Conservation & Heritage Issue 52 Summer/Autumn 2026 - Flipbook - Page 30
Restoring the Glory:
The Floor at the Heart of
Salford Cathedr al
As Salford Cathedral completes one of the most ambitious restorations of a Victorian
church in the country, the architect, main contractor, tile-maker, quarry and adhesive
manufacturer all point to the same thing: the exceptional precision of the heritage floor
installation delivered by specialist contractor ABM Tiling.
When the Diocese of Salford commissioned the restoration
of the Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist under
the banner “Restoring the Glory”, the brief carried two
distinct but inseparable ambitions: to return the Victorian
cathedral to something like its original splendour after
decades of unsympathetic alteration, and to make it the most
sustainable historic cathedral in the country.
the other driving philosophy — about being the UK’s most
sustainable cathedral. We explored, right from the outset, the
idea of replacing the entire heating system with underfloor
heating, and installing insulation, as well as power and data,
under the floor at the same time.”
Nowhere in the building do those two ambitions converge
more completely than beneath the visitor’s feet. The poorquality 1950s concrete floor was lifted in its entirety and
replaced with a new heritage floor — installed over a Jupiter
dry underfloor heating system — the first time the cathedral
has been continuously heated since 1850. Above that hidden
infrastructure sits the visible result: handcrafted encaustic
tiles by Craven Dunnill Jackfield of Ironbridge, set within
contrasting Grub and Thornback Purbeck limestone
Cathedral Architect Christopher Cotton and Project
Architects Purcell had been working with the Diocese
since around 2018. Conservation architect and partner
Tom Brigden, Purcell, describes how the project’s driving
philosophy shaped every decision that followed: “The
objective was to restore this cathedral back to something like
its original state, after it had been mistreated over a period
of about 50 years. And that also worked hand-in-hand with
The completed nave floor at Salford Cathedral: Craven Dunhill Jackfield encaustic
tiles set within Haysom Purbeck stone, installed by ABM Tiling.
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