Great George Street Congregational Church is on the corner of Great George Street and Nelson Street,

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 ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

, England. It is no longer in use as a

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

church, and has been converted into a community arts centre. Formerly nicknamed The Blackie, it has since been officially named The Black-E. The former church is 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 a designated Grade II

listed building 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 first chapel on the site was built in 1811. The foundation stone was laid in April 1811, and the chapel was opened for worship on 27 May 1812. It cost about £13,000 (), and provided seating for nearly 2,000 people. The chapel was destroyed by fire on 19 February 1840. Plans for a new church were drawn up and provided free by Joseph Franklin, the city architect. The foundation stone for the new church was laid on 7 July 1840, and it opened on 21 October 1841. Its cost was £13,992, and again it seated almost 2,000 people. Worship continued in the church until the last service, which was held in February 1967. The building was acquired later that year by the Peter Moores Foundation. Work then began to convert it into the first community arts project in the United Kingdom, combining a contemporary arts centre with a community centre. In 1975 the interior was remodelled by Kingham Knight Associates, removing all the fittings, and dividing it into two floors. By the 1960