While it was described as "the finest modern specimen of ornamental brickwork in the kingdom" when it was built, Nikolaus Pevsner described it as "a crazy effort in blue brick.

"[3] It is a Grade II* listed building, located on London Road close to the Grosvenor Roundabout.

[4] After the Reformation, from the early 1700s the nearest place for Catholics to celebrate Mass was at Chesterton Hall, the house of the Macclesfield family.

Later, in the early 1800s, Catholics went to a room in the Shakespeare Hotel, Brunswick Street, to celebrate Mass.

On 13 May 1834, Bishop Thomas Walsh, the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District opened the church.