About The Monastery

The Monastery was built between 1863 and 1872 by Franciscan Brothers who had come to to serve the growing local Catholic community. Designed by Edward Pugin, whose father helped design the Houses of Parliament, Monastery is considered one of his finest achievements.

The congregation grew rapidly and for over 120 years the Monastery was at the heart of the community, the hub for religious, social and cultural events.

The decline of industry during the 1960s and 70s took the heart out of the community. With a dwindling congregation, the Franciscans eventually gave up their precious Monastery in 1989 and, after a property developer’s scheme for apartments failed, it was left prey to significant vandalism and theft. Within just seven years it became a ruin.

The Monastery of St Francis & Gorton Trust was formed in 1996 by local volunteers who wanted to save these Grade II* listed buildings from further dereliction and give it a new use in the future. The Monastery Trust purchased the buildings for £1, plus liabilities.

The Trust’s Social Enterprise Company, The Monastery Manchester, makes the buildings available as a venue for a wide range of events. These include community & charitable events, concerts, weddings, awards dinners, fashion shows, meetings & conferences. 100% of profits from all events are donated back to the Trust.

The Monastery has received national recognition for the quality of its events. At the prestigious events industry ‘Oscars’ - The Meetings & Incentive Travel Awards – the Monastery has made history as the only venue ever to achieve Gold and Silver Awards in the same category over a five year period, for Best Unusual UK Venue. Its volunteers were recognised with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2013.

The Welcome Wing was the final phase of the development, multi-purpose by design, complete with a beautiful Atrium entrance, reception area, cloakrooms and washrooms. The wing includes a permanent café, bar and food service area creating a great networking space, drinks reception area and flexible meeting space, with access to the internal Cloister garden. In keeping with our ambition to gain the coveted ISO 20121 Sustainability Event Management certification, the new 6,600 sq. ft. building is carbon neutral by design. This was made possible by a major grant of almost £2million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £1 million from The Stoller Charitable Trust alongside other generous donations. This £3 million project will protect the buildings as a resource for future generations and will provide essential educational, community and visitor facilities to ensure that the Monastery can be open every day for everyone. Directions...

By Car from Manchester; Take the A635 Ashton Old Road or A57 Hyde Road to the A1060 Inner Ring Road. Turn there following the How to find us brown tourist Monastery signs and look out for the green spire.

Bury New Road A56 By Car into Manchester; To M60 (J17) To M60 (J22) From the M60, junction 24 follow

To M60 (J20) A57 into Manchester. At the A6010

Bury Old Road A665 Rochdale Road A664 Inner Ring Road turn right and follow Monastery signs, look out 042 A6 y a Great Street A665 for the green spire. W y it Oldham Road A62 n Victoria Alan Turing Way A6010 ri T Station City of Manchester To Salford Stadium To M60 (Junction 23) By Rail; Chapel St A6 A66 Road 2 ew From Manchester Piccadilly Station N MANCHESTER Ashton Newn Road to sh take a 5 minute taxi journey or the CITY CENTRE A A56 Piccadilly 205 Bus (which takes 10 minutes) Station To M602 and stops directly outside Regent Road A57 M The Monastery. ancunian W Fairfield Street B6469 ay A57M Devonshire Street Ashton Old Road A635 To M60 (Junction 23) By Air; Manchester International Airport is M ancunian W ay A5 20 minutes by car. Follow the M56 To M56 / M6 7M

Chester Road A56 to Manchester, then the M60 Upper Brook Street A34 Hyde Road A57 Gorton Lane A6010 towards Stockport leaving the motorway at Junction 24 following

Princess Road A5103 Road Princess Stockport Road A6 the directions above.

Plymouth Grove A5184 Manchester

To M60 (Junction 24) ToM6 / M56 The Monastery Manchester To M60 (J4 To M60 (J1) To M60 (J4) Gorton Lane Manchester M12 5WF Tel 0161 223 3211 [email protected] www.themonastery.co.uk