The Monastery

There are just a handful of buildings in the world where the feelings of love and peace embrace you as soon as you walk through the door. HRH The Prince of Wales captured that feeling perfectly, when he said “I find that just being here lifts my spirits and makes me feel that anything is possible”.

There was magic in the air when the Franciscans first came to Gorton in 1861, with visions of a great friary at the heart of the community. Architect Edward Pugin’s inspiration led to astonishing tales of sacred geometry that we still wonder at today. The biggest story, though, is of the building’s miraculous survival against all odds.

The Monastery became derelict when the congregation moved away in the 1970s, as the landscape of Manchester changed. After more than a century of being at the heart of a thriving community, The Monastery was put on the list of the World’s 100 Most Endangered Sites, alongside the Taj Mahal and the ancient ruins of Pompeii.

Then a group of extraordinary volunteers stepped forward and, over two long decades, the impossible was achieved and this magnificent sanctuary was brought back from oblivion. Our mission is to serve a community that is now even bigger, with reach far beyond the boundaries of Gorton.