Notre Dame de France

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Roman Catholic church of Notre Dame de France
Leicester Square
London, September 2014

“It is a striking building with a circular ground plan, and lit principally by a central domed skylight. The shape is apparently the consequence of the building's history: the original structure was built not as a church, but as something called ‘Burford's Panorama’ - a sort of exhibition-cum-popular entertainment of the late 18th. Century, which was located in a large rotunda. By late Victorian times, this had become redundant and was purchased in 1865 by Fr. Charles Faure, SM, who had been asked by Cardinal Wiseman to establish a church for London's French community. A church, the first Catholic church to substantially use cast iron in its construction, was designed by the French architect, Louis Auguste Boileau, retaining the circular plan, and consecrated on 11th June 1868.”(Notre Dame de France, Leicester Square, Sub Umbra Alarum Suarum)