LIVERPOOL CATHEDRAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 29 August 1924, Page 3

LIVERPOOL CATHEDRAL.

LARGEST AND MOST IMPOSING IN BRITAIN. The dedication, on July 19, in .the presence of the King, of the already completed portion of Liverpool Cathedral, which, on June 24, was opened to the public for a few days, marked an important stage in one of the greatest British architectural efforts of the twentieth century, says the Illustrated London News. Liverpool, it has been said, already possesses in St. George’s Hall the finest example of modern classical architecture in Great Britain, and in the new cathedral it also has the finest example of modern Gothic. It is a remarkable fact that both these great buildings were designed by young architects, who were not more_tiian twenty when they began their task. The architect of Liverpool Cathedral is Mr. Giles Gilbert Scott, R.A. Liverpool Qtithedral -is described as being “Gothic in feeling and classical in proportion, a blend of the two great architectural traditions.’- -So far, only about one-third of the whole design for tlie new cathedral lias been carried out, but- even this portion looks very imposing. As in many famous Continental churches, the usual orientation has been disregarded at Liverpool, and the choir really looks almost diie south, though its great window (the largest in England) is called the “east” window in the liturgical sense. At the ■‘North East” corner is an octagonal Chapter House, with, its conical roof, and to the “West” is, the apse-ended Lady Chapel of six bays, opened in 1910. The Cathedral is built of local reddish-brown sandstone. In the interior a lighter stone has been used for the beautifully sculptured Reredos. The total cost of the cathedral, it is estimated, will amount to £2,000,000. The next section of the building to be Undertaken will he the central portion under the proposed tower, and for this (excluding the tower itself) a special appeal is to he made to the public for £300,000. If there is a satisfactory response, this section may he finished in a little over six years. It is lroped that some munificent donor will come forward to defray the cost of the tower, which will be 357 feet high and Will form a magnificent object dominating the city, and visible from all reaches of the Mersey. Since the inception of the scheme twenty-three years ago' there has been contributed a sum of £912,000. When completed, in some fifteen or twenty years, it will be the largest cathedral in Britain, and almost as big' as St. Reter’s at Rome The highest part of the roofs is 116 feet, as against 102 feet interior height in Westminster Abhev. the loftiest existing English church.