber's growing following of faithful purchased a 3.5-acre (14,000 m2) property in November 1852 for £16,000, in the then rapidly developing suburb and former village of Brompton, later to become subsumed under the name South Kensington.

[4] During the Cold War, the area between the pillars and the wall at the front of the Brompton Oratory was used as a dead drop by Soviet spies in Britain, from where they hoped to communicate with Moscow.

[5] In September 2010 decorative banners were erected at the Brompton Oratory to celebrate the beatification of Cardinal Newman during the Pope's visit to London.

The church is faced in Portland stone, with the vaults and dome in concrete; the latter was heightened in profile and the cupola added in 1869, standing 200 feet (61 m) tall.

The architectonical structure of the altar, originally decorating a chapel dedicated to the Rosary, was acquired from the church of San Domenico Brescia after its demolition in 1883.

[7] The second great decorative campaign (1927–32) was by the Italian architect C. T. G. Formilli, in mosaic, plaster and woodwork, the cost exceeding his estimate of £31,000.

[citation needed] It is part of the tradition of the oratory in England to ensure that the liturgy is celebrated in a dignified and worthy manner.

[citation needed] Mass is celebrated every day in Latin in the ordinary and the extraordinary (tridentine) forms of the Roman Rite.

Dating from the establishment of the London Oratory on its present Brompton Road site in 1854, the London Oratory Choir is England's senior professional Catholic choir, and has an international reputation as one of the world's leading exponents of choral music within the traditional Roman Rite, noted especially for its performances of Renaissance polyphony and the Masses of the Classical Viennese school.

Recent Directors of Music have included Henry Washington (1935–1971), John Hoban (1971–1995), Andrew Carwood (1995–1999) and Patrick Russill (1999–present).

The London Oratory Junior Choir was founded in 1973 by John Hoban to give boys and girls together an opportunity to serve the liturgy in a great church.

Noted for its free tone and forthright delivery, it has appeared in all London's major concert halls and at the Proms, with conductors including Andrew Parrott, Nicholas Kraemer and Sir John Eliot Gardiner (including prize-winning recordings of Monteverdi's Vespers in St Mark's Basilica in Venice, and Bach's St Matthew Passion).

The Schola is regarded as one of London's leading boys' choirs and sings at the Saturday 6.00pm Mass in term time, at daily prayer services and at benediction in the School chapel.

In addition to liturgical and concert performances, the choir has recorded The Lord of the Rings (film series) soundtracks.

Catholic aristocrats who married at the church include John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, and Gwendoline Fitzalan-Howard (1872),[12] Lord William Beauchamp Nevill and Mabel Murietta (1889),[13] Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk, and Lavinia Strutt (1937),[14] Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, and Rosamund Broughton (1938),[15] Peter Kerr, 12th Marquess of Lothian, and Antonella Newland (1943),[16] Anthony Noel, 5th Earl of Gainsborough, and Mary Stourton (1947) and Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, and Anne Palairet (1947).