Building Name

St Peter’s Church, St Peter's Square, Manchester

Date
1788
Street
St Peter's Square
District/Town
Central, Manchester
County/Country
GMCA, England
Architect
Work
New Build
Status
Demolished 1907

 

Manchester’s increasing prosperity during the 1780s led to a boom in church building. New religious  structures erected in the last two decades of the eighteenth century included the original Wesleyan Chapel in Oldham Street; St James’s Church, George Street; St Michael’s, Angel Meadow; the Independent and Unitarian Chapels in Mosley Street; Sunday schools in Raikes Lane; and St Peter’s Church, St Peter’s Square, which should at the time have been more correctly called St Peter’s-in-the-Fields. St Peters was to be built at the termination of Mosley Street, in the centre of a spacious square, where two or more large streets were designed to branch.  Cole and Roper’s Map of Manchester and Salford of 1801 shows that seven years after the consecration of the church, St Peter’s Square had been formed, Oxford Street and Peter Street named, while Lower Mosley street is no more than an un-named track through the fields to Great Bridgewater Street. At the time of its construction, it was completely surrounded by open fields. The nearest building on the north side was the Presbyterian Academy in Dawson Street near its junction with Bond Street (now Princess Street) completed in 1786. On the south side it was almost all open country, the only building being "Cooper's Cottage" surrounded by a large garden (part of the site of the Midland Hotel). On the west were the open spaces afterwards known as St Peter's Fields, and on the east an almost continuous run of fields to the River Medlock. Oxford Street.

 

"We hear that the first stone of an intended new church in this town, to be called St, Peter's will be laid on Thursday next. The building is to be executed in stone after designs drawn by James Wyatt, Esq., of London, and wholly conducted under the direction of that eminent architect. There is therefore every reason to expect that this church, when completed will prove in a high degree commodious as a place of public worship and ornamental as an elegant structure." [Harrop Manchester Mercury 9 December 1788]

 

The first stone was laid with the usual ceremonies on Thursday December 11, 1788, by the Rev. Samuel Hall. A brass plate, enclosed between two sheets of lead, was fixed in the stone with the following inscription:  The first stone of an edifice to be consecrated to the service of God was laid on Thursday, the 11th day of December, in the year 1788,by the Rev. Samuel Hall, the intended minister, and a considerable number of the principal merchants and inhabitants of this town, liberal supporters of the pious work. Architect, James Wyatt, London* In point of situation this church, when completed, will enjoy peculiar advantages.

 

St. Peter's was consecrated on Saturday 6 September 1794. The event was briefly recorded in the local press and more extensively by De Quincy sixty years later.

 

On Saturday last the Church of St, Peter, in this town was consecrated by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop pf Chester (Dr William Cleaver), on which occasion his Lordship was pleased to express in the strongest terms his approbation of the decent and becoming elegance with which that beautiful structure has been finished. At the same time the Rev. Samuel Hill MA was duly nominated and appointed minister [Harrop Tuesday 9 September 1794]

 

When I must have been nearing my tenth year, and when St. Peter's had been finished, occurred the opening, and, consequently (as an indispensable pre-condition), the consecration of that edifice by the bishop of the diocese (viz.. Chester).  I, as a ward of the incumbent, was naturally amongst those specially invited to the festival; and I remember a little incident which exposed broadly the conflict of feelings inherited by the Church of England from the Puritans of the 17th century. The architecture of the church Grecian: and certainly, the enrichments, inside or outside, were few enough, neither florid nor obtrusive. But in the centre of the ceiling, for the sake of breaking the monotony of so large a blank white surface, there was moulded, in plaster of Paris, a large tablet or shield, charged with a cornucopia of fruits and flowers. And yet, when we were all assembled in the vestry waiting—rector, churchwardens. Architect, and trains of dependents — there arose deep buzz of anxiety, which soon ripened into an articulate expression of fear, that the bishop would think himself bound, like the horrid eikonoclasts of 1643, to issue his decree of utter averruncation to the simple decoration overhead. Fearfully did we all tread the little aisles in the procession of the prelate. Earnestly my lord looked upwards: but finally — were it courtesy, or doubtfulness to hie ground, or approbation —he passed on. [De Quincy: Confessions of an Opium Eater, 1856 edition page 17 footnote.]

