TWO CATHEDRALS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 107, 2 November 1937, Page 8

TWO CATHEDRALS

LIVERPOOL EDIFICES

ADVANCE OF TltfE WORK

Almost within hailing distance of the unfinished Anglican, Cathedral, and on the same ridge overlooking the city, a second great Liverpool edifice, the Roman' Catholic Cathedral of Christ, the King, is beginning to take shape. A cablegram received today reports the holding of the first Mass in the crypt chapel. Costing £ 3,000,000, it will be the largest cathedral in the world, surpassing ey.en St. Peter's, Rome. The Anglican Cat]hedral, begun in 1904, may be finished in the 19505. The Roman Catholic (^Cathedral, begun in 1933, may take a .century to complete. It will covert five acres—more than twice the area lot its neighbour, which is the largest ilnglican cathedral in the country. The styles of the (two buildings are completely different,) Sir Giles Scott's great work is modern Gothic; Sir Edwin Lutyens, architject of the Roman Catholic cathedral, its style as "Wrenaissance.7 • ■■•■■. The first is in Aed sandstone; the second in brick. The Anglican cathedral is the work off a Roman Catholic; the Roman Catholic cathedral the design of a Protesiant. The east portion; of the Anglican cathedral, with ch<Mr and transepts, is complete, and worse is now proceeding on the tower and (great space beneath. To complete this! £52,000 is still required towards jthe total cost of £350,000 for thejcentral section.. Colonel V. E. '(jidtton, of the Cathedral Committee, staid-to'a "Daily Telegraph" representative recently: "We shall then begin work on the final portion, the nave arid, narthex. If funds are available, it should then be possible to complete the cathedral in about ten-years* Much more than £1 000,000 has been spent so far, and the total cost rnfcy be /£ 2,000,000. At present 220 men/ are employed." 2,000,0d0 BRICKS. Of the Roman) Catholic Cathedral at Brownlow Hill there is less to see, since the work] is still below ground. Thousands of tens of stone have been hewn out, and (in their place the crypt walls are risine towards the floor level of the cathedrtt. More than 2,000,000 bricks, set in cement, and many tons of Cornish granite have been laid. Back to back across the width of the building are two crypt chapels, in one of which,; the Chapel of the Seven Dolours, the Archbishop, Dr. Downey, was to sing the first Mass. ; Hewn out of the rock, from the crypt corridor, opens the Relics Chapel, the rtolling gate at the entrance to which was de •" vered recently. It is an elaborately-carved disc of travertino—a porous marble—and" weighs three tons. ; It is rolled like a wheel away from the opening to the chapel into a slot. An ingenious mechanism of counter-weights has been devised to operate it at a touch. Two years more will be needed to complete the crypt, and theW building at ground level will begin. ' The rate of progress is restricted byj the funds available, but fifteen .years'twill be required, it is estimated, to!' build the east section. ; The main task will ■ fpllo^r—building the enormous body of thfe cathedral and the huge dome, 168 ft in diameter.