The history of the German Chaplaincy in London goes back to 1809 when the German Catholic Mission was established to cater for the pastoral needs of German/German-speaking immigrants. In the 19th century there was a large German community living in the East End, a lot of them were sugar bakers working in the local sugar industry. Since 1862, the German Catholic Mission has been on the very site the German Chaplaincy is still occupying today.

Worshipping in a building that used to be a theatre originally and then a Methodist Chapel, the congregation had to make plans for a new church building after the chapel had collapsed in 1873. St Boniface’s Church was completed in 1875, consecrated in 1925 and destroyed in the “Blitz”.

After the war it took until 1958 before the construction of a new church was started. The new church of St Boniface was consecrated in 1960 – it is the building still in use today by Germans and German-speakers young and old when they gather here for Sunday services in their mother tongue.