Cross Street Chapel

[1] The Act of Uniformity 1662 imposed state control on religion by regulating the style of worship in the Church of England.

Ground was bought on 20 June at Plungen's Meadow (now Cross Street); the building was begun on 18 July, a gallery was added as a private speculation by agreement dated 12 February 1694, and the meeting-house was opened by Newcome on 24 June 1694.

[2] The "Dissenters' Meeting House" holds a special place in the growth of nonconformism within the city.

In 2012, the chapel became the first place of worship to be granted a civil partnership licence when the law changed in England.

Urban historian Harold L. Platt notes that in the Victorian period "The importance of membership in this Unitarian congregation cannot be overstated: as the fountainhead of Manchester Liberalism it exerted tremendous influence on the city and the nation for a generation.