1S41.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



17 



THE ARCHITECTURE OF LIVERPOOL. 



By a Stranger. 



Not deeming myself bound to continue these remarks according to 

 any fixed n\le, I shall merely note each of the " Architecture of Liver- 

 pool" as comes first in my way, during my peregrinations through the 

 town, without regard to their proximity to each other or even their re- 

 lative importance. I shall, therefore, now turn my face towards the 

 place where the wise men of old came from, namely, the east, and 

 •make a few remarks on the Railway Station. This is a mere screen, 

 little better than a blank wall, hiding, instead of setting off, the great 

 works that are going on behind it. It is a long, low, fiat facade, 

 broken into many unmeaning parts, without end or aim, having six 

 and thirty engaged columns very nearly in a line, like a regiment of 

 soldiers leaning against a wall, set upon pedestals, and supporting an 

 entablature, and over the centre and side entrances having heavy 

 masses of stone-work. This station is a great failure. Instead of 

 being a grand substantial gateway, suitable to the commercial dignity 

 of this great town, and the incalculable importance to mercantile men 

 of railway transit, — instead of an entrance suitable in height and dig- 

 nity to so important an object, which, by its outward appearance, 

 should tell of the great things going on behind it, and thus serve as a 

 title page to its contents, here is a long, low waU, ornamented, it is 

 true, with columns, &c., but still giving no one any idea, by its outward 

 expression, of its nature or intents. Every edifice should express its 

 object. A church should display gravity and dignity, a theatre light- 

 ness and gaietv, a prison rude majesty and sturdy strength ; in short, 

 every edifice should, like the countenance, express the spirit. But, 

 in this erection, besides this want of expression for the intended ob- 

 ject, the thing is not good in itself. The expression of a column is 

 that of support to something superincumbent. But what do these 

 support? Why, they are themselves stuck against a wall where they 

 are not required, for, we naturally suppose, a wall can support itself; 

 and over them is an entablature, which might, also, have been sup- 

 ported by the said wall. Moreover, this entablature is in itself but in- 

 diflferent, and it is broken into petty parts, wanting that continuity of 

 outline so necessary in large edifices for effect and dignity; and all 

 this is to no useful purpose, but merely to hide the railway. How much 

 better would it have been to have made these now useless columns 

 available, and placed them at the outside of the pathway, thus form- 

 ing a colonnade, for shelter from sun and rain, with bold but unbroken 

 entablatures ; and, in the centre, made a very large and handsome 

 gateway, worthy of the town, somewhat similar in style to those of 

 Birmingham and London, albeit they are not quite faultless. But I 

 must, in justice, add, that the columns are well wrought and propor- 

 tionate, the mouldings good, and the basement and pedestals bold, 

 substantial, and somewhat original. 



One of the most important architectural edifices in the town, as well 

 from its size and prominent position as from its cost, is Saint Luke's 

 Church, which crowns the summit of a gentle ascent, and forms a 

 beautiful termination to the view at the south-east end of Bold-street. 

 It is one of the finest and most picturesque buildings of its kind in the 

 county. This has been a most successful attempt at the opprobriously 

 termed Gothic, a name sarcastically applied to the sublime architec- 

 ture of the middle ages, by Sir Christopher Wren, whose own taste- 

 less attempts in that style show hovv little he understood the artist- 

 like feelings or the grand conceptions that enabled the monastic archi- 

 tects to raise edifices remarkable for boldness, scientific construction, 

 and that fascinating and almost magical effect of chequered light and 

 shade, which, combining, at times, the most playful effects, as in their 

 small oratories and chapels, and, at others, the most sublime and ele- 

 vating, raising the feelings of the devout, and appalling even the infi- 

 del, produced architectural effects that have not been equalled even in 

 the present day of knowledge and enlightenment. St. Luke's Church 

 consists of a nave, chancel, and tower. The details of the exterior of 

 this church are exceedingly good, and show that the architect had a 

 chaste appreciation of that style. The windows, battlements, but- 

 tresses, pinnacles, &c. are almost all unexceptionable, which, with the 

 admirable tone of colour in the stone, produce a very fine effect. The 

 chancel is a copy of the Beauchamp Chapel, at Warwick. This chan- 

 cel, though beautiful enough in itself, looks sadly likely an excrescence 

 or after-thought, tacked on to the main building, which idea is still 

 further kept up by the difference of style, which is of later date than 

 that of the nave. Why should this have been done in a modern edi- 

 fice ? Why, in an edifice built at the same period, combine the incon- 

 gruous styles of several periods? for, in the Gothic style, there are 

 many eras, each characterized by certain distinct features essentially 

 different from all the rest : and thus the antiquary may trace the date of 

 erection of almost any ancient building to within a very few years. It 



may be replied, that there are remains of many buildings of different 

 styles. True. But the reason is, that they were built at different 

 periods, each in accordance with the style of its own date, thus creat- 

 ing a great jumble of styles, often picturesque, but rarely chaste or 

 coirect, or forming one homogenous mass. Nor can any one produce 

 a single ancient edifice built at the same ]ieriod but inditterent styles. 

