For many years two fine buildings next to St John’s Cathedral had been used by the City of Salford as their Education Offices. With a re-organisation of Council Offices it was decided by the City of Salford to re-locate their Education Offices to Swinton where the majority of other offices are now situated. So about eight or nine years ago these two buildings came on the market.

The land on which these buildings were built used to belong to the diocese being part of the plot of land that the Cathedral had been built on. But after the building of the Cathedral was finished it was decided by the Bishop at the time to sell off part of the land to help to pay off the debts on the new Cathedral Church of St John. However, as is often the case in selling one’s land next to a place that you are still using, the bishop, in his foresight, placed a covenant on the land, so that the land could only be used for educational purposes. Hence, that it why for many years a school stood on the land and subsequently the buildings were used for the education offices of the local authority. When the buildings came on the market this covenant, which had been placed on the land many years before, was very much to the advantage of the diocesan trustees, as had been foreseen many years previously, because the land could not be used by others for any other purpose than an educational one unless the diocese lifted the covenant. 

When the buildings came on the market the bishop brought the prospect of buying the buildings and land to the Diocesan Trustees. It had always been in the back of the mind of the bishop that if these buildings ever came on the market they would make a great Diocesan Centre and be a great resource for the diocese for many years to come.