Great George Street Congregational Chapel (the Blackie)
I am constantly on the lookout for relevant articles of historic interest to add to this web page, and try to avoid mundane stories that people have heard many times before, on a recent bus journey into Liverpool I passed the ‘Blackie’ and remembering various snippets of its history, made a mental note to find out what its current status was. Well, I have been pleasantly surprised, a lot has happened there.
The Chapel was opened 18 months after the first church on the site (built in 1811) was destroyed by fire in 1840. What’s incredible about the huge former Great George Street Congregational Church next to the arch at the heart of Chinatown is the speed of its erection in early days of Queen Victoria’s reign. The plans and designs for the new church were donated by Joseph Franklin, the City Architect. The foundation stone was laid on 7 July 1840 and the magnificent building opened for worship barely 15 months later in October 1841. The chapel cost £13,992 to build and seated almost 2,000. It became popularly known as 'Liverpool's Third Cathedral'.
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