Joined through faith

Aug 21 2007 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post

Work has started on a passageway to link the Metropolitan Cathedral with its crypt. Laura Davis reports

THE first was a dolls house maker to a queen, who once invited his dinner party guests to draw pictures in chalk.

The second was a creator of banks and airports, who loved plants as much as he loved buildings.

Both men shared the dream of constructing a house of God that would touch the sky and inspire all those who saw it.

At fate would have it, Sir Edwin Lutyens’s design for a Roman Catholic cathedral for Liverpool – 60ft taller than St Peter’s in Rome, with space to fit St Paul’s, the Statue of Liberty, and the Liver Building within – was never completed.

Only the crypt, a fraction of the original blueprint but grand nonetheless, was ever constructed.

But the failure to build this grand edifice, blamed on escalating costs and the start of the Second World War, made way for the Metropolitan Cathedral that stands today – its crown of thorns an indelible part of the city’s skyline.

This month, work has begun on a glass passageway that will link the Lutyens crypt to the 1960s concrete building, designed by Sir Frederick Ernest Gibberd.

It will cost £2.7m, including a £1.1m Objective 1 grant from the European Union, and will take until next August to complete.

There is still another £200,000 left to raise, and, as seems befitting of a religious cause, this large sum is being chipped away by smaller amounts collected by individuals who share in its vision.

The Friends of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, worshippers and other people who have a special place for the landmark in their hearts have been making donations, completing sponsored walks and holding car boot sales.

“We’re still having to raise the last few hundred thousand pounds which is a lot of money,” explains Peter Woods, of the Friends of the Cathedral.

“When you hear the figures bandied around Liverpool it may not sound like lot at all, but when it’s being raised by individual people it seems like a much bigger sum.”

The Rev Anthony O’Brien, dean of the cathedral, has been impressed by the local community’s generosity.

“It’s amazing how the Catholic community has come forward with great schemes,” he says.

“The local community, not just worshippers, has got involved. We’ve had offers of support and gifts from residents and people along Hope Street.”

While the cathedral is entered via the stepped processional entrance on Hope Street, completed in October, 2003, along the lines of Gibberd’s original design, visitors to the Crypt have to gain access from Brownlow Hill.

There is a second, non-public way in through Cathedral House, where the Archdiocese is based.

“At the moment, people have quite an involved journey if they want to visit the crypt.

“ It’s a bit of an obstacle course – down some steps, along a corridor, down some more steps . . . ” explains Fr O’Brien. The new link will involve creating a doorway in the side of the Cathedral, beneath a row of three small stained glass win- dows. This will lead to a glass walkway outside the building, with a flight of stairs and a lift down to the crypt below.

“The crypt is quite a piece of architecture in its own right.

“It is one of the few buildings in Liverpool to have this sort of space, it must compare to St George’s Hall,” says Fr O’Brien.

“At the moment it is used for some functions but the new work will mean there will be better catering facilities and toilets so we will be able to increase its use.”

The Crypt’s vast space gives some idea of what an extraordinary building Lutyens’s cathedral would have been.

A symmetrical layout, with the Chapel of St Nicholas mirroring the concert room and the 40m Crypt Hall paralleling the Pontifical Hall, makes it feel like it goes on forever.

As well as expanding the building’s capacity for holding events, such as the successful Liverpool Beer Festival staged there each year, the Archdiocese is keen to use the newly developed space for exhibitions about its history.

The archives, which date back hundreds of years, will become more accessible to the public and some of the Cathedral’s treasures, which include a set of candlesticks designed by Lutyens, will be put on display.

“As well as worshippers, the Cathedral attracts 250,000 visitors a year and we hope the new work will attract even more,” says Fr O’Brien.

“It’s not often that you get to see two of the best examples of 20th century architecture in one place.”

FOR further details on the fundraising campaign, contact Claire Hanlon, assistant to the dean, on 0151 709 9222.

lauradavis@dailypost.co.uk

The architects

THE tenth child of 13, Edwin Lutyens developed rheumatic fever as a boy which left him so weak that he was the only sibling unable to attend public school or to study at university.

Though his lack of formal education left him feeling a little out of place in certain social situations, he believed that being sick had enabled him to focus his talents.

In 1885, at the age of 15, Lutyens enrolled at the Kensington School of Art but left early feeling he had learned all they could teach him.

Among his many achievements, he designed three dozen major English country houses, remodelled Lindisfarne Castle and built Castle Drogo, as well as making a dolls house for Queen Mary.

Despite natural shyness, he became known for his dry wit, opening a speech to the Owls Club in Cape Town with the words: “I wish I had t’wit t’woo you”, and once, when entertaining at his bungalow in New Delhi, he fitted a round blackboard top to the dining-room table and handed each guest a piece of chalk.

Sir Frederick Gibberd, on the other hand, was the eldest of five sons and was educated at the King Henry VIII School, in Coventry.

He was articled to a firm of architects in Birmingham where he also attended the School of Architecture, finally setting up his own London business in 1932 at the age of 24.

His many commissions included the first terminal buildings at Heathrow airport (1950–69); power stations at Hinkley Point (1957–65) and the reconstruction of the Coutts Bank in The Strand (1969).

A tallish man with long, swept-back hair and moustache, he too suffered delicate health and was said to enjoy looking at plants as much as buildings.