2-324-095 - www.picturethepast.org.uk/Nottingham Historical Film Unit /Heritage Images

Wellington Circus and St Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, c1870. St Barnabas Roman Catholic Cathedral was designed by AW Pugin, at a cost of £15,000, a substantial amount of this being paid by the prominent Catholic Lord Shrewsbury. Pugin was a Catholic convert with little formal architectural training. His architectural theories and practice transformed English church building (he was also famed for his Houses of Parliament interiors). Despite his death at just 40, he both galvanised the British Gothic Revival and stimulated Gothic revivals internationally. Within a few years of his death, Gothic revival architecture had become a worldwide movement. Saint Barnabas' Cathedral is considered to be one of his three best churches. The foundation stone was laid in November 1842 and the Cathedral consecrated on 27th and 28th August 1844. The plan of the church is cruciform, and is one hundred and ninety feet long from east to west. It was first consecrated in 1842, thirteen years after the repeal of the ban on Catholicism in the United Kingdom. With the establishment of a new Catholic hierarchy in the UK in 1850 it was raised to Cathedral status. It is the seat of the Bishop of Nottingham. The Convent and Schools adjoining are dedicated to 'Our Lady of Mercy,' and are located to the rear of the Cathedral. A notable person associated with the Cathedral is The Venerable Mary Potter, who is revered as Nottingham Cathedral's own 'saint in the making', along with her 'Little Company of Mary'. Her work began in 1877 in Hyson Green where she established the first Catholic religious congregation of women specifically dedicated to nursing. Mary Potter's care of the poor, the sick and the dying were recognised by the present pope in 1988 when he declared her to be venerable: the first stage in the process of sainthood. The mortal remains of the Venerable Mary Potter were re-buried in the north ambulatory of the Cathedral in 1997.