Manchester Monastery Restored as a Conference Hall

A monastery in Manchester, which was previously listed as one of the world's 100 most endangered sites has been fully restored - but as a conference hall.

|PIC1|The historic building which was built between 1863 and 1872 for Franciscan monks who had come to serve the local Catholic community has since been dubbed the 'Taj Mahal of Manchester'.

Designed by Edward Pugin, Gorton Monastery was put on the World Monuments Fund Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites in the World in 1997.

A total of £6m has been spent in order to fully renovate the Grade II listed building .

The Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Regional Development Fund and English Heritage have all helped to finance the project along with the North West Regional Development Agency and the Architectural Heritage Fund.

The monastery went into decline in the 1970s as a redevelopment of the area led to a lot of the surrounding population moving away, and the BBC tell that in 1989 just six friars remained and the building was sold to property developers.

It has now been arranged for the historic building to be used as a 500-seater conference hall to serve the north-west of England.

Robert Hough, chairman of the urban regeneration company New East Manchester, described the monastery as one of Manchester's hidden treasures, according to the BBC.

"It is truly wonderful that Pugin's architectural masterpiece will take its place as one of the city's newest and most inspiring cultural venues," he said.

The monastery is just one of seventy churches in England and Scotland that architect Edward Pugin designed in his life time.