About Allen Hall

All the students at Allen Hall are preparing for ordination as priests, but they come from a number of different places:

• Diocese of Westminster: as the diocesan seminary, the majority of seminarians at Allen Hall are students for Westminster.
• Other dioceses in England: some other dioceses in England also send their seminarians here.
• Dioceses abroad: some seminarians at Allen Hall are preparing for ordination in dioceses abroad. For many years students from Oslo in particular have trained here.
• Religious congregations: a number of students belong to religious congregations.

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Formation for priesthood usually takes six years, and is understood in four complementary ways.

Human formation is about a contemplation of the person of Jesus Christ and a conversion and maturing of self to be more and more like the Lord.

Spiritual formation means developing an intimate, deep and sustaining relationship with God.

Pastoral formation involves practical experience of a variety of pastoral placements and an adoption of the heart and self-sacrificial love of the Good Shepherd.

Intellectual formation includes the study of philosophy and theology and is an ongoing reflection on the mystery of faith.

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Douai, 1568

Cardinal William Allen founded a seminary in Douai, France, in 1568 to provide for the English mission in time of persecution. Allen Hall, together with Ushaw College in the North, is heir to that Douai tradition, and is inspired by its history and above all by its martyrs.

Old Hall Green, 1793

The French Revolution brought an end to the presence of the seminary at Douai. With a relaxation of the penal laws against Catholics in England, the staff and students moved to Old Hall Green, Ware, Hertfordshire. The new college was established in 1793 under the patronage of Saint Edmund.

In 1904 Archbishop Francis Bourne had a new wing built to house the seminarians. This part of the college eventually became known as Allen Hall, after the founder of the English College at Douai, and the name has been retained to this day.

Chelsea, 1975

In 1975 the seminary moved to Chelsea, so the students could be more involved in pastoral work in London and close to the universities and Westminster Cathedral. The name of the seminarians wing at St Edmund's, Allen Hall, was adopted for the college. The house had been the convent of a French order of sisters, the Congregation of Adoration Réparatrice.

Martyrs of Douai

Between 1577, the date of the martyrdom of St Cuthbert Mayne, the college's protomartyr, and 1680, the date of the execution of Thomas Thwing, the college's last martyr, 158 college members, priests and layman, secular and religious, met with a martyr's death. Collectively they are known as the Blessed Martyrs of Douai College.

St Thomas More

Allen Hall's current site stands in the grounds of what was once "The Great House" of St Thomas More, which he built in Chelsea in 1524 and where he lived with his family until his arrest in 1534. Now, nearly 500 years after he gave his life in defence of the Catholic faith, St Thomas's house is the home of men in training for the Catholic priesthood. His legacy and witness are now an integral part of Allen Hall's history and tradition.