Liverpool Anglican Cathedral - 20 St James Rd, Liverpool, UK



Architect
Giles Gilbert Scott
Date Built
Foundation Stone laid 19th July 1904
Completed 25th October 1978
Location
St James Rd, Liverpool
Description
I have located this building in the 1970s because it was completed during that decade but this is truly a building of various ages.  Work began on it before World War One but it it was only finished four years before the outbreak of the Falkland's War.  The architect Giles Gilbert Scott was only 24 when he won the commission to design the building.  He was 62 when on the 20th of February, 1942, he put the last finial in place at the top of the tower.  Tragically he had been dead for 18 years by the time Queen Elizabeth II opened what John Betjeman had described as, "One of the great buildings of the world".  He went on to add, "The impression of vastness, strength and height no words can describe... Suddenly one sees that the greatest art of architecture, that lifts one up and turns one into a king, yet compels reverence, is the art of enclosing space."

The "catherdralsplus.org" website describes it as, "Gothic design but 20th Century built, mostly of local sandstone from a quarry 5 miles south of Liverpool City Centre."  The original design had called for two towers but, "This was later to be modified to a single central tower with monies donated by the Vestey family, great benefactors of this amazing place."


Above the West Door stands Elisabeth Frink's stature of "The Welcoming Christ".






The Cathedral's website describes the Nave as follows:  "The Cathedral's Nave (known as the Well) is a lowered area of the Cathedral where on formal occasions the Chapter will process from. On one side of the well you have the great West Doors above which is Tracy Emin's installation. This is dwarfed by the magnificent Benedicite Window. Facing into the Cathedral you can see the central space through the arch of the Dulverton Bridge."













The central tower rises to 331 feet and the total length of the building is 619 feet. Which, to put it in context, makes it 100 feet longer that St. Pauls and just 34 feet lower at its highest point.



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