Church of St Mary, Hulme

The Church of St Mary, Upper Moss Lane, Hulme, Manchester, is a Gothic Revival former church by J. S. Crowther built in 1853–58. It was designated a Grade II* listed building on 3 October 1974. The church was consecrated on 13th November 1858 by James Prince Lee, the first Bishop of Manchester. The church is of "coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings (and a) slate roof". It is in early 14th century geometrical style, following "Lincolnshire exemplars". The soaring spire, 241 feet (73 m) high, making it the 18th tallest church in the United Kingdom and tenth-tallest structure in Manchester, is one of south Manchester's major landmarks. The church was designed to accommodate 1000 people, with 692 free places and 308 appropriated places. Part of a group of Victorian buildings, including a listed rectory, the Pevsner Buildings of England volume for Manchester describes the church as having "stood through two complete cycles of urban decay, dereliction, destruction and renewal, standing alone amid utter desolation in the 1960s and again in the 1990s". At the time of listing it was used by an African Methodist Evangelical congregation, but it has since been converted into flats, its interior "horribly divided".