The church, which was built in 1826 and designed by architect John Palmer, now forms the cathedral's nave.

[1] In the early 1930s, fundraising began to enlarge the cathedral so that the building complemented its newfound importance.

Forsyth in 1950, architect Laurence King joined the project and designed the distinctive lantern tower.

The lantern tower, which consists of 56 different panes of coloured glass, with a modernist slender aluminium spire, was completed in 1967.

This could mean that they were removed to a builder's yard after the Dissolution, but with the cathedral not being built until the 19th century, this allows for the possibility that they had lain unused for some 300 years.

On Sundays the Parish Communion is sung by the YPC and the Eucharist and Evensong by the Cathedral Choir.

Its debut was on 28 February 1828, with a concert of works by Handel including extracts from the Messiah, Israel in Egypt and his Occasional Overture, played by the new organist Joseph John Harris.

Previous organists have included Henry Smart, Richard Henry Coleman, Charles Hylton Stewart, Herman Brearley, Thomas Lucas Duerden, John Bertalot, David Anthony Cooper, Gordon Stewart, Richard Tanner and Samuel Hudson.

Further work was carried out in 2000–01 to re-build the east end roofs and parapets and blend them into the existing structures.

The sculpture by Mark Jalland, The Healing of The Nations, measuring 35 by 26 feet (10.7 m × 7.9 m), is an abstract steel and copper circular piece containing thousands of interwoven fibre optics that create ever-changing patterns of light at night.

It is topped with a bishop's mitre finial, painted and gilded in gold leaf with the Lancashire Rose emblem.