Chapel Building, Loreto College

Roman Catholic chapel built 1874–1876 for Loreto College on Chichester Road. The architect was Herbert Edward Tijou, and the builder and contractor was James Herd of 69 Bristol Street, Hulme. The sanctuary mosaic dates from 1946 and was created by Ludwig Oppenheimer of Old Trafford. The building is designed in Victorian Gothic style.

The exterior is constructed of grey, orange and red brick laid in header bond with stretcher decorative bands. Window surrounds are moulded brick, and panels of diagonal patterned brickwork appear below the upper chapel windows. Painted stonework forms bands around the windows, and window tracery is present throughout. An east end cross crowns the building. Hoodmoulds with head stops—paired male and female figures representing church, monarchy and other themes—project from the window heads. A moulded stone eaves cornice runs around the building, with projecting rainwater spouts. The roof is blue slate, pyramidal at the east end and surmounted by a metal cross, with pierced ridge tiles.

The building comprises two tall storeys. The east end is canted, and the west end features a gable with a lower west stair and organ loft bay. Five bays are present, including the west staircase bay with organ loft above; the chapel rises prominently over the ground floor. The south side is attached to the original convent house and has a side wall chimney, now reduced in height. The north side ground floor is largely obscured by a 1970s college reception area, where the brickwork has been plastered and painted. An arched recess provides access to stairs descending to the ground floor, and a second archway connects to the rear west corridor and chapel staircase.

A dedication panel in painted stone at the east end reads: "+ SSMO / CORDI JESU / DEI PARAE / in / DOMO LAURETANA / ET / BEATO / MICHAELI / ARCHANGELO / DICATA".

Interior

The chapel is accessed from the west end bay via a late 19th-century timber straight-flight staircase with turned balusters, leading to a wood block floor. A stained glass window of eight lights occupies the west wall of the stair, depicting religious figures in frames with foliage. A holy water stoup stands to the left of the chapel entrance, and stone steps in the north wall lead to the organ loft.

The wooden double entrance doors are original, featuring large panels and elaborate brass fittings. The chapel floor is obscured by carpeting. Two steps lead up to the sanctuary, with one additional step to the altar.

The interior is richly decorated throughout with tiling, moulded stone strings and mosaics. Glazed tiles are ornamented with quatrefoils and raised lettering spelling "M" and "IHE". A moulded stone string at head height runs around the west, north and south walls, continuing over the entrance door and the south side-chapel and vestry door, but not across the east end. Above this is a tiled band in green and brown with fleurs de lis, topped by a moulded string and brown tiles. The upper levels display mosaics extending to eaves level, consisting of rectangular framed panels in cream with blue motifs and symbols including chi-rho and crosses. The stations of the cross appear on the side walls. The east end mosaics depict walling and cusped lights opening to a starry sky, with a row of portrait heads looking down from an impost frieze. A tall central arch is surmounted by a dove.

Low stone corbels carved with angels holding musical instruments and scrolls in high relief support the ribbed and boarded timber roof.

The north side of the nave has four 2-light windows; the south side has one 2-light window. Two 2-light sanctuary windows flank the reredos. Stained glass in the side walls features fruit and flower motifs, with lettering recording donations by Robert and Josephine McCuchion, Anna and Rachel Woodcock, Francis and Emma Noble, and Anna and Carolus Whittacker. At the east end, stained glass depicting the Annunciation and the Assumption—both with the words "Orate pro benefactibus nostris"—shows figures in canopies with quatrefoils above.

The altar and reredos form a high, elaborately carved canopy with niches containing a crucifix and angels holding symbols of the crucifixion. A brass plaque at the left end records a donation by Martha Donadio. The south side chapel contains a mosaic representing a nun and the Sacred Heart, with a carved stone panel below; the altar is not visible. A doorway in the west wall appears to link to the house.

The large room below the chapel, probably originally the dining room, has three east windows with transom and mullion tracery. A moulded eaves cornice runs around the walls, and a blocked fireplace stands in the south wall.

History

Irish Roman Catholic families settled in Hulme during the 1840s. Canon Toole, Rector of St Wilfred's church, requested assistance from the nuns of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Loreto Convent in Dublin to establish schools in the area. The Order had been founded by Mary Ward (1585–1645) to provide a religious life for women dedicated to education. Six nuns arrived in Hulme on 3 October 1851 and moved into the Convent building in 1853.

Margaret Mary Joseph Alphonsa Ellis (1825–1905) ran the Convent School from 1856 and was described as "one of the leading Catholic educationalists in the Diocese of Salford. She was identified for over 50 years with every movement in connection with the primary and secondary education of girls."

The chapel was built in 1874–1876, and a High Grade School was established in a new building on the site in the 1880s. The nuns were also involved in six primary schools in the area. In 1899 a centre for pupil teachers was established, and by 1905 the buildings on the site included a flourishing boarding and day secondary school alongside the pupil teachers' centre. In that year, the Mother Superior was succeeded by Mary Joseph Alphonsa Ellis (1849–1910), who during her five-year tenure oversaw new buildings at Loreto. According to her obituary, "The new buildings at Loreto speak for themselves, a standing memorial of her untiring thought and energy."

The school became a Direct Grant Secondary School for Girls in 1921 and operated as a Direct Grant Girls Grammar School between 1944 and 1977. The buildings were reportedly damaged by bombing during the Second World War (1939–1945), and the chapel sanctuary mosaics were completed in 1946. Following a major reorganisation of Catholic education in Manchester, the school became the Loreto co-educational sixth-form college in 1977.

The Loreto Sisters of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary continue to run colleges throughout the world.

Herbert Edward Tijou, the chapel's architect (died 1885), was a pupil of Francis Thomas Dollman (1812–1899). Tijou also designed Lea Grange, Blackley; St William's church; St Wilfred's schools in the Manchester neighbourhood; St Mary's presbytery and school, Swinton; St Mary of the Angels Roman Catholic church, Levenshulme (1882–1883); and St Andrew's church, Monton Road, Eccles (tower by J.S. Crowther). His address in 1868 was 9 Clarence Street, Cheetham.