Tour the House

Loyola Hall is a large nineteenth-century house with a modern residential wing. Built by successful stagecoach proprietor Bartholomew Bretherton in 1824, the buildings and grounds were given to the Society of Jesus in 1923 and, as Loyola Hall, they have operated as a retreat house ever since.

Chapels Prayer Rooms Conference Rooms Meeting Rooms Other Facilities


Chapels

The Main Chapel is a spacious and prayerful place, well suited both to personal prayer and to liturgical celebration. It is lit from the back by stained glass windows inspired by Gerald Manley Hopkins' poem Immortal Diamond.

The simplicity of the sanctuary sets off the crucifix suspended above the altar step. There is a small gallery looking out across the chapel with a fine view of this crucifix.

Holy Week Retreat 2000

The other chapel is a smaller basement room, with tabernacle and cross set back into a stone fireplace which was rediscovered during renovations.

This Manresa Chapel is named after the town in Spain where St. Ignatius spent some months praying and fasting — often in a cave.

Prayer Rooms

There are 7 prayer rooms in the house in addition to the two chapels. All are available to those staying in the house and, as they are of different sizes and designs, somewhere conducive to prayer can be found for any mood.

Two of the prayer rooms, the Arches and the Crypt are converted basement rooms.

The Arches, along with many icons, has a copy of the Franciscan cross of St Damiano often used as a prayerful focus.

The smaller of the two rooms, the Crypt, contains the popular Vladimir Icon of Mary and Jesus.

The Arches
Near the main chapel there are two well-lit prayer rooms: the Rembrandt Room containing reproductions of Rembrandt's Prodigal Son and the Creation Room with its restful centrepiece of plants, wood and stone — in the midst of which is a small waterfall.
Finally, behind the Blake Room, the main conference room, are three small prayer rooms containing icons (including Rublev's 'The hospitality of Abraham') and a statue of Our Lady.

Conference Rooms

The Blake Room is the main conference room at Loyola Hall and can seat up to 100 people, though the stepped floor allows a small group to use the room without feeling swamped by space.
As in the Main Chapel above, the crown of thorns stained glass has a striking impact on the room.

The other large room is Beech Hall, a self contained building at the back of the main house, with its own facilities for making tea and coffee and a flexible space that can accommodate from 15 to 50 people.

Meeting Rooms

As well as the larger rooms there are four smaller meeting rooms for groups up to about 20.

One of the meeting rooms, the Brown Room also doubles as a music room for retreatants with a piano, keyboard, tape recorder and tapes.

Other Rooms and Facilities

The Art Room is available for anyone using the house.

Equipped with paints, pastels, and clay, this room allows people to play, pray or simply ponder.

The Leisure Room, one of the newer rooms in the house, contains a sauna, whirlpool bath and some simple exercise machines.

The room is well-used as people embrace a holistic approach to spirituality — often finding that physical relaxation helps one to enter into silence and prayerful reflection.
There are two dining rooms in the house enabling different groups to coexist happily. It also means that during silent retreats there is always one dining room in silence to facilitate the retreat.

At the front of the house overlooking the gardens is the Lounge. As well as being a pleasant room in which to sit and read, this room contains our small shop.

Many different items are on sale including a selection of books, cards, candles, essential oils, oil burners, pottery chalices etc.