Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

Liverpool’s second cathedral, designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd, is a cathedral for a new world. It’s very shape is striking, known affectionately as “the Mersey Funnel or Paddy’s Wigwam”. The Cathedral is modernist masterpiece. It is the largest Catholic place of worship in the UK. However it didn’t start that way.

Following the Irish Famine, Liverpool had a large Catholic population and it was felt there was a need for a cathedral. The site of the Brownlow Hill workhouse was purchased and Sir Edwin Lutyens was commissioned to design it. His design was intended to dwarf the Anglican Cathedral being built at the other end of Hope Street. It would have had a dome larger than St Peter’s Basilica. However war and rising costs brought work to a halt. All that was built was the massive crypt.

In the late 1950s, Sir Frederick Gibberd, won the design competition to build the new cathedral. It was built in less than five years, being completed in 1967. The cathedral’s inherent design was for all celebrants to see the altar. Therefore the building is circular with thirteen side chapels. The huge space is illuminated by the multi-coloured sixteen sided lantern.

The walk should take no more than two to three hours and should cover no more than about six to eight kilometres. Participants will have opportunities to photograph stained glass windows and roof lantern, the large interior space and the side chapels that are all contained within this large modernist religious structure as well as the vast outside space with the white buttresses that form the ribs of the building. If the participants opt to tour the Lutyens Crypt there is an admission fee of £5.

The cathedral is on level ground but there are steps to access the main entrance from Mount Pleasant. Also worth noting is that lighting is dim within the interior space so a high ISO maybe needed. There isn't any eatery within the cathedral precinct so a packed lunch and refreshments may need to be considered