The Manchester Mercury of 9 December 1788 recorded: "We hear that the first stone of an intended new church in this town, to be called St, Peter's will be laid on Thursday next.

There is therefore every reason to expect that this church, when completed will prove in a high degree commodious as a place of public worship and ornamental as an elegant structure.

Samuel Hall, the intended minister, and A Considerable Number of the Principal Merchants and Inhabitants of this Town; Liberal Supporters of this Pious work.

At the time of its construction, St Peter's was bounded by countryside on its south, west and east sides, with open fields running down to the River Medlock.

He later recalled attending the ceremony in his 1821 article, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater:[1][7][4][8] When I must have been nearing my tenth year, and when St. Peter's had been finished, occurred the opening, and, consequently (as an indispensable pre-condition), the consecration of that edifice by the bishop of the diocese (viz.. Chester).

While Wyatt's Grecian style was generally austere, a decorative ceiling mould attracted some controversy at a time when Puritan sentiments rejected adornment in religious buildings.

De Quincey recalled the consecration ceremony and the fear of disapproval from the Bishop of Chester:[1][7] I remember a little incident which exposed broadly the conflict of feelings inherited by the Church of England from the Puritans of the 17th century.

Architect, and trains of dependents — there arose deep buzz of anxiety, which soon ripened into an articulate expression of fear, that the bishop would think himself bound, like the horrid eikonoclasts of 1643, to issue his decree of utter averruncation to the simple decoration overhead.

Earnestly my lord looked upwards: but finally — were it courtesy, or doubtfulness to hie ground, or approbation —he passed on.Although the church found favour with Bishop Cleaver, a successor, Bishop George Henry Law was outspoken in his criticism of Wyatt's architectural style, the quality of the interior fittings, and the wealthy congregation:[1] "a more correct ecclesiastical taste would describe the church as very hideous and ill- arranged, so far as worship was the object for which it was erected.

"By the turn of the 20th century, social change in Manchester – by now a major city – had resulted in a dwindling residential population, as most of the wealthy parishioners had moved out to the fashionable suburbs.

During the demolition work, contractors found encased in lead the brass foundation stone along with a number of coins hidden in the external wall beneath the east window of the church.

[9][4] A pair of Wyatt's Doric columns were saved from destruction by the designer Richard Harding Watt, who incorporated them into the Gaskell Memorial Tower and King's Coffee House in Knutsford, Cheshire.

[18] In 1992, the Manchester Metrolink tram system began operation, and the new line passed through St Peter's Square, close to the site of the former church.

[19][20][14] The St Peter’s Cross was restored and re-erected close to its original location above the crypt, in between the Metrolink tracks, and was re-dedicated by the Bishop of Manchester, David Walker, on 15 February 2017.