The Edgar Wood Centre is a former

Church of Christ, Scientist The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,'' and founder of Christian Science. The church was founded "to commemorate the word an ...

building in

Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to: Places Australia * Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales * Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse * Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. The church was designed by

Edgar Wood Edgar Wood (17 May 1860 – 1935) was a British architect, artist and draftsman who practised from Manchester at the turn of the 20th century and gained a considerable reputation in the United Kingdom. He was regarded as a proponent of the A ...

in 1903.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

considered it "the only religious building in Lancashire that would be indispensable in a survey of twentieth century church design in all England". It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and has been on the

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for actio ...

published by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

History

The building was designed by the architect

for the Christian Scientists' first church in Britain. Construction began in 1903–4. A shortage of space and money led to modifications to the design, and further work took place in 1905–7.

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...

described the church as "one of the most original buildings of that time in England, or indeed anywhere". The church was decorated by bronze lettering of parts of the Bible and works by

Mary Baker Eddy Mary Baker Eddy (July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910) was an American religious leader and author who founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, in New England in 1879. She also founded ''The Christian Science Monitor'', a Pulitzer Prize-winning s ...

, an Arabic organ screen, and chairs designed by Wood. It was designed by Edgar Wood in

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

style with

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

details, and later used as offices. It is in red brick, partly rendered, with a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof. The building has a Y-shaped plan, with a main range and two splayed wings, and with a cylindrical turret with a conical roof in an angle. In the

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

end is a semicircular-headed doorway with splayed

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

sides, above which is a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

-shaped window. At the other end is a porch with a segmental-headed arch. In the roof are tall

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

windows. The Grade-II listed gateway, designed by Wood in Art Nouveau style, is also red brick with some sandstone, and a

roof. It consists of a segmental arch with a steep gable containing a small semi-cylindrical

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...

. At the sides are canted

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es with flat tops. There is a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

to Wood on the gateway. The church closed in 1971 and was heavily vandalised before reopening as the Edgar Wood Centre in 1975. In turn, this closed in 2003, and the building is currently used as a

Universal Church of the Kingdom of God The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG; pt, Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, IURD) is an evangelical charismatic Christian denomination with its headquarters at the Temple of Solomon in São Paulo, Brazil. The church was founded in ...

centre. It was placed on the ''English Heritage Register of Buildings at Risk 2007'', but is no longer listed as "At Risk". The church has been a

since 18 December 1963. Most of the furnishings and stained glass have been removed.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Edgar Wood Centre First Church of Christ, Scientist (Manchester) (now Edgar Wood Centre) First Church of Christ, Scientist (Manchester) (now Edgar Wood Centre) First Church of Christ, Scientist (Manchester) (now Edgar Wood Centre) First Church of Christ, Scientist (Manchester) (Edgar Wood Centre) First Church of Christ, Scientist (Manchester) (Edgar Wood Centre) First Church of Christ, Scientist (Manchester) (now Edgar Wood Centre)

History

See also

Notes

References