The story of St Anne's Cathedral
St Anne's replaced a parish church of 1776 that stood on the same ground. The Belfast-born architects Thomas Drew and W.H. Lynn designed the new cathedral in Romanesque style, built basilican in form around semi-circular arches. The Countess of Shaftesbury laid the foundation stone on 6 September 1899, and the old church kept holding services inside the rising shell until late 1903.
The nave was consecrated on 2 June 1904, but the building was a work in progress for nearly 80 years. Sections went up in stages: the crypt and tower foundations in 1922-24, the west front in 1925-27, the Baptistery in 1928, the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in 1932, the apse and ambulatory in 1959, and the transepts in 1974 and 1981. The one feature carried over from the original 1776 church is the Good Samaritan Window.
Edward Carson, the unionist leader, was buried here in 1935 after a state funeral, and remains the only person interred in the cathedral. The Baptistery's mosaics, around two million pieces showing the Creation, were the work of sisters Gertrude and Margaret Martin.
The cathedral has no conventional tower because the soft clay beneath it could not bear the weight. The answer came in 2007, when the lightweight stainless steel Spire of Hope was lowered into place, rising above the roof and lit at night. It was named to reflect the signs of renewal then spreading across the city, and it gave the surrounding Cathedral Quarter its landmark.