Liverpool Cathedral, big and bold

Extract from my new book, English Cathedrals. Capturing the wonder of these very special places in 60 exciting drawings. Order via http://bit.ly/2tbCoE

Let’s talk about Giles. Aged 21, Giles Gilbert Scott (George’s son) entered and won the design competition, for a new cathedral in Liverpool. Until this point he had only designed a pipe rack. The good and the great of Liverpool were hesitant about their decision so Giles built the Lady Chapel as a starter, under supervision of G.F. Bodley, and together they had finished it by 1910. 

The Cathedral Church of Christ is bigger than St Paul’s or Westminster Abbey. Blessed with the largest Gothic arches in the world, it almost overpowers with its height and breadth. 

The cathedral was finished in 1978, nearly two decades after Scott's death. Liverpool, like Coventry and Canterbury, looms large in the canon of our great church buildings.