Church of St George, Chester Road, Hulme

Church of St George, Chester Road, Hulme

The Church of St George, Chester Road, Hulme, Manchester is an early Gothic Revival church by Francis Goodwin, built in 1826-8. It was restored in 1884 by J. S. Crowther. It was designated a Grade II* listed building on 3 October 1974.^[1]

The church was a Commissioners' church, who allotted the sum of £15,000 for construction.^[2] Goodwin was an obvious choice for architect having already undertaken a number of churches in the Midlands and the North West, as well as the original Manchester Town Hall. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner considers that Goodwin's inspiration was Nicholas Hawksmoor's St Michael, Cornhill and that "the whole makes a lively and memorable picture".^[2] A six-bay nave with "high three-light Perpendicular windows"^[2] concludes with a tall tower at the west end, and two high pinnacles at the east. Porches are set at the northwest and southwest corners.^[2]

Drawing from Pevsner, the English Heritage inspectors who listed the building in 1974, without an internal inspection, stated that the interior was "reported as having: galleries; Perpendicular arcades; [and a] wall monument to The Hon. George Berkeley Molyneux (d.1841), by Edward Physick, in form of soldier mourning beside urn."^[1]

A declining inner-city population in the post-war period, combined with the increasing isolation of the church caused by major road construction in its vicinity, led to St George's closure in 1984.^[3] A "twenty-year search for a use which would preserve the interior ... proved fruitless and the building was converted to flats (in) 2000–2. The interior can no longer be read as a whole." ^[2]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} http://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-388005-church-of-st-george-manchester
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Hartwell et al. 2004, p 451
3. ^ http://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/outside/stgeorge.html

References

• Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2004), Lancashire: Manchester and the South East, The Buildings of England, New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10583-5 

Coordinates: 53°28′20″N 2°15′33″W / 53.4721°N 2.2593°W / 53.4721; -2.2593