The cathedral that isn't

[cosmolinguist]

Despite my brain being very bad to me today, and waking James up from a nap by coughing until I vomited, I am having a good time in Liverpool.

I'm glad to be without the prejudices of the English: living in Manchester I can't even say that I'm going on a little holiday to Liverpool without being met with derision. If I listened to that I'd never know how nice Liverpool can be. I'm always overwhelmed by how much there is to look at here when I'm walking around. I'm no lover of architecture but I think I might be if I lived here: I can't stop wondering about how everything was built, who did it, how it go to be that way.

Especially today, after we went to the Lutyens Crypt in the Catholic cathedral. Sir Edwin Lutyens was the designer of what would've been an extraordinary cathedral, vaguely Taj-Mahal-like, and by far the biggest cathedral in the world. That building was started in 1933, with the crypt, and stopped by World War II, at which point there wasn't even a roof on the crypt yet. When the rest of the plans were costed up after the war, the massively prohibitive cost doomed the plan, and instead the Archdiocese of Liverpool got a cathedral that took only five years to build and was finished in 1967.

The staff we chatted with, who show people around the crypt as part of their job, said how glad they were that they have the cathedral they do instead of that one, and indeed I adore the Catholic cathedral (my favorite cathedral in Liverpool is always whichever I've been to most recently), but the image of three statues of Liberty fitting in the height of the Lutyens cathedral dome and the line drawings I saw of how it'd dwarf the Three Graces or the Houses of Parliament can't help but leave me with a little pang of wistfulness for what it would've been like.

One of the things I find hardest to wrap my brain around is not its scale in space but in time: our tour guide said the Lutyens cathedral might have been finished by the time Liverpool was City of Culture, and that was 2008.

I remember in college reading about the construction of medieval cathedrals, which could take a hundred years; those in the early stages of building knew they would not live to see their work completed. In this age of individual vision and artistry, such a communal act over such a long time seems as marvelous and incomprehensible to me as the deity to which this cathedral is dedicated used to seem to me back when I was a good Catholic girl.

Comments

[kaberett]

Thank you for this (and bah for having failed at being in Manchester a weekend you are too!)

[cosmolinguist]

I will be back in Manchester tomorrow afternoon!

[kaberett]

HMM, I say.

[sfred]

Thank you for writing this.
I haven't been to Liverpool since about 1999: I should fix that. I liked it. My then-boyfriend's high school prize day thing (in '97, during our first year of university) was in the Catholic cathedral: beautiful building.

[cosmolinguist]

It really is striking, and I love how the cathedral manages to seem small and cozy despite fitting so many people in it, by having seats almost all the way around so no one's too far from where all the action takes place.

The crypt is a totally different and really extraordinary thing; I can't recommend it enough.

[jojomojo.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_National_Cathedral is quite impressive in that regard, in a modern sense. Not quite 100 years, but not far off. :)

[cosmolinguist]

Ooh, I didn't know anything about that; how interesting. Thanks for mentioning it!

[haggis.livejournal.com]

You're right, there are some really lovely bits of Liverpool. I had a weekend away there with Jacq and it was really nice to see the city centre instead of visiting D's family on the outskirts.

[cosmolinguist]

We've got a hotel right in the city centre (the Adelphi), so we've been able to just wander around and do interesting things, it's really fun.

[happychocolate.livejournal.com]

Yay Liverpool is awesome! :D

[cosmolinguist]

James lived here for fifteen years and really likes Liverpool, so it's a lot of fun coming here with him.

[hartleyhare.livejournal.com]

Liverpool has some stunning buildings. I love the Walker Art Gallery.

Say hi to Newton-le-Willowsfor me from the train on your way home!

[cosmolinguist]

James and I always leave Liverpool with a bigger list of things we want to come back to do there than things we've managed to do while there.

Poor sleep and lurgy managed to keep us pretty unambitious on this trip through, so while we also had the Walker Art Gallery recommended to us again today, I haven't managed to go there yet.

We're already talking about our next trip there, though; hopefully in January or February.