The Architecture of Liverpool is rooted in the city's development and history, as a major port city within the United Kingdom.[1] It encompasses a wide range of architectural styles and has predominantly developed over the past 200 years, although several buildings date back as far at the 13th century.[2]
Liverpool's role within the British Empire means that many of the finest buildings in the city were built as headquarters for shipping firms and insurance companies, whilst the great wealth this afforded the city allowed the development of grand civic buildings, designed to allow the local administrators to 'run the city with pride'.[3]
There are over 2,500 listed buildings in Liverpool (of which 27 are Grade I listed and 85 are Grade II* listed)[4] and only Bristol [1] and the UK capital London, has more.[5] The city also has a greater number of public sculptures than any other location in the United Kingdom aside from Westminster[6] and more Georgian houses than the city of Bath.[7] This richness of architecture has subsequently seen Liverpool described by English Heritage as England's finest Victorian city.[8]
The value of Liverpool's architecture and design was recognised in 2004, when several areas throughout the city were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Known as the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City, the sites were added in recognition of the city's role in the development of International trade and docking technology.[9]
Liverpool's origins date back as far as the 11th century, although today nothing remains of the city's medieval architecture. Probably the earliest building of note within Liverpool would have been Liverpool Castle, which was constructed between 1232 and 1235 by William de Ferrers.[1] The oldest surviving building within the city is likely to be Stanlawe Grange in Aigburth, a Monastic grange dating from the 13th century. Frequent modifications throughout its history mean that little of the original building remains, although sections of it are believed to date from 1291.[10] Despite the lack of many physical remnants of this period, the city's medieval history is still evident in the street patterns around Liverpool Town Hall, with all seven of the city's original streets remaining in approximately the same position today.
Like medieval architecture before it, little remains of Tudor and Elizabethan architecture in Liverpool today. Speke Hall, which is located in the south of the city, is a Tudor manor house that dates from the 16th century. Its was completed in 1598, although much of the building dates from much earlier in the century.[11] It is one of the few remaining timber framed Tudor houses in the North of England and it is noted for its Victorian interior.[12]
Another large manor house that dates from this period is Croxteth Hall, the ancestral home of the Molyneux family. Started in 1575, only one wing of the building actually dates from this period, with the majority of the house completed during the 18th and 19th centuries.[13] As such the building mixes a variety of different architectural styles including Elizabethan, Queen Anne Style and Georgian.[14]
Several buildings from the Stuart Era remain in Liverpool today, with the oldest of them, Tuebrook House, dating from 1615.[11] The Ancient Chapel of Toxteth also dates from this period and was likely started around 1618. The building is today a Grade I Listed building and still serves its original purpose as a Unitarian Chapel.[15]
One of the most notable buildings that remains in Liverpool from this period is Woolton Hall, a Grade I listed manor house located in the south of the city. Built for the Molyneux family, the hall is designed in the style of a Palladian villa and is built from red sandstone from the local quarry in Woolton.[13]
The parish church of Liverpool is the Anglican Our Lady and St Nicholas, colloquially known as "the sailors church", which has existed near the waterfront since 1257. It regularly plays host to Catholic masses.
Liverpool's Town Hall dates from 1754 and has a sumptuous interior which is highly-regarded architecturally. The city's stock exchange and financial district are set immediately behind this building, and show how closely government and commerce were tied in the city's development.
Some of Liverpool's landmarks are better known for their oddness rather than for their role. The Williamson Tunnels are architecturally unique as being the largest underground folly in the world.
The docks are central to Liverpool's history, with the best-known being Albert Dock: the first enclosed, non-combustible dock warehouse system in the world and is built in cast iron, brick and stone. It was designed by Jesse Hartley. Restored in the 1980s, the Albert Dock has the largest collection of Grade I listed buildings in Britain. Part of the old dock complex is now the home to the Merseyside Maritime Museum (an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage), the International Slavery Museum and the Tate Liverpool. Other relics of the dock system include the Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse, which at the time of its construction in 1901, was the world's largest building in terms of area, and is still the world's largest brick-work building.
Other notable churches include the Greek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas (built in the Neo-Byzantine architecture style), and the Gustav Adolfus Kyrka (the Swedish Seamen's Church, reminiscent of Nordic styles).
Liverpool contains several synagogues, of which the Grade I listed Moorish Revival Princes Road Synagogue is architecturally the most notable. Princes Road is widely considered to be the most magnificent of Britain's Moorish Revival synagogues and one of the finest buildings in Liverpool.[16] Liverpool has a thriving Jewish community with a further two orthodox Synagogues, one in the Allerton district of the city and a second in the Childwall district of the city where a significant Jewish community reside. A third orthodox Synagogue in the Greenbank Park area of L17 has recently closed, and is a listed 1930s structure. There is also a Lubavitch Chabad House and a reform Synagogue. Liverpool has had a Jewish community since the mid-18th century. The current Jewish population of Liverpool is around 3000.[17]
Currently there are three mosques in Liverpool: the largest and main one, Al-Rahma mosque, in the Toxteth area of the city.
