Founded in 1790, St Mary's provides a range of inter-related services specifically for women and children.

The hospital was founded in 1790 by Dr Charles White in a house in Old Bridge Street, Salford, as the "Lying-in Charity".

Five years later in 1795 the charity became the Manchester Lying-in Hospital; it was accommodated however in the Bath Inn, Stanley Street, Salford.

[3] From 1855 to 1903, it occupied a new building on Quay Street which was erected at the expense of Dr Thomas Radford.

Home visiting of sick women and children, and clinical teaching of students from Owens College began at this time.

Radford had joined the hospital in 1818 as a man-midwife; from 1834 he was house surgeon extraordinary; from 1841 until his death in 1881 he was the consulting physician, and from 1874 also chairman of the board of management.

[6] During the Second World War most patients were moved, first to Blackpool and then to Collar House in Prestbury, Cheshire, well away from the city centre.

Regional facilities – a special care baby unit, the medical genetics centre and in vitro fertilisation services were developed.

[11] St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) is a rape crisis centre, treating both men and women in the immediate aftermath of or any time after a rape or sexual assault, and provides psychological care in addition to forensic services.

It included early obstetrical and gynaecological literature collected by the surgeon Dr Thomas Radford and donated to the hospital by him, together with an endowment.