In July 1892 the Catholics of Stroud Green, Crouch Hill and Finsbury Park - about 200 of them - were stated to be 'sadly in need of a church'. A group of lay people petitioned the Archbishop of Westminster to give them their own parish, church and priest.

On August 31st, 1893 a meeting was held at Hornsey Rise to consider the feasibility of starting a mission.

Stroud Green was at that time largely a rural suburb with cornfields on the slopes of the hills.

The mission was made over to the Canons Regular of the Lateran, who wanted to make a foundation in London. A few years previously they had made a foundation in Cornwall in 1881, returning to these islands after having been swept away by the Dissolution of the Monasteries in this country, and barely surviving in continental Europe.

Plans were drawn up to build the church and fundraising activities began

The Parish of St Peter-in-Chains initially began in what is now the Priests House, and the first Mass was said there in 1894. Fr Belton was the founding priest, and the First Prior was Fr Augustine White.

The Lady chapel of the church was built first in 1886 and the church was originally called St Augustine's. The final church, designed by Canon Scoles, was opened on Tuesday October 21st 1902, and the main features of the sanctuary were completed by 1908.

The Sisters of St.Gildas came to the Parish in 1914 and quickly established their own school, which is now St Gildas' Junior school.