This Roman Catholic Church, on Maclure Road in Rochdale, was designed pre-1917 by Oswald Hill but wasn't built until 1925-27 overseen by Ernest Bower Norris.  The building is criciform in plan with a large central dome.  The builders were R & T Haworth of Rochdale who also built the fire station across the road.  St John's is Grade II* Listed for the following reasons:

1.  "The apsed sanctuary contains an encompassing mosaic scheme of powerful emotional intensity designed by leading mosaic designer, Eric Newton of specialist firm Ludwig Oppenheimer Ltd, which is an exemplar of his artistic and compositional skills demonstrating both a real understanding of the medium and a deep art historical knowledge in its details;

2.   "Architectural interest: as an urban Catholic church designed in a Byzantine style with a large dome in the manner of Hagia Sophia and clearly inspired by the recently built Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral (1895-1903);"

3.  "Materials: the church uses concrete to its advantage in the construction of the striking, 20m-wide central dome, whilst internally the quality of the sanctuary mosaic is further enhanced by the use of high-quality tesserae made of stone, coloured marbles and coloured glass, set off by a shimmering background of gold tessarae;"

4.  "Henry Oswald Hill was a promising architect with a clear interest in contemporary church-building trends, as evidenced here and at the nearby RC Church of St Joseph, Heywood (Grade II), who was tragically killed in action in the First World War."