A red brick Gothic Revival building of some architectural quality by the prolific firm of Sinnott, Sinnott & Powell, with some good internal furnishings.

The church was conceived as a memorial to Fr Henry Cooke, who had extended the Catholic mission in Southport from 1859. The land was given by the Scarisbrick family and the foundation stone was laid in 16 October 1892. In 19995 the church was reordered by O’Mahony-Fozard architects.

Description

The church and presbytery were built in 1893 from designs by Sinnott, Sinnott & Powell. Of hard red brick with stone dressings, slate roofs. Northwest tower with an inset truncated or unfinished octagonal spire of stone, buttresses along the sides which break through the eaves, shallow transepts, and chancel flanked by single-bay chapels with catslide roofs. Reticulated window tracery freely treated, that to the west incorporating a cross motif.

The interior has a narthex, west gallery, and a hammerbeam roof. Small chapels with stone altars flank the chancel which has a marble altar and pinnacled timber reredos with  probably  early  twentieth century painting. The church has a good collection of stained glass, including three figurative windows in the northwest and southwest aisles designed by Patrick Reyntiens in the mid-1970s.

Heritage Details