Irish Presbyterian Church Schools etc. New Bridge Street Strangeways

The Irish Presbyterians are now erecting a place of worship, session‑ house, schools, etc, in New Bridge‑street, Strangeways, from designs which are highly creditable to the architects, Messrs Travis and Mangnall. The style selected is the Gothic, which prevailed in England during the reign of Henry VI. There will be a tower, 80 feet in height, next to the street, which will be flanked by bold diagonal buttresses; these will diminish in size towards the top, and will finish at the battlements with crocketted pinnacles above. The central entrance doorway will have bold moulded jambs, and a label finishing upon carved beads; above this doorway will be a large window with perpendicular tracery and moulded jambs and labels; similar windows will be situated at each side of the tower on the front face of the building, and in the back will be a four‑light perpendicular window. There will be two side entrances near the tower end, having square‑headed doorways with labels, etc. The sides of the building will be divided by massive buttresses into five bays each, and the windows between them will be enriched with tracery and labels terminating on grotesque heads and shields, and will have a transom in the middle on account of their height. The roof will be open‑timbered, and in one span of 47 feet. At the back of the chapel are buildings to be used as session‑house, schools, and residence for the minister, the whole of which are built in the style of the domestic buildings of the period. [The Civil Engineer and Architects Journal, January 1846 Page 4]

Notes                    Sited on north side of New Bridge Street.

Reference    Manchester Guardian 10 May 1845 page 7 - contracts
Reference    Manchester Guardian 17 May 1845 page 2 - contracts
Reference    The Civil Engineer and Architects Journal. January, 1846 Page 4