Site

About a mile to the north lies the Anglican church of St Marys Willesden. As far back as 939 there was a well (from which Willesden gets its name) and a church to which pilgrims came, primarily to venerate a statue of Virgin Mary, the ‘Black Madonna’, Our Lady of Willesden. The statue was destroyed in 1538 during the the dissolution of the monasteries but the church continued. In the early 1900s the vicar restored the shrine and pilgrimages restarted. In 1972 a new ‘Black Madonna’ was installed. In 1998 the well was rediscovered and brought back into use.

Meanwhile, here in Nicoll Road Harlesden, in 1885 a Catholic Mission was established for the growing Irish population, with the help of the local Convent of Jesus and Mary and using a temporary chapel on Manor Park Road. A new statue was blessed by Cardinal Vaughan in 1892. In 1907, a larger church was built in nearby Crownhill Road and then in 1931 the current church was built with a shrine of Our Lady of Willesden in the northeast chapel. The Feast of Our Lady of Willesden is on 3 October and the annual Catholic pilgrimage takes place in May.

So, there are two shrines for Our Lady of Willesden, the Anglican one in the original location and this Catholic one a mile away.