Former Church Of St Peter

The Former Church of St Peter is a disused church located on Blossom Street in Ancoats, Manchester. It was built between 1859 and 1860 by Isaac Holden & Son and is designed in the Romanesque style. The structure is made of red brick with white brick dressings and features slate roofs.

The church has a nave with an apsidal east end, flanked by north and south aisles and transepts, and a north-west tower. The tall square campanile tower has a very tall first stage and a belfry stage, which is separated by a cornice. The first stage has panelled sides adorned with Lombard friezes, a large round-headed doorway on the north side with set-in shafts, a keystone, and double doors featuring ornamental strap hinges. Above the doorway is a round-headed lancet, with a very small lancet near the top. The belfry stage has round-headed 2-light louvred windows and a stylised polychrome frieze, along with a small round-headed window flanked by lancets. The top stage has a swept pyramidal roof.

The aisles are four bays wide, with sill-bands beneath the round-headed windows, which have imposts linked to raised panels hanging from the Lombard frieze. The low gabled transepts feature stepped tripartite windows in a similar style. The clerestory is arcaded with coupled windows set between blind arches. All windows have white brick heads, and most were boarded up at the time of the survey.

The interior was not inspected, but it has been reported by Pevsner to contain five lofty bays supported by thin cast-iron columns and semi-circular brick arches. The roof is described as superb, featuring a segmental plaster vault with slight coffers divided into bays by four elegant cast-iron trusses with enriched spandrels. The bench ends are also made of cast iron.