2-854-324 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

Cathedral Church of St Mary, Fennel Street, Manchester, 1942. An interior view of Manchester Cathedral, or St Mary's Cathedral Church, showing the east end of the nave. Originally a collegiate parish church built between c1422 and 1520, the church received cathedral status in 1847. It underwent restoration or rebuilding between 1814-1815, 1862-1868, 1885-1886 and 1898. The cathedral has a west tower with a west porch and choir rooms, an aisled nave with north and south chapels and porches. The choir and presbytery are aisled, and have chapels north of the north aisle, and a vestry, library, chapter house and chapel south of the south aisle. To the east is a rectrochoir and lady chapel. The aisled nave has six bays and at the eastern end is a rood screen, erected by Bishop Stanley and re-worked by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1872. It has a central entrance flanked by three two light openings on each side. The parapet above was added by Scott, and has a projecting octagonal section. In the image, a screen or fabric hangs over the rood screen. The cathedral church was damaged during bombing in the Second World War.