Presbyterian Church: Grosvenor Square, All Saints, Manchester

Grosvenor Square Presbyterian Church was opened in December 1850 occupying a previously undeveloped site at the junction of Ormond Street and Devonshire Street. The entrance to the church faced Grosvenor Square and was approached by a flight of steps which led to a portico dominated by two giant fluted Corinthian columns. Given the Presbyterians` concern with education, a day school was included at the rear of the church, an elegant single storey building with entrances on Devonshire Street. The church and school cost about £14,000, of which £2,800 was for the land.

The church was built as a consequence of the long disputes which culminated in the disruption of the Presbyterian Church in 1843. The founders of the Grosvenor Square Presbyterian Church had previously worshipped at the Presbyterian Church in Mount Street, St Peter's Square. but unlike some of the congregation who had left in 1843 to help establish St Andrew's Free Church of Scotland in Grosvenor Square they had remained in Mount Street. However, they soon came into conflict with the Established Church of Scotland by demonstrating their sympathy with ministers from the breakaway Free Church of Scotland. Arguments culminated in a lengthy legal action which resulted, in 1848, in the majority of the congregation not only being expelled from the Mount Street church but having to refund all the pew rents and minister's stipend for the previous five years. They found temporary accommodation in the Manchester Mechanics' Institute while their new church in Grosvenor Square was under construction. The church contained 1,090 sittings and in the mid-Victorian years it was supported by some of Manchester's wealthiest Scottish families such as the Barbours and the Bannermans. By the end of the nineteenth century it was generally regarded as the main Presbyterian Church in Manchester. In 1940 the decision was taken to close the church, the congregation being united with Withington Presbyterian Church. During the war, it was taken over by the Ministry of Food and used, for a time, as a store for potato sacks. It ended its days as a warehouse for a paint and wallpaper firm before being demolished in 1974. Today, no visible evidence of the church remains on the site but visitors to Grosvenor St Aidan's United Reform Church, Didsbury, the descendant of the Grosvenor Square Church, can see the contents of the metal canister which was buried during the laying of the foundation stone on 12th September, 1849. The church's brooding  silhouette can be seen haunting the skyline in Adolphe Valette's Hansom Cab at All Saints (1910).

TO CONTRACTORS, MASONS, and OTHERS – Parties desirous of tendering for the several works required in the erection of the New Presbyterian Church proposed to be built in Grosvenor Square, Oxford Road may inspect the Plans and Specifications on and after Monday the 14th inst. at the offices of Messrs STARKEY and CUFFLEY, architects, Pall, Mall, Manchester, where sealed tenders are to be forwarded, and addressed to the building committee on or before Friday the 25th of May. [Manchester Times 15 May 1849 page 1]

LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF A NEW PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH - On Wednesday last the foundation stone of a new church in Grosvenor-square was laid by Mr Robert Barbour. The church is arranged to contain 1,090 sittings, including 150 children. The body of the church will be approached by a handsome flight of steps from Grosvenor Square six feet above the street. A portico, spacious vestibule and stone staircase leading to the gallery are attached to the body of the church, which will be 72 feet by 51 feet. The sessions-house, vestry and schools will extend to the extreme depth of the land which is bounded by Chatham-street. The boys’ and girls’ schoolroom, when thrown together, will be 60 feet in length by 36 feet, with two spacious classrooms. A well-elevated gallery, three pews in depth, children’s gallery and library over, and a large lecture room under the body of the church, and of the same dimensions.  The style of architecture is Roman Corinthian. The front to Grosvenor-square has a portico in antis, with Corinthian columns and pilasters at each angle, surmounted by two cupolas which are to be executed in stone. The novelty of this part of the design is much more remarkable than either its appropriateness or its success. Not only are turrets or cupolas at the base angle of the pediment of a Grecian building wholly unauthorised in architecture, but they are totally opposed to the principles upon which its beauty depends. And in the present case, there is the further objection that the turrets themselves are exceedingly ugly piles, and, with their heavy and clumsy pillars and massive buttresses are about as little suited to the light and graceful elegance of a Corinthian building as anything that can be imagined. Besides, the architects have not merely introduced turrets into the design, but they actually seem inclined to bind them together by a blank curtain wall, thus giving to the edifice a square instead of angular termination; and producing as it seems to us, a most clumsy and awkward effect. We would fain hope that it is not yet too late to re-consider these parts of the design; for we are sure that the edifice would be much improved by their omission. Without them it would be in the main a handsome building; with them it is grossly disfigured by anomalies, which not only detract from the general design, but destroy those parts which are in themselves elegant graceful and Grecian. Let anyone cut off these turrets from the engraving of the building, and he will at once see that though placed on the edifice, they are not of it. The flank elevation is in keeping with the front; having Corinthian pilasters and round-headed windows. The church is to be built of Yorkshire ashlar stone and the schools in wall stone. The interior of the church will be carried out in accordance with the general design and will be somewhat elaborate. The architects are Messrs Starkey & Cuffley of Manchester. [Manchester Guardian 15 September 1849: Page 9]

