St Luke's Church, more commonly known by locals as the bombed-out church, is a former

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, England. It stands on the corner of Berry Street and Leece Street, at the top of

Bold Street Bold Street is a street in Liverpool, England. It is known for its cafés and for the Church of St Luke, Liverpool, Church of St Luke, which is situated at the top end. The bottom end leads into the area surrounding Clayton Square, which is par ...

. The church was built between 1811 and 1832, and was designed by John Foster, Sr. and John Foster, Jr., father and son who were successive surveyors for the municipal

Corporation of Liverpool Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 90 councillors, three for each of the city's 30 wards. The council is currently controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Mayor ...

. In addition to being a parish church, it was also intended to be used as a venue for ceremonial worship by the corporation and as a concert hall. The church was badly damaged by bombs during the

Liverpool Blitz The Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the English city of Liverpool and its surrounding area, during the Second World War by the German ''Luftwaffe''. Liverpool was the most heavily bombed area of the country, outside Lo ...

in 1941 and has been a roofless shell ever since, giving rise to its nickname. It now stands as a memorial to those who died in the war, and has also been hired as a venue for exhibitions and events. The church and its surrounding walls, gates, and railings are recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

as designated Grade II*

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The site for the church was given by

Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby PC (1 September 1752 ( O.S.) – 21 October 1834), usually styled Lord Stanley from 1771 to 1776, was a British peer and politician of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He held office a ...

in 1791 on condition that the land should never be used for any other purpose than that of a church. Plans for the design of the church were first drawn up in 1802 by John Foster, senior, the surveyor of the Corporation of Liverpool, but the foundation stone was not laid until 9 April 1811. Building work, supervised by Foster, progressed slowly, and during this time the plans were amended to make the building suitable both as a ceremonial place of worship for members of the corporation, and also for use as a concert hall. In 1822 it was decided to add a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

to the church. Foster's son, also named John, took over the role of Corporation surveyor and continued to supervise the building, making further changes to the design in 1827. Building was finally completed in 1832. The church was known as "the doctor's church" because of its location near to Rodney Street, the home of many doctors. It continued to be used as a concert hall as well as a church until the Philharmonic Hall in Hope Street opened in 1849. Between 1864 and 1873 minor alterations were made to the church by W. & G. Audsley. On 6 May 1941, during Liverpool's "

May Blitz May Blitz was a Canadian-British hard rock power trio that was active in the early 1970s. The group was formed in 1969 by bassist Terry Poole and drummer Keith Baker, the rhythm section of the blues-rock trio Bakerloo, both of whom l ...

", the church was hit by an

incendiary device Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, th ...

that caused a large fire, leaving only the burnt-out shell of the former church. It has since been nicknamed "the bombed-out church". It has been decided to maintain the church as it is, a burnt-out shell, as a memorial to those who died as a result of the war. The church was designated as a Grade II* listed building on 28 June 1952. This is the middle of the three grades, which is defined by English Heritage as containing "particularly important buildings of more than special interest".

Present day

From 2007 to 2014,

Urban Strawberry Lunch Urban Strawberry Lunch (USL) were an English, Liverpool based group and Community Arts organisation, who made music on everyday objects. Formed by Benjamin F Tin and Ambrose Reynolds in 1987, USL began making their own musical instruments after a ...

organised the day-to-day maintenance of St Lukes and coordinated exhibitions and events inside the grounds. In addition to this, they arranged showings of films, and many dance, poetry, and drama performances. In 2014, Ambrose Reynolds, former artistic director for

, joined other members of the community to create a new organisation, 'Bombed Out Church'; named after the building's colloquial name. They have since continued the work started by USL, maintaining the church as a creative hub for the local community.

