Manchester Cathedral (Manchester)

Medieval church located on Victoria Street in central Manchester.

Summary Free admission Art and sculpture

Introduction

Although constructed over a period of 600 years, its main architectural style is Perpendicular Gothic, replete with tall windows and flat fan-vaulted ceilings. The interior of the church contains many pieces of period art, notably the medieval woodcarvings of the Ripon Carvers.

Open

Monday to Friday   8 am - 7 pm
Saturday   8 am - 5 pm
Sunday 8.30am - 7.30pm

History to the present day

The first recorded Christian church in Manchester was built in the 7th century. After this was destroyed by the invading Vikings, King Edward the Elder ordered the building of a new church near the earlier site in 923. This church was recorded in the Domesday book as St. Mary's.

In 1311 the succession of the Grisley family ended, and the estate passed by marriage to the de la Warre family. Between 1330 and 1360 the ornately carved entrance to the Lady Chapel and its former tower were constructed. In 1349 the St. Nicholas Chancery was endowed by the de Trafford family.

King Henry V chartered the church as a collegiate foundation in 1421 and it has had close ties with education ever since. The priests of the college were housed in collegiate buildings to the north of the church. The buildings survive as Chetham's Hospital, founded by Humphrey Chetham on his death in 1653. They retain the fifteenth century hall, cloister and spectacular library. The library is the oldest surviving public library in Britain and among its readers was Karl Marx. Chetham's school was refounded in 1969 Chetham's Hospital School of Music, which rapidly attained international prestige as Britain's leading music academy for pre-university students. The boys of the Cathedral Choir are drawn from among its students.

During the Manchester Blitz, a German bomb severely damaged the cathedral; it took nearly twenty years to repair all of the destruction.