Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

Grid reference: SJ355902
Co-ordinates: 335595, 390210
Bearing: E

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool.

The building we see today at the top of Hope Street is the result of the fourth attempt to build a Catholic cathedral in the city. The first (at a different site at Everton) came to a halt in the 1850s. The second (designed by Lutyens) got as far as the crypt before having to stop due to a shortage of money in the mid-1930s. Adrian Scott's design of the 1950s didn't get off the ground (as it were), and it wasn't until 1967 that the new cathedral (designed by Frederick Gibberd) finally opened, with its quite unusual circular design and its remarkable stained-glass lantern (designed by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens).

The above view is from the western side (along Duckinfield Street), and shows the cranes being used (at the time of this photo in September 2007) to build a new Art and Design Academy of Liverpool John Moores University (who, therefore, should have no excuse for getting it wrong).

Grid reference: SJ357901
Co-ordinates: 335770, 390170
Bearing: W

Here we can see the eastern side, and also see why the locals, with their customary wit, soon christened the building "Paddy's Wigwam".

Grid reference: SJ357901
Co-ordinates: 335733, 390155
Bearing: NW

This is the main entrance (on Mount Pleasant), complete with concrete belfry.

Grid reference: SJ356901
Co-ordinates: 335683, 390135
Bearing: NW

A closer view of the belfry.

© Nigel Stapley