Holy Innocents' only become a parish church in 1971. Until then it was a Chapel, a small place of worship whose legal status consisted in its being attached to the orphanages.
In 1907 a Miss Ellis gave a sum of money for it to be built (she repeated this generosity for other churches within the Southwark Archdiocese), and work began in August that year. It was situated between the two orphanages containing the latter-day 'Holy Innocents', and stood majestically on the hill.
The Chapel's foundation stone was laid on 10 August 1908, the building completed in 1909, and opened on St. Patrick's Day. The church bell was donated by the past pupils of St Anne's, and the tabernacle and large candlesticks by the boys of St Joseph's.
When the Chapel was consecrated it initially served the orphanages and seven Catholic families who lived in Orpington and the neighbouring villages. Only about a dozen people from outside the orphanage community attended Sunday Mass. However, with continued population growth in Orpington, the congregation increased.
Transport from outlying villages was always difficult and a search for possible alternative sites was undertaken. Eventually in 1963 a new Church named St Michael and All Angels was built at Locksbottom as the daughter church of Holy Innocents'. Later it became a Parish Church in its own right.
The Orphanage Chapel the centre of Orpington's Catholic worship since 1907, finally became the Catholic Parish Church on 11 December 1971.
Its life in this new role was to be very short for the building's foundation was found to be moving and beyond repair. When it was decided to rebuild the Church, a competition was held, and six architects submitted designs for a church with halls and presbytery.
A redevelopment committee was set up to represent parish opinion, and to liaise with the architect, the contractors and the Diocesan authorities.
On 11th May 1980, The Archbishop of Southwark, Michael Bowen laid the foundation bronze plinth for the tabernacle base, the point from which all other measurements would be taken in the construction of the new Church. The ceremony was preceded by a concelebrated Mass in the old Church for the adults, and a children's Mass in St Anne's Primary School for the children.
Holy Innocents' Roman Catholic Church was both consecrated and opened on the same day, 20 September 1981, with Archbishop Michael Bowen conducting the ceremony. Fr. Michael Phelan and Fr. Barry Angus anointed the consecration crosses, the Archbishop anointed the Altar, and Fr. Eric Mead carried the relic of St. Timothy, which the Archbishop presented and entombed in the front of the Altar. In his sermon, the Archbishop remarked that it was the ambition of every Parish Priest to build a new church and he congratulated Fr. Michael Phelan on achieving this aim.
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