The foundation stone of a new church was laid in Grosvenor-square on Wednesday week. It will be arranged to contain 1,090 sittings, including those of 150 children. The body of the edifice will be approached by a flight of steps from the square 6 feet above the street. The length of it will be 72 feet and breadth 51 feet. A further mass of building for sessions-house, vestry and schools will extend to the extreme depth of the land bounded by Chatham-street 60 feet in length by 36 feet. A large lecture room is to extend under the body of the church, and be of the same dimension. The design appears to be somewhat curious. It is thus described in a Manchester paper: “The style of architecture is Roman Corinthian. The front to Grosvenor-square has a portico in antis, with Corinthian columns and pilasters at each angle, surmounted by two cupolas which are to be executed in stone. The novelty of this part of the design is much more remarkable than either its appropriateness or its success. Not only are turrets or cupolas at the base angle of the pediment of a Grecian building wholly unauthorised in architecture, but they are totally opposed to the principles upon which its beauty depends. And in the present case, there is the further objection that the turrets themselves are exceedingly ugly piles, and, with their heavy and clumsy pillars and massive buttresses are about as little suited to the light and graceful elegance of a Corinthian building as anything that can be imagined. Besides, the architects have not merely introduced turrets into the design, but they actually seem inclined to bind them together by a blank curtain wall, thus giving to the edifice a square instead of angular termination; and producing as it seems to us, a most clumsy and awkward effect. We would fain hope that it is not yet too late to re-consider these parts of the design; for we are sure that the edifice would be much improved by their omission.” The architects are Messrs Starkey & Cuffley of Manchester. [The Builder 22 September 1849: Page 451]

NEW PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND SCHOOLS IN GROSVENOR SQUARE - …. The church has its main entrance from Grosvenor Square, and its flank elevation to Devonshire Street, while it is raised upon a stylobate, being six feet above the level of the road; and the approach is by a flight of steps extending along the main front. The elevation to Grosvenor Square forms an important feature forming a portico, with two fluted Corinthian columns in antae surmounted by enriched pediment and modillions; the recess of the portico, and the spaces between the pilasters are executed in bold, double sunk rustics. From the portico there are three entrances to the vestibule, the middle one having a prominent architectural effect. The elevation to Devonshire Street has five recessed arched windows, imposts and archivolts, Corinthian pilasters, with corresponding windows on the other side. The most novel feature of this church is the two cupolas, which have undergone a good deal of criticism; but it is the opinion of the architects, that without these the ecclesiastical character of the building could not have been so successfully sustained. [We have met with other persons of a different opinion.] These cupolas are recessed from the front about ten feet, and are raised immediately above the projecting pilasters of the side elevation, having inverted consoles for their bases, from which spring no less than sixteen Corinthian columns, with corresponding archivolts, and with ballisters(sic) in each opening. Their roofs rise to a curved altitude, and are surrounded each with a gilded ball. The interior of the church is approached from a spacious vestibule by two entrances leading into the aisles. The area between the walls measure 72 feet by 51 feet, and the pews are commodiously constructed and arranged. The inside wall before which the pulpit stands, has been relieved by an architectural design consisting of Corinthian and Ionic columns, with ornate accompaniments surrounded, by which a window of stained glass, variegated with Grecian scrolls and arabesques, rises immediately above and behind the pulpit. The ceiling is divided into compartments with a deep cornice. The gallery of the church is approached by a commodious stone staircase; and, in addition to the pews, has a compartment for the accommodation of the Sabbath school children. Besides that chief part of the edifice devoted to public worship, there are contained also in the building a variety of apartments, suitable for other congregational uses. There is an ample session-house, with a convenient vestry. There is also a hall under the church, and co-extensive with its area, from eleven to twelve feet in height, well-lighted, and in every way fitted for lecture, and prayer, and other social meetings, or, if need be, for the accommodation of the Sabbath school children. There is besides, a library-room of good dimensions, situated in the higher part of the building above the vestibule. The schools, which are separated from the church by the session-house and vestry, consist of a school-room for boys, and another for girls, with smaller attached class-rooms; the whole capable of containing, according to the proportions sanctioned by government inspectors, 450 children. These schools, as well as the church, are well lighted heated and ventilated. An iron railing incloses the whole of the building. The stone of which the exterior of the edifice has been erected was procured from Kershaw’s quarry, near Huddersfield, all of which has been set upon its natural bed, and few specimens of equal workmanship can be found in Manchester or the district. The carving of the Corinthian capitals is beautifully executed. The architects are Messrs Starkey and Cuffley, of Manchester. The cost of the whole building, church and schools, including £2,800 for the site, will altogether amount to about £12,500, of which £10,000 has already been subscribed. The church was opened for public use on Sunday last. [Manchester Examiner and Times, Tuesday 24 December 1850 page 5]

Reference    Manchester Guardian 9 May 1849 Page 1 – contracts
Reference    Manchester Times 15 May 1849 page 1
Reference    Manchester Guardian 15 September 1849 Page 9 Col 2. foundation
Reference    Builder 22 September 1849: Page 451
Reference    Manchester Examiner and Times, Tuesday 24 December 1850 page 5