NEW CATHEDRAL

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20978, 5 October 1933, Page 5

NEW CATHEDRAL

PROJECT -IN LIVERPOOL" ADDRESS BY SIR EDWIN lutyens "From an architect's point ;of view there is 110 task so stupendous both in idea and opportunity, as -that 01 designing a great cathedral. This opportunity has been given to me by his Grace the Archbishop of Liverpool, and can but produce in me humility and its co-agent, Prajei. This metropolitan cathedral will e, after St. Peter's in Rome, one of the largest churches in Christendom, covering with its sacristies, " porches and chapels, more than 300,000 superficial feet. The organisation of the design consists of a sequence of barrel arches intercepted with adventures in their various t lengths, stated Sir Edwin Lutyens recently, in a lecture on the plans of Liverpool s projected Cathedral of Christ the King. "Arches IS feet wide and 45 feet high carry at right-angles arches 22 i'eet wide and 66 feet high, which in turn carry arches 32 feet wide and 96 feet high, and these carry the main vaults 46 feet wide and 138 feet high, rising, incidentally, to 150 feet; the whole converging to carry the great

dome, 168 feet in diameter, covering a height of 300 feet. This plan has the advantage of giving wide pendentives, 80 feet at their base, instead of the pin point springings found both at St. Peter's in Rome and at St. Paul's in London. There are three great triple porches—'north,' 'south,' and 'west,' in lithurgical orientation (actually we must read 'east for north,' etc., in that the church runs from south to north, instead of the liturgical west to east). The 'south' porch is open, in that it is without stairways, and thereby convenient for providing a direct access for carriages. Haven for the Poor. "High above and over the centre arch of the wsst porch will stand the heroic figure of Christ the King, and by this porch the cathedral is entered, through the narthex—a great space of 46 feet by 180 feet—which, it is proposed, shall be open by day and by night without let or hindrance, and kept warm, to become a haven of refuge for the poor. The abutments of the porches will contain first-aid stations and conveniences for the thronging crowds. The narthex will be flanked by the baptistry, and the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, and through the grilles that separate the narthex from the church, the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, the high altar, and the chapel of Our Lady, the Liverpool Queen of the Sea, will be visible through the three great vistas sading to them. 'The holy water stoups will be supplied with water circulating through nlterii and ever moving, ever clean. The confe sionals are planned within trie structure so as not to appear in the form of superabundant furniture. In the nave and transepts 24 chapels are formed, the outer walls being reserved for chantries, shrines, and memorials.

,J\ Processional Organ. a altar, choir, and chapels flanking them are raised 12 feet six above the nave floor. These raised portions will be paved in marble and will be paved with cast iron, beautiful m its dark silver, re- 1 fleeting colour, ancl easy to warm, i Behind the high altar is a range oi four chapels, and beyond these the •?. lr 77 cjrcular on Plan and sunk—with the organ below so that the vocal and instrumental music joine out, as it were, from one mouth in absolute unison. A great processional organ will be placed at the west end. East again of the choir will stand the altar of St. Kentigern—patron ->aint of the Archdiocese—and high over, in the great apse, is a _ tribune, approached , " om „ *h e library, wherefrom his Grace may bless all those within the walls of the cathedral. Titer e are tribunes in each of the three porches, wherefrom a multitude can be addressed and blessed by those who are endowed with due power. In the space between the apses of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and Lady Chapel is the Chapter House, flanked by treasure chambers and ssies at varying levels, "At the extreme east will be two great sacristies, one above the other, and over all the library. This block of building is flanked by circular stairways, with lifts to the several levels. There are sacristies for the archbishop and dignitaries, and others for the boys. Eoonis for the Guilds. . "There are several great rooms for the various guilds attached to the cathedral. There are candle rooms and two choir schools, wherein Gregorian and other liturgical music can be practised separately. In the crypt there is a mortu&ry chapel and two churches, each with four altars, to be used by passing priests, and where there will be greater privacy for such as are lowly and in sorrow. Together with those in the sacristies, the cathedral, will comprise M altars, so that the great place of God may resound with praise and prayer. 1 "Above the main, and below the outer dome, approached both by stairways and lifts, is an ambulatory, with a terrace outside, having a circumference of nearly 300 and an elevation of 300 feet above the level of the nave floor. From this terrace the great city, with the Mersey to the sea, oad far beyond, will lay panoramic to your vision. The height from the lowest step on ,the western front to '.lie top of the lantern will be some 520 feet. "The materials proposed arc—the bricks, after the Roman method, being tiles two feet long by one and a half inches thick, the string course, imposts, and architraves, and other features being of granite. But the great mass of walling will be of brick. It is proposed to face the interior with a Roman stone. The dome is to be covered with granite slabs, carried on everdiminishing ' walls radiating from the inner cone that carries the weight of the lantern on to the haunch of the inner dome, and held by four great 'Y'-shaced buttresses at the four angles, distributing the thrust i:i eight directions. Use of Granite. "I am having tested the sheering stress of granite, so as to build, round the base of the cone, a chain of interlocking granite. For a building of permanence I am reluctant to use new materials which are innocent of long experience, and any two materials, such as steel and cement, with so wide a difference in their habits of expansion and contraction, must create in themselves a slow destructive vibration. Modern building methods are too short-sighted. I am informed that the lime mortar at Carcassonne is still alive. A cathedral should be an abid- j ing witness in stones to the faith of the age that built it."