 

St. Peter's Church erected by subscription among the inhabitants, and consecrated in 1794 is an edifice of Runcorn Stone, in the Grecian style, with a stately tower and a noble portico of the Doric order; the interior is remarkable for the elegance and chasteness of it' decoration. and the altar- piece is embellished with a fine painting of the Descent from the Cross, by Annibal Caracci.  According to Prebendary Finch Smith, Bishop Cleaver's approbation was not altogether shared by one of his successors at Chester - Bishop Gorge H. Law. The Prebendary remarked  "Certainly, expense was not spared in its construction but Wyatt was the architect who took in hand the "improvement" of Lichfield Cathedral, and a more correct ecclesiastical taste would describe the church as very hideous and ill- arranged, so far as worship was the object for which it was erected. The pulpit is of mahogany and formerly had what is called a sounding-board, an arrangement the benefit of which has long been questioned. The church was not meant for the poor, but for those who could pay highly for their seats, and the congregation was gathered from all parts. I remember Bishop Law styling them (for my father was incumbent for some years) as "Dr. Smith's Elegant Extracts." 

 

Canon C. W. Bardsley added that the church on its consecration "became at once the shrine to which the fashionable sinners of Mosley Street and Piccadilly turned their steps one day in seven." Down to the days of Dr. Jeremiah Smith the musical performances (if one may use such a lay expression) and greater attempt at refinement in the services made St Peter's the haunt of all the frequenters of the "Assembly Rooms" and fashionable idlers of the town.  It was place of resort rather than a "temple of worship."

 

Of the structure itself, Joseph Aston at the time of its erection holds forth with much enthusiasm and pardonable local pride, commenting - "This singularly elegant piece of architecture is built of Runcorn stone, and is of the Doric order. The portico, which terminates the prospect down Dawson Street and Mosley Street, is very fine; and if it was not fixed on too low a site, by which means only one half of the building is seen from Lever Row, it might almost be pronounced faultless. With this drawback it will command admiration whilst a taste for the fine arts is cultivated in this country." Wyatt, it seems wished to add a dome to the building, which, as Aston remarked, "would take away an objection some persons offer against the appearance of which, they say; is like a Grecian temple - a striking proof of its beauty.

 

The last service was held on Sunday in St. Peter's Church, at the junction of Mosley and Oxford-streets. As a district the parish of St. Peter has all but ceased to exist. Half a century ago the church was surrounded by many dwellings, but in 1901 the census showed a population for the whole parish of only 393. and at present the total is even lower. When the demolition of the church and the purchase of the site by the corporation for £20,000 was decided on, it was felt that the inevitable had happened. What the Corporation will do with the site is not yet known. St. Peter's Church has existed for 111 years, having been consecrated on September 6, 1795. Mr. Jas. Wyatt, of Manchester (sic), was the architect, and he adopted the Doric style. [Building News 31 August 1906 page 313]

 

Richard Harding Watt (qv) saved the columns of the church and incorporated them in his Elizabeth Gaskell Rooms in Knutsford. This is now the Belle Epoque restaurant

The Improvements Committee of the Manchester Corporation yesterday received a report from Mr T de Courcy Meade, the City Surveyor on the demolition of St Peter’s Church, Manchester. Mr Meade reported that on Tuesday he received from the contractors who have the work of pulling down the church in hand, a brass tablet, a silver coin, two bronze coins, and three bronze tokens, which were found in the external wall beneath the eastern window of the church. They were encased in lead, and were found by one of the workmen, the point of whose pick struck the tablet.  The tablet and coins are in an excellent state of preservation. The plate which is 13 inches by 10 inches bears the following inscription:

THE FIRST STONE OF AN EDIFICE
to be consecrated to the Service of God
was laid
On Thursday. 11 day of December
in the year 1788
by
The Revd. SAMUEL HALL, the intended minister,
and
a Considerable Number
of the Principal Merchants and Inhabitants
of this Town
Liberal Supporters of this Pious work
William Houghton Esq. Treasr. Jas. Wyatt Esq. Archt.

The coins and the tablet were placed in a cavity of the wall on the occasion of the foundation stone laying. They will be handed over to the Town Hall Committee and finally will probably be deposited in one of the museums.