St George’s Hall: Great symbol of a city of contrasts

Jan 16 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

St George's Hall on Culture launch night

The bigger the better

MAKE it bigger and better than any other city was essentially the corporation’s brief to architects competing to design St George’s Hall.

This was finally achieved by the simple expedient of putting together the seemingly incompatible proposed buildings for a large concert hall and law courts.

The Hall was built to stage the triennial music festivals (ironically, the magnificent Great Hall’s acoustics proved to be its Achilles heel). The competition for the hall attracted 80 architects, won by the very young Harvey Lonsdale Elmes. The building’s total cost was the then staggering amount of £300,000.

After a decade of construction, St George’s Hall opened its doors to the public in 1854. The stress of such a vast project effectively killed Elmes through exhaustion. Charles Cockerell completed the building.

Described as the greatest neo-classical building in northern Europe, by the Prince of Wales, he supported the Hall’s preservation after its future was threatened when the law courts were closed in 1984.

Last year, on April 21, the Prince returned to officially reopen the hall after its massive renovation. This includes a visitor centre for the first time, finally exploiting the hall’s appeal as a premier attraction.

The building’s appearance demonstrates Elmes’s matchless talent for combining a Roman style building with ancient Greek detail.

Sound quality apart, the 169ft long Great Hall is the central masterpiece of the building, as superbly shown in last Sunday on BBC TV’s Antiques Roadshow.

The hall’s sides are divided into five bays by columns made of polished porphyry and the 30,000- tile Minton floor is made of two sections. The central sunken section is normally protected by a wooden floor.

The 7,737-pipe organ, in the Great Hall, was the largest in Britain until surpassed by the Albert Hall in 1871. No such acoustic problems afflict the exquisite, horseshoe-shaped Small Concert Hall, with its gallery supported by caryatids – pillars disguised as Greek maiden statues.

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