Liverpool: Albert Dock to Liverpool Cathedral

Liverpool (Anglican) Cathedral

In Liverpool on a family visit, we improvised this excellent city walk. We started at Albert Dock, where we were staying, and set off in the broad direction of the Cathedral. We walked along Park Lane and came on the fantastic Swedish Seamen's Church (Gustav Adolfs Kyrke) of 1883-34 by WD Caroe.



A bit further up is the Catholic church of St Vincent de Paul (1856-7) by Edward Welby Pugin (son of the much more famous AWN Pugin of Houses of Parliament fame). The wooden bellcote is noteworthy and the red brick Presbytery, around the corner, tucked in beside the church has trefoil heads over every window.



We reached the Cathedral at one corner (to the right in the photo at the head of this post) and walked along its length to find the main entrance at the west end. (In fact we were interested to to discover that the "west" end actually faces more or less due north. I had always naively imagined that churches were literally arranged with the altar at the east end, but I suppose it is obvious that the constraints of the site mean that east and west are sometimes notional.)

We enjoyed the view down over the graveyard, which was apparently once a quarry,



The Cathedral itself was designed by St Giles Gilbert Scott, who won the architectural competition for it aged only 22 (perhaps his eminent father, Sir George, helped). The diocese had only been founded in 1880. Work started in 1904 and the lady chapel was completed by 1910 at which point dramatically changed his own design, replacing the twin towers of his original with the single massive tower you can see today. There is a model of the original design in the Cathedral.

The Cathedral was not finally completed until 1978 and had been damaged in the war. It has a sense of massive, if rather incoherent, space and stylistic unity. The Pevsner Architectural Guide to Liverpool by Joseph Sharples describes it as "the final flowering of the Gothic Revival as a vital, creative movement" and as "one of the great buildings of the C20".

We went to the top of the 331 foot high tower and enjoyed the views. This one shows Albert Dock, with the nearly finished Museum of Liverpool just to the right.



We took a slight different return route, heading past the small Greek temple-like Oratory and down Upper Duke St, past the wide Georgian Rodney St.



A bit further on we came to the former Great George St Congregational church of 1841.



Sharples describes this as "an outstandingly successful building".

From here we walked through Chinatown back down to Park Lane and thence to Albert Dock.

Conditions: warm, sunny.

Distance: about 3 miles.

Rating: four stars.

Note: I did a previous walk around the City Centre.