Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King

Photo from jonathan.rawle.org

I only saw this building at a distance and sadly didn’t get a chance to go and have a closer look; I have since found out that this is Liverpool’s Roman Catholic Cathedral. The building itself has quite an interesting history; plans were being deliberate from 1847 when the first design for Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool was first commissioned, to 1960 when a worldwide competition was launched to find a new and more affordable design.

The selected design was done by Sir Frederick Gibberd, its outside construction is both imposing and striking, as is necessary for it to be so noticeable from a distance. I am not totally sure if I like the look of the exterior, one book I read on Liverpool Architecture described it as “product of the space age” and a “capsule on the launch-pad, waiting for lift off” both of these are actually quite accurate. Although I admire its ambition and intention I think it is too concrete and abrupt for me to say that I like it.

Photo from Wikipedia

On the other hand the more that I have found out about the interior of this design the more interested I have become. The top part of the design is a large stain glass lantern which floods the building with brightly coloured light. This use of these Multi-Coloured panes are designed to evoke different moods throughout. This element reflects how powerfull colour and lighting can be in altering the feel of something.

Photo From freefoto.com

At the centre of the circular nave underneath the 1000 tonne lantern is the marble alter, having the service conducted from the centre of the congregation is quite a unique feature and puts the speaker at “heart of the circle of worshipers”.

One of the things I like the most about this Cathedral is slogan that it was designed around ‘A Cathedral in our time’. It may be fairly irrelevant to most people, but as I was reading up about this building, the more I saw of the design the more I remembered this phrase. In my opinion this is the mark of a design that has achieved what it set out to even if there are mixed opinions on its architectural style.