The area around William Brown Street has been labeled the city's 'Cultural Quarter', owing to the presence of the William Brown Library, Walker Art Gallery and World Museum Liverpool, just three of Liverpool's neo-classical buildings. Nearby is St George's Hall, perhaps the most impressive of these neo-classical buildings. It was built to serve a variety of civic functions, including both as a concert hall and as the city's law courts. Its doors, inscribed "S.P.Q.L." (Latin senatus populusque Liverpudliensis—"the senate and people of Liverpool"), as well as its grand architecture proclaim the municipal pride and ambition of the city in the mid-nineteenth century. Also in this area are Wellington's Column and the Steble Fountain.
The term Red Brick University, applied to British universities dating from a similar period, was inspired by the University of Liverpool's Victoria Building, noted for its clock tower.
The Philharmonic Dining Rooms are noteworthy for their ornate Victorian toilets, which have become a tourist attraction in their own right.
Pier Head is the most famous image of Liverpool, the location of the Three Graces (a fairly recent phrase), three of Liverpool's most recognisable buildings. In order from north to south they are:
They were built on the site of the former George's Dock and Manchester Dock.
In front of these buildings at the water's edge are the memorials to the men of the Merchant Navy who sailed out of the port during both world wars. Memorials to the British mariners, Norwegian, Dutch and to the thousands of Chinese seamen who manned Britain's ships cluster together here. Perhaps most interesting is the Chinese memorial to the men forcibly deported from the city after World War Two and to the families they left behind.[18]
Liverpool's wealth as a port city enabled the construction of two enormous cathedrals, both dating from the 20th century. The Anglican Cathedral, which was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and plays host to the annual Liverpool Shakespeare Festival, has one of the longest naves, largest organs and heaviest and highest peals of bells in the world. The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral, on Mount Pleasant next to Liverpool Science Park was initially planned to be even larger. Of Sir Edwin Lutyens' original design, only the crypt was completed. The cathedral was eventually built to a simpler design by Sir Frederick Gibberd; while this is on a smaller scale than Lutyens' original design, it still manages to incorporate the largest panel of stained glass in the world. The road running between the two cathedrals is called Hope Street, a coincidence which pleases believers. The cathedral is colloquially referred to as "Paddy's Wigwam" due to its shape and the vast number of Irishmen who worked on its construction and are living in the area.
In the south of the city, the art deco former terminal building of Speke Airport, used from the 1930s to 1986, has been adapted for use as a hotel, and is now the Crowne Plaza Liverpool John Lennon Airport. Speke was the first provincial airport in the UK, opened in 1933, and its restored terminal has been described as "still the most coherent example of the first generation of purpose-built airports remaining in Europe." The terraces from which fans welcomed home the Beatles have been preserved.
The Adelphi Hotel on Ranelagh Street is the most famous hotel in Liverpool and was very popular in the days when luxury liners crossed the Atlantic when it was described as the great Cunard liner stuck in the middle of the city. Liverpool was Charles Dickens' favourite city after London, and the Adelphi his favourite hotel in the world. A "fly-on-the-wall" TV documentary series was made on it and its staff.
On Renshaw Street there is the new alternative shopping centre Grand Central Hall which has not only fine external architecture but also has much to offer inside, such as the metalwork and ceiling decoration of the ground floor and the fantastic domed ceiling of Roscoe Hall. It was originally built in 1905, under the guidance of the Methodist Church, as a 2,000-seat cinema. The original organ of Roscoe Hall still remains and is a listed item itself, although recent shop additions to the hall have obscured the view somewhat.
The Atlantic Tower Hotel near Pier Head was designed to resemble the prow of a ship to reflect Liverpool's maritime history.
At 40 storeys, West Tower is Liverpool's tallest building.
King's Dock immediately south of the Albert Dock is the site of the Echo Arena Liverpool and BT Convention Centre which officially opened on the 12 January 2008.
In recent years a number of creative architectural practices have been responsible for a number of innovative projects to revitalise the unused architectural fabric of the city. Notable, award winning, projects include the Greenland Street Gallery for the A Foundation and the Toxteth TV building. Both of these projects were by Liverpool design practice Union North.
The English Heritage National Register of Historic Parks describes Merseyside’s Victorian Parks as collectively the "most important in the country" [19] The city of Liverpool has ten listed parks and cemeteries, including three Grade II*, more than any other English city apart from London.
