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Belarusian Memorial Chapel
Project Type
Architecture
Date
2011-2017
Author
Tszwai So
‘There is a kind of sensibility about this project (Belarusian Memorial Chapel) that’s quite hard to name but very easy to feel’
— Lesley Lokko, RIBA Royal Gold Medallist 2024
‘The standout new church is the Belarusian Memorial Chapel in Finchley, north London, exquisitely formed of timber in the tradition of rural churches in Belarus... it is really quite beautiful and a reminder that churches still have the presence to become landmarks.’
— Edwin Heathcote, The Financial Times
The Belarusian Memorial Chapel is the first permanent wooden church built in London since the Great Fire of 1666. Commissioned by the Holy See, it serves the UK’s Belarusian diaspora community established by families of demobilised soldiers after WWII. It is also a lasting memorial to the victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The Eastern Catholic church replaces a small makeshift chapel room used by the community since 1947.