 Thus we plainly see, that this mixing of stvles is neitlier in accordance 

 with reason nor the beautiful examples of antiquity now remaining 

 unto us. The tower of this church is square, with turrets at each 

 angle running up, and finishing with small battlements. The lower 

 part contains a deeply-recessed doorway, with bold shafts and mould- 

 ings. Above is a "perpendicular" window, which is semewhat dis- 

 proportionately short. The clock, in the centre of a row of paneUing, 

 comes next, and then the belfry-window, of &cora/erf character, being 

 filled with flowing tracery. The upper part of the tower is finished 

 with a profusion of graceful panelling, and terminated with perforated 

 battlements of chaste design. The whole is exquisitely beautiful and 

 picturesque ; nor do I know any modern tower which has so fine an 

 effect as this. Whether the sun shines broadly over its top, as it 

 stands boldly out against the clear distant blue of the sky, or clouds 

 chequer the face, the eft'ect is equally beautiful, combining fair pro- 

 portions with the chastest details. But there is, I think, one ana- 

 chronism that, to an antiquarian eye, mars the whole : it is like the 

 mole upon the fair face of some otherwise exquisitely beautiful girl. 

 The lower window is of about the date of 1450, that of the upper one 

 about 1370, and is copied, I suspect, from one in Worstead Church, 

 Norfolk. Therefore, even if the tower were built to imitate different 

 periods, which I can hardly imagine, they have placed the oldest style 

 upon the top of the more modern one ; so that an Irishman might 

 blunder upon the idea, that they had commenced building at the top, 

 and gradually travelled down to modern times. One has heard of 

 "building castles in the air-." surely the architect of this edifice in- 

 tended to illustrate the saying. The ground on which this edifice is 

 built being much higher at one end than the other, the architect, by 

 way of obtaining a level, has constructed a large and handsome flight 

 of steps, though somewhat too high, ai one end, occupying the whole 

 width of the edifice. This gets over the difficulty ; but, although this 

 may be a beauty to a Grecian temple, which was always placed upon 

 the uppermost of a flight of steps surrounding the building, it is incon- 

 sistent with this style of architecture, and but few examples remain of 

 such, except here and there upon the continent. Of the interior, with 

 much that is good, there is much that is indifterent: the details are 

 often excellent in design, but poor in execution, not having suflScient 

 boldness or projection. The cornice from which the roof springs, 

 especially, is much too small, the bases of the piers are miserable, the 

 shafts against the outer wall, supporting the aisle roof, are poor and 

 thin: but yet, with all these defects, in consequence of the excellence 

 of other parts, the absence of that great defect in Gothic architecture, 

 side galleries, and the expense lavished upon the whole, there is an 

 eft'ect produced that is highly pleasing, and renders the lout ensemble 

 of this edifice one of the finest of its kind in this county, if not in the 

 country. The entrance gates are much too small and unimportant, 

 and resemble the upper portions of pinnacles cut oft" and placed there, 

 and are, besides, much too numerous. How much better would have 

 been large, bold, and handsome piers, or arched gateways, than these 

 expensive frittered pieces of gingerbread, which must, altogether, 

 have cost many, many hundred pounds. 



Few things more strike a stranger's notice, or give him a better idea 

 of the wealth of this most wealthy town, than the number and excel- 

 lence of the banking-houses. To orter remarks upon a very small 

 number would extend these papers too far, but there are two just com- 

 pleted that may be worthy of notice, viz., the North and South Wales 

 Bank and the Union Bank. The former is one of the handsomest in 

 the town ; but, in criticizing any architectural work, the critic should 

 make himself acquainted with the pecuUar circumstances under which 

 the architect was placed, and endeavour to discover what control they 

 exercised over his design. Upon a cursory examination of this bank, 

 it is evident the architect had to contend with difficulties of no mean 

 order, such as his ground being irregular in shape, and, also, the ne- 

 cessity of getting sufficient accommodation within a very confined 

 space, thus compelling him to obtain in lieight what he wanted in 

 superficies; and, yet, here are enormous difficulties overcome, and a 

 handsome edifice, in conclusion, remains. The entrance front consists 

 of a Corinthian portico, in antis ; the columns, which are very rich and 

 handsome, being just disengaged from the wall and set upon pedestals, 

 the whole being surmounted by a pediment, with rich cornice, &c. 

 There are, in the centre, a doorway and two windows, one above the 

 other, but the ornaments of all these are inferior to the rest of the 

 work. The side consists of a row of six pilasters and three tiers of 



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