St Edmund's Church, Southampton

The first Roman Catholic church that was built in Southampton after the Reformation was the Pugin designed St Joseph's Church. In 1867, the priest there decided that a new church was needed in Southampton to the serve the growing Catholic population in the city. In 1884, two years after the Diocese of Portsmouth was created, St Edmund's Church was built. It was temporary, made of iron and was named after Saint Edmund of Abingdon, co-patron of the diocese.

On 21 June 1888, construction began on a larger and permanent St Edmund's Church. The architect was J. William Lunn, who also designed Our Lady of the Annunciation Church, King's Lynn, Corpus Christi Church in Boscombe, Corpus Christi Church in Portsmouth and St Catherine's Church in Chipping Camden. It was opened on 20 November 1889, the birth date of Saint Edmund of Abingdon. Present at the church's opening was the Bishop of Portsmouth, John Vertue, and Canon Alexander Scoles, who was an architect himself.