Architecture

Lost features

Originally there were two

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

s, and the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

had a groined ceiling, which was "richly ornamented". The whole roof and the arcades separating the aisles from the nave were lost as a result of the bomb damage. The roof of the tower has also been lost. Many of the windows contained stained glass, but now only fragments of glass remain. There was a

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

of eight bells, cast in 1818 by William Dobson of

Downham Market Downham Market, sometimes simply referred to as Downham, is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It lies on the edge of the Fens, on the River Great Ouse, approximately 11 miles south of King's Lynn, 39 miles west of Norwich and 3 ...

at a cost of £645 (). As a result of the fire in 1941, five of the bells fell from the tower and the other three were badly cracked. The clock, made by Roskell's of

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

, also fell to the ground. The three-

manual Manual may refer to: Instructions * User guide * Owner's manual * Instruction manual (gaming) * Online help Other uses * Manual (music), a keyboard, as for an organ * Manual (band) * Manual transmission * Manual, a bicycle technique similar to ...

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

was also destroyed in the fire. It had been made by

Gray and Davison Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

in 1865, and improvements had been made to it by

Rushworth and Dreaper Rushworth and Dreaper was a firm of organ builders, and later general instrument suppliers associated with Paul McCartney based in Liverpool. The manufacturer was founded in 1828 by William Rushworth, operating until 2002. Upon its liquidation, ...

in 1902.

Remaining structure

St Luke's is constructed in

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

, and is in

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

style. Its plan currently consists of a five- bay nave, a four-bay chancel with an

apsidal In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

end, and a west tower. There are porches in the angles between the tower and the nave, and between the nave and the chancel. The tower is in three stages, with polygonal

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es at the corners. The bottom stage of the tower contains a west entrance. In the middle stage, on all sides, are three-light windows, a traceried

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

, and a clock face. In the top stage are four-light windows under

ogival An ogive ( ) is the roundly tapered end of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional object. Ogive curves and surfaces are used in engineering, architecture and woodworking. Etymology The earliest use of the word ''ogive'' is found in the 13th c ...

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin ''labia'', lip), drip mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''pediment''. This mouldin ...

s. At the summit of the tower is a

battlement A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

, with flat-headed

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

s at the corners. Within the tower is the surviving

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

bell frame, made in 1828 by George Gilliband. This is considered to be the first metal bell frame to be made in the world. Along the sides of the nave are five three-light windows, separated by panelled buttresses that rise to

crocket A crocket (or croquet) is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the French ''croc'', meaning "hook", due to the resemblance of crockets to a bishop's crosier. Description ...

ed pinnacles. The windows at the sides of the chancel also have three lights, and the east window has five lights. The chancel buttresses rise to octagonal

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

s with flat tops. Inside the church is a surviving brick chancel arch. Under the church is a

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

, which is not accessible to the general public. One of its windows has retained stained glass that depicts a

liver bird The liver bird is a mythical creature which is the symbol of the English city of Liverpool. It is normally represented as a cormorant, and appears as such on the city's arms, in which it bears a branch of laver seaweed in its beak as a furth ...

External features

The area around the church has never been used for burials, and was laid out as a garden in 1885. Originally it was enclosed by a solid wall, with doorways under pointed arches. This was replaced between 1829 and 1832 by John Foster, junior, by the current enclosure. This consists of cast iron railings on sandstone

plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In c ...

walls, and cast iron gates between sandstone

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

. Steps lead down on all sides to the surrounding streets. The gate piers are panelled, and have crocketed heads. The whole structure was designated as a Grade II* listed building on 14 March 1975. In the churchyard is the Irish Famine Memorial, sculpted by Éamonn O'Docherty, which has been erected to commemorate those who died as a result of the

Irish Famine The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a h ...

in the middle of the 19th century. It was opened by the

President of Ireland The president of Ireland ( ga, Uachtarán na hÉireann) is the head of state of Republic of Ireland, Ireland and the supreme commander of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces. The president holds office for seven years, and can ...

in 1998, and carries inscriptions in

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

and in English. There is also a Christmas truce sculpture, known as "All Together Now" by Andy Edwards in the garden, depicting a British and German soldier commencing a football game at Christmas 1914.

References

External links

The History of St Luke's Bombed Out ChurchShort article in the Liverpool EchoCalendar of events
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Lukes Church, Liverpool

Liverpool, Church of St Luke Ruins of churches destroyed during World War II Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool Liverpool, Church of St Luke Parks and commons in Liverpool Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Merseyside Unused buildings in Liverpool