Liverpool has a long tradition of academic analysis in the field of architecture being home to both the first School of Architecture and the first University Department of Civic Design in the United Kingdom.[20]
Renowned architects are well represented in Liverpool, including Peter Ellis, John Wood, the Elder of Bath (commissioned in 1749 to design the original Public Exchange which later became the Town Hall), Thomas 'Greek' Harrison, James Wyatt, Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, Philip Hardwick, Jesse Hartley (Dock engineer and architect of the Albert Dock and Stanley Dock), Charles Cockerell, Thomas Rickman, John Foster, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, J.J. Scholes, Sir Joseph Paxton, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, J.K. Colling, J.A. Picton, George Edmund Street, John Loughborough Pearson, E.W. Pugin, E.R. Robson, Edmund Kirby, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Sir Frederick Gibberd, Alfred Waterhouse (who was born in Aigburth), W.D. Caroe, Leonard Stokes, Norman Shaw, James Francis Doyle, Walter Aubrey Thomas (architect of the iconic Royal Liver Building on the Liverpool waterfront), Gerald de Courcy Fraser, Charles Reilly and Herbert Rowse (architect of Martins Bank, Queensway Tunnel and India Buildings).
"The finest building in the world" Richard Norman Shaw[21]
"The most perfect hall in the world" Charles Dickens[22]
"Worthy of ancient Athens" Queen Victoria[23]
"The finest neo-classical building in Europe" Nikolaus Pevsner
"In Liverpool, I beheld long China walls of masonry; vast piers of stone; and a succession of granite-rimmed docks, completely inclosed, and many of them communicating, which almost recalled to mind the great American chain of lakes: Ontario, Erie, St. Clair, Huron, Michigan and Superior. The extent and solidity of these structures, seemed equal to what I had read of the old Pyramids of Egypt...In magnitude, cost and durability, the docks of Liverpool, even at the present day surpass all others in the world...For miles you may walk along that riverside, passing dock after dock, like a chain of immense fortresses..." Herman Melville, Redburn - his first voyage, 1849
"For sheer punch, there is little in the early commercial architecture of Europe to emulate it." Nikolaus Pevsner
"the construction is for eternity, not time..." George Holt, 1845[24]
"This is one of the great buildings of the world... The impression of vastness, strength and height no words can describe... Suddenly one sees that the greatest art of architecture, that lifts one up and turns one into a king, yet compels reverence, is the art of enclosing space." John Betjeman, BBC broadcast, 1970[25]
"One of the most remarkable buildings of its date in Europe." Nikolaus Pevsner The Buildings of England, 1951
“almost unbelievably ahead of its time” Nikolaus Pevsner Pioneers of Modern Design, 1949
"The cemetery was made in 1825-9 inside an abandoned quarry. The choice was a stroke of genius. It makes the cemetery the most romantic in England and forms an ideal foil for the cathedral next to it." Nikolaus Pevsner The Buildings of England, 1951
"Among English civic buildings of its date, Liverpool Town Hall is probably only second to London's Mansion House in its richness...This is probably the grandest such suite of civic rooms in the country, an outstanding and complete example of late Georgian decoration..." Sharples, 2004
"next to those in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the best proportioned rooms in Europe" Prince of Wales, 1881[26]
"One of the masterpieces of Victorian commercial architecture, and among Cockerell's greatest works... Only three bays wide, but overwhelmingly massive and powerful." Sharples, 2004
"This is the most remarkable bank interior in the country, and it would be wise for the chairmen of all the big banks to pay a visit to Liverpool in order to see it." Sir Charles Reilly, Professor of Architecture
"Rowse's masterpiece... and among the very best interwar classical buildings in the country." Sharples, 2004
"it would not disgrace Fifth Avenue; indeed it would sit there very happily and those who know most of modern architecture will know that this is very high praise."
Sir Charles Reilly, Professor of Architecture
"He who has not seen the interior of Princes Road synagogue in Liverpool has not beheld the glory of Israel." H.A. Meek, The Synagogue, 1995
Structures of particular architectural note which have been demolished or removed include the Custom House*, Overhead Railway, Goree Warehouses*, Sailors' Home, Central Station, the upper floors of the General Post Office*[27][28] and the facade of the Cotton Exchange.[29]
note: * indicates buildings which suffered bomb-damage during the Second World War, but, in the opinion of some, could have been restored.
In the 1920s, Liverpool's Catholic Archdiocese conceived a truly Brobdingnagian cathedral - larger than St Peter's, Rome - and commissioned the architect Edwin Lutyens to make the conception a reality.[30] It would have taken 200 years to complete. The Great Depression, the Second World War and Liverpool's subsequent economic decline meant it was never realised - only the crypt was completed - and in the 1960s Frederick Gibberd produced a different, cheap, yet innovative creation which sits atop Lutyen's crypt.
Many fine buildings in Liverpool have sunk into decay, yet have not quite given up the unequal struggle against Nature, or are even being restored. Several authors have noted the Piranesian quality of such sites, which include the Williamson Tunnels, St. Andrew's Church,[31][32] Dingle railway station,[33][34] Lower Duke Street, St. James Cemetery[35][36] and the Edge Hill Cutting and Tunnels.[37][38]
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