Studio: international art (88.1924)

LIVERPOOL CATHEDRAL

liverpo
comple'

not the actual work of Sir Giles Gilbert
Scott, R.A.), lags behind badly. Perhaps
when the work goes further this will be
remedied: more than one name should
live in such a work as this. 0 0
Now that one-third of this great
scheme has been completed, it is dis-
covered that the architect, Sir Giles
Gilbert Scott, R.A., has used this great
opportunity to give us, not the usual type
of competition church work—that is a
scholarly, though cold and hard, exercise
in " Imitative Gothic," but to create a
building on a vast scale, with powerfully
handled masses and masterly control of
shadows in relation to plain wall surfaces,
a building which shows in a remarkable
manner that neither the Gothic nor classic
revivals of the last century were wasted.
The unity and proportion of planning are
certainly classic ; yet this noble, tower-
ing mass has the true Gothic spirit, the
result of the principles of the style
having been felt and understood, not
imitated. No Gothic building could
possess the repose and dignity and no
classic building the soaring grandeur of
this almost symmetrical composition as
it rises above the green trees which
clothe the quarry side on the top of
which it is built. Already, without the
tower, it forms a landmark from the river,
and shows a beautiful and romantic

L cathedral as it will appear when
:d. architect, sir g. gilbert scott, r.a.

(Photo, Stewart Bale, Liverpool)

silhouette against the evening sky from
the land side. 0000

The completed chancel rises in cliff-like
simplicity, unbroken by the usual low
roofed aisles or flying buttresses. The
windows are tall and beautifully propor-
tioned, the tops filled with very simple
tracery, each one divided by a single great
mullion decorated with a carved canopied
figure of angel or saint. Best of alLeach win-
dow is set like a jewel, in a generous space
of undecorated wall surface flanked by huge
buttresses rising the whole height of the
building and dividing it into three bays.

The stone used is a hard red sandstone,
which, in the ever-changing light of the
day and season, assumes many varying
shades of colour, ranging from rich deep
purple to blazing gold. 000

The interior, entered through a small
temporary brick porch, is magnificent.
It is impossible to describe the impression
it makes, the calm beauty which overawes
but does not crush. 0000

The Liverpool Cathedral is not, as so
usually happens in competitions, a building
designed in a style fashionable at the time
of competing and nearly out of vogue when
built, but an epoch-making monument, a
valuable contribution to the development
of the Gothic style, and, still more import-
ant, to modern architecture. Above all
it is a Cathedral. 0000

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