The Building of Liverpool Cathedral

by Peter Kennerley, Rt Rev David Sheppard

Liverpool Cathedral is one of the largest and greatest church buildings in the world. Peter Kennerley has had unlimited access to the vast archives and he has woven the facts into a fascinating and lively narrative which truly brings the characters and events to life.

232 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2008

Reviews

[Len · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit that I bought this book because of the historical illustrations and, as an illustrated history of the construction and consecration of Liverpool's Anglican cathedral, it is hard to beat. As a Liverpudlian by birth it brings back an awful lot of memories. One of my first jobs after leaving school was in Rodney Street, now a part of Liverpool's Georgian Quarter, and to reach the office where I worked I walked along in front of the Cathedral every day, Monday to Friday, and each day I felt dwarfed by the immensity of the building immediately to my right. I also remember what was left of the old streets of terraced houses that wound up the hill from Great George Street to the cathedral. Not all of them had survived the bombing in the Second World War and, going home on a dark, cold winter's night, they were quite scary until I worked my way down to the bus stop.

As a history of the building of Liverpool Cathedral the volume has a problem. While the photographs are wonderful, if you know the area and the city, the text goes off course and turns into a history of the administration of Liverpool Cathedral. Everything is fine to begin with and the author speaks of the Woolton stone quarries and all of the workers struggling to build the greatest British cathedral since medieval times, as well as the inspirational work of Bishop Chavasse in kickstarting the scheme and the appointment of the brilliant young architect Giles Gilbert Scott. However, as the volume proceeds, one has the feeling while Mr. Kennerley may have interviewed and been familiar with many of the clergy, the local politicians and even the organist and master of the choristers, he was not a man who had ever chatted with a stonemason, a quarryman, a carpenter, a glazier, a sculptor, a bricklayer, or a labourer. Their voices are muted if not silent while the speeches and sermons of those above them are recorded in detail.

The one exception is only known by the intitials "W. J." The author is unable to identify that person, but he, or she, though probably he as there is an outstanding female absence throughout the book, left a written record of events around the 1940s. The extracts from those writings give a welcome relief to the transcripts of well meaning and highly spiritual voices of the worthy.

In its way this is a fascinating book. However, it is not the story of the building of a twentieth-century cathedral. If you want to know and understand the difficulties of running one and have a gallery of fascinating pictures to accompany it, this is the book for you.