Salford Cathedral reopens after £20m restoration

A city's cathedral is set to reopen after a £20m restoration project which has taken six years.

Salford Cathedral, officially known as St John the Evangelist Cathedral, will be reopened to the public on 4 July.

The project included repairs to stonework, roofs and stained-glass windows and implemented measures aimed at making the building environmentally sustainable.

"The parish are going to be absolutely blown away," Pauline Morgan chief operating officer for the diocese, told BBC Radio Manchester. "It is going to be an amazing place for them to come back and worship in."

Morgan said the first services back in the cathedral were expected to be emotional.

"The Sunday Mass, when the bishop celebrates and the choir are back in here, you'll have everything coming together. The music, the congregation and the worship in such beautiful surroundings," she said.

Conservation architect Christopher Cotton said the project had focused on repairing the cathedral's historical structure, restoring its interior, and making the building more environmentally sustainable.

"There were moments during heavy rainfall when water was pouring into the cathedral under the central tower," he said.

"There were essential external repairs to be done to the building, to make it structurally sound, wind, and watertight."

As part of efforts to reduce the cathedral's carbon footprint, new insulation and energy-efficient heating systems have been installed throughout the Grade II listed building.

Secondary glazing has also been installed to improve energy efficiency and protect the historical glass.

Inside the cathedral, years of water damage had left plaster falling from walls, while previous renovations had obscured many of the cathedral's original features.

Much of the stonework had been painted white during the 20th Century, leaving what Cotton described as a "blank land and mute building".

But specialist teams have now spent years removing layers of paint, uncovering historic details and restoring colour to the interior.

Cotton said visitors would now see a cathedral "full of light and colour".

One of the most significant changes has been the repositioning of the cathedral's sanctuary and altar to create a more "coherent worship space", he said.

Construction director Mark Cregan described the scheme as one of the most comprehensive restoration projects he had worked on.

"Not a piece of stone hasn't been touched, internal or external," he said.

Among the challenges faced by the team was the discovery of tombs and burials beneath the cathedral floor during the work to install a new underfloor heating system.

Cregan said archaeologists and specialist craftspeople from across the country, including joiners, blacksmiths and stonemasons, were brought in to assist with the work.

"Everyone who's worked in it says it's a project of a career," he added.

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