Red brick
Red brick in a city of laterite, mud and later concrete: an English material on an African street.
Ghana-Net.com · Accra · High Street · Faith & Colonial Architecture
Between the banks, phone shops and traffic of Accra's old business district stands a building that looks as if it had been lifted out of an English market town: red brick, round arches, a square tower. Holy Trinity was finished in 1894, paid for by the colonial government and designed by Aston Webb, the architect who would later give Buckingham Palace its famous façade. It was built for the British officials who ran the Gold Coast. Today its pews are filled with Ghanaians, it is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Accra, and it is one of the few quiet places left in the centre of the city.
The Church of England reached this coast through the forts, not through missionaries. In the eighteenth century its only real presence was the chaplain of Cape Coast Castle, and from 1766 that chaplain was an African: Philip Quaque, the first African ordained in the Church of England, who ran a school in the castle for fifty years and is buried in its courtyard.
While the Basel and Bremen missions built churches and schools among the Akan and Ewe, and the Methodists spread from Cape Coast, the Anglicans remained for a long time the church of the colonial establishment. When the British moved their capital from Cape Coast to Accra in 1877, the officials who followed needed a church of their own.
Holy Trinity was completed in 1894, funded by the colonial government. For its first years it served mainly the European community: governors, officers, merchants and clerks of the new capital. It stood near the heart of colonial Accra, a short walk from the forts, the courts and the government offices.
What it says about the colony: the government that built this church in brick, to last, was the same government that ruled the Gold Coast without its people's consent. The building was a statement: the British were here to stay. Sixty-three years later they were gone, and the church stayed without them.
The architect was Sir Aston Webb (1849–1930), then a rising London architect who would become one of the most important of the Edwardian era. In London he later designed the front façade of Buckingham Palace, Admiralty Arch and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Holy Trinity in Accra is one of his least-known works.
Red brick in a city of laterite, mud and later concrete: an English material on an African street.
A sturdy, almost fortress-like church with a rectangular bell tower, closer to an English parish church than to a Gothic cathedral.
Thick walls and tall windows keep the interior cool and airy, a relief from the heat and noise outside.
Stained glass and memorial tablets to colonial officials and Ghanaian churchmen tell a century of Accra history on the walls.
When the Anglican Diocese of Accra was created, Holy Trinity became its cathedral: the Cathedral Church of the Most Holy Trinity. Most sources date this to 1909; one gives 1949. The diocese belongs today to the Church of the Province of West Africa.
The cathedral kept its connection with the Crown. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip worshipped here during the royal visit of 1961, in the year of the Queen's famous dance with Kwame Nkrumah, and later royal visitors followed the same tradition.
The church built for expatriates is long since Ghanaian. Its bishops and clergy are Ghanaian, its choirs sing in English and Ghanaian languages, and on a Sunday morning the congregation is in its best kente, lace and suits. The cathedral runs its own services, choir, youth and charity work, and remains one of the best-organised Anglican congregations in the country.
A quiet island: on weekdays the cathedral grounds are one of the calmest spots in central Accra, a few metres from one of its busiest streets. Many visitors stumble on it by accident while walking between Makola and the old forts.
Guided tours of Accra: the cathedral fits naturally into a guided walk of old Accra with the forts, Makola and the Memorial Park. Tours below are booked through Viator; Ghana-Net may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
A few minutes' walk towards the sea.
With the lighthouse and Brazil House, about 10 minutes on foot.
Accra's great market, a few streets away.
About 10 minutes by taxi or a longer walk east.
Holy Trinity Cathedral is not a sight to cross Accra for on its own, but it is well worth ten quiet minutes on a walk through the old town, and a Sunday service is one of the best ways to see Ghanaian church life at its most formal and musical. It is a colonial building, paid for by the colonial state and designed by the architect of Buckingham Palace for the men who ran the Gold Coast. That is part of its story, not a reason to ignore it. Ghanaians took it over, as they took over the country, and made it their own.
Verified: 30 September 2026. The completion in 1894, the colonial government funding, the original expatriate congregation, the design by Aston Webb, the red-brick construction with a rectangular tower, the creation of the Diocese of Accra (dated 1909 in most sources, 1949 in one) and the royal visit of 1961 follow Wikipedia, the Commonwealth Walkway, Lonely Planet and local listings. Service times change; please check locally. Corrections welcome and will be published in full.