Liverpool Cathedrals

Liverpool Cathedrals, the Anglican cathedral built 1904-1978, and the Roman Catholic cathedral of Christ of the King, consecrated in 1967, in the seaport of Liverpool, on the north-west coast of England. The two cathedrals, one stone built and traditional in appearance, and the other, built in concrete to a radically modern circular design, are set on hills, facing each other above the centre of the city.

The Anglican cathedral is officially known as “The Cathedral Church of Christ”, as well as being the official “Liverpool Cathedral”. Being 204 m (671 ft) long and with a tower 100 m (331 ft) high, it is the largest Anglican cathedral in the world. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who won the competition for it in 1902, but, because of the two world wars and rising costs, it was not completed until 1978. Designed in an austere 20th-century Gothic style, the interior is marked by a notable lack of sculptural or other decoration. The three massive bays of the nave, illuminated by an immense east window, some 23 m (76 ft) high and 13 m (44 ft) wide, create an atmosphere of spiritual grandeur.

The Roman Catholic cathedral officially goes by the name “Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King” or “Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral”. It is a vast circular building with a central lantern rising 88 m (290 ft) above the ground. The circular sloping roof that spreads out from its base covers a huge interior, the focus of which is the centrally placed altar. The cathedral was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd in 1953 but was not consecrated until 1967. Gibberd’s design was preceded by two others: one, of 1853, by Edwin Welby Pugin (only the Lady Chapel was built) and another, of 1928, by Sir Edwin Lutyens, which was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II; the crypt, the only part of Lutyens’s design to be realized, underlies the present cathedral. The interior has some fine decorative features by contemporary artists: the stained glass of the lantern, which bathes the altar in light, is by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens and there is a figure of Christ by Dame Elisabeth Frink.