[Damon]

It is indeed intriguing to imagine what Hope Street and Mount Pleasant would have looked like had Lutyens' cathedral been continued. However, I can't help thinking that such was its scale, it may only have been about half built by now.

Does anyone have any facts or figures about how long that building would have taken to construct? After all, the Anglican cathedral took 75 years or thereabouts.

Also, I've always intended to go down into the Lutyens crypt but have never got round to it. Has anyone on this board taken a look down there?

 

[Damon]

Also, somewhere in Liverpool there is a huge scale model of Lutyens' cathedral, but I'm not aware that it's on public display. Anyone know where it's kept?

 

[Damon]

Don't know if anyone has looked stuff up on the British Pathe newsreel site before, but you can find some very fascinating footage of the Lutyens cathedral being built back in the thirties. Actually, you can find fascinating footage of all kinds of things, so I'll leave it up to you to choose what you search for...

http://www.britishpathe.com/

 

[Damon]

No worries Dave - think I'll post that link in the Liverpool thread too.

 

[Damon]

I don't know that it was particularly the planned size that was revised. I do know that when Giles Gilbert Scott was selected as the architect, he was deemed so young and inexperienced (I think he was 22!) that another guy worked on the designs with him. There is a model in the cathedral that shows the original design - it was quite different as it had 2 central towers.

However, the other guy (whose name escapes me) died after only a few years and Giles Gilbert Scott completely revised the plans. Hence - one enormo-tower.

 

[Damon]

Agreed!

 

[Damon]

One of the problems that the builders of the cathedral had was that some of the chief patrons were Anglo-Catholic and expected a far more flamboyant style than would be expected in an Anglican cathedral.

Cheers Martin. In fact, wasn't Giles Gilbert Scott himself a Catholic - which led to some significant controversy when he was selected to design the Anglican cathedral!

 

[Damon]

after this architect died Scott just reverted back to how he wanted the cathedral to look on his own

Hmmm, don't want to cast aspirtions on those no longer with us, but if I'd been around at the time I might have suggested that the police look into that death a little more closely...

Scott: "Ha haaa! Now that Bodley is gone, the cathedral is mine, all mine! Nyah ha haaaaa!" <evil snicker>