If you find yourself in Liverpool, there are numerous different things that might catch your eye as you look across the skyline.
You will almost certainly have seen the Three Graces on the city’s waterfront, for example, whilst both Anfield and the Everton Stadium can be seen from the other side of the Mersey.
Virtually wherever you find yourself, however, you won’t need to look very far before you see the Anglican Cathedral towering into the sky. It is the largest cathedral in England and the eighth largest in the world, having taken 73 years to build.
The Background to the Cathedral’s Construction

In 1880, the first Bishop of Liverpool was installed, with a man named J.C. Ryle given the role. At the time, however, the diocese didn’t have a cathedral but rather a ‘pro-cathedral’ in the form go the parish church of St Peter on Church Street.
That was entirely unsatisfactory, being far too small for something that would be hosting major church events and was also ‘ugly and hideous’ to boot. In 1885 an Act of Parliament was passed that authorised the building of a cathedral in the city on the site where St John’s Church stood.
Liverpool Cathedral, built between 1904 and 1978. ‘Monumental and sublime, yet delicate and romantic’. In my view one of the great masterpieces of the 20C. The architect, Giles Gilbert Scott, was only 23 when appointed. pic.twitter.com/c2m7zRhSXe
— Samuel Hughes (@SCP_Hughes) March 18, 2021
The scheme was abandoned when it was realised that the site was unsuitable for a building on the scale that was being proposed, only being revived again when Francis Chavasse took over the role of Bishop in 1900.
Chavasse believed that there was a need for a ‘visible witness to God in the midst of a great city’, so pushed for a cathedral to be built in the face of some opposition. A new location for the building was sought, with a stroke of good fortune meaning that St James’s Mount was an available location.
The Architect Won a Competition

Towards the end of 1901, a competition was launched in order to find the architect who would design the new cathedral. Public advertisements invited architects to submit their proposals, which were to be judged by George Frederick Bodley and Richard Norman Shaw, proponents of the Gothic revival style and the classical imperial style respectively.
It was seen as an important moment for architects, getting to build just the third Anglican cathedral in England since the 16th century reformation, following St Paul’s Cathedral and Truro Cathedral.
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There were more than 100 entries, with some of the best architects in the country submitting their proposals. In the end, the assessors put forward the proposal that had been submitted by a 22-year-old called Giles Gilbert Scott, who was still a pupil working in the practice of Temple Moore at the time.
When the Cathedral Committee discovered after the decision had been made that Scott was a Roman Catholic, even further controversy reigned, but the decision was allowed to strand and Scott began fine-tuning his design.
74 Years of Work

Although young, Scott came from a family that knew the style, with both his grandfather and his father having designed numerous churches. Even so, he had been paired with Bodley to create the design for the cathedral, with building work beginning in 1904 when King Edward VII lay the foundation stone.
Bodley died in 1907, leaving Scott in sole charge of the project. In 1909, Scott submitted a redesign of the main body of the cathedral, working on his plans for a year before the committee eventually accepted them the following year.
London. The red telephone box is a telephone kiosk for a public telephone designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect responsible for Liverpool Cathedral, and the Battersea Power Station.
#london #england #uk #unitedkingdom #telephone #telephonebox
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— Randolph (@arlandolpho.bsky.social) 28 January 2025 at 02:11
The first part of the cathedral to be completed was the Lady Chapel, which was consecrated on the 29th of June 1910 by Bishop Chavasse in front of two archbishops and 24 additional bishops. Soon, the outbreak of the First World War meant that work on the cathedral began to slow down, largely thanks to. Shortage of manpower as well as materials.
The cost of the cathedral was also paid for by donations, which also dried up. Things got back on track in 1920, with the first section of the cathedral completed four years later.
@nomadicnegroThe Liverpool cathedral should be on the list of your 2025 destinations if you’d be visiting Liverpool.? The Best Is yet to Come – Tim Halperin
The hope was that work would be completed by 1940, but the outbreak of the Second World War caused similar problems as the First, delaying completion indefinitely. There was also some bomb damage caused that needed to be repaired in the wake of the War ending.
Scott himself died in 1960, at which point the first bay of the nave was close to completion. It took until 1978 for the cathedral to be entirely completed, however. It was marked by a service of thanksgiving and dedication in the October, attended by Queen Elizabeth II.
The post The Building of Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral first appeared on Scouse Not English.



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