A Catholic cathedral, a 17th century place of worship and a Waterloo church beckon on this reverent tour.

In the 1840s Salford Cathedral, then simply St John the Evangelist, was the first cruciform church to be built since the Reformation of the 1530s. Why the gap? It had only been 20 years since the Catholic Emancipation Act that allowed followers of Rome to worship freely in a building of their own design.

Sacred Trinity on Chapel Street is one of the oldest places of worship in the area. It was nearly bulldozed when Exchange Station was built in the 1880s.

St Philip’s is a Waterloo Church, one of around a hundred new establishments conceived on the wave of euphoria that greeted Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at Waterloo, the authorities fearing that a godless people might become a revolutionary people.

Tour guide: Sue Grimditch