Roman Catholic Church Of St Augustine

Roman Catholic Church of St Augustine, Lower Ormond Street, Manchester

Built in 1967-8 by the architectural practice Desmond Williams & Associates, this Roman Catholic church replaces an earlier parish church destroyed during the Manchester Blitz of 1940. The original St Augustine's, established at Granby Row in 1820, was one of Manchester's oldest Catholic churches. After its sale in 1905 to make way for the Municipal Technical College and the subsequent loss of the York Street replacement in 1940, the parish worshipped in a former Methodist chapel acquired in the 1870s. The new church was funded partly through a grant from the War Damage Commission at a total cost of £138,000, and was opened in 1968 and consecrated in 1970.

The building is constructed from load-bearing dark brown brick with felt roofs supported on Vierendeel girders. The rear range combines brick and timber cladding. The main body of the church is virtually square, with a rear corridor leading to a cross wing containing offices and accommodation.

The exterior presents a striking modern design. The front façade is windowless, with a floating service projection to the left and four full-height brick fins to the right of a wide recessed central entrance reached by a low flight of steps. A ceramic plaque with a star and mitre adorns the projection, while a figure of the Madonna by sculptor Robert Brumby is set into the inner face of the left-hand fin. Set-back returns on either side comprise six bays divided by pairs of projecting slim brick piers, with openings between the pairs filled with coloured chipped French glass. A secondary entrance beneath a large cantilevered canopy occupies the first bay of the left return. A slender linking block contains the sacristy, and a bell tower rises from the parish rooms block. The rear presbytery range, containing a first-floor hall, meeting rooms, kitchen, chaplaincy offices, and accommodation for four priests, is of lesser architectural interest.

The interior reverses the conventional church orientation within a simple box plan. The ceiling consists of steel trusses clad with timber, with clerestory north lights providing illumination. The sanctuary comprises three stepped platforms with a white marble altar set forward, dominated by a large ceramic reredos sculpture of Christ in Majesty, also by Robert Brumby. Bays containing either projecting confessionals or chapel recesses are divided by pairs of projecting slim brick piers. Deeply recessed within full-height narrow slots in each pair are windows of coloured glass chips in free abstract designs by the Whitefriars Studio, with colours ranging from blue at the west end through yellow to red at the east end. Fixed seating is arranged in an angular U-shape surrounding the sanctuary. A side chapel sits to the left, with a narthex to the rear. The west gallery above, originally with seating, now houses the organ.

The church's artistic scheme is unified under Robert Brumby's direction, extending to the external plaque and statue, interior holy water stoups, wall light brackets, a circular font with ceramic inset and aluminium lid, an altar table with bronze inset, and possibly the Stations of the Cross sculptures. Brumby also created a memorial plaque fashioned from mangled plate damaged in the Blitz, commemorating the earlier parish church that this building replaced. The interiors of ancillary rooms are not of special architectural interest. The design reflects innovations in church planning following the Second Vatican Council of 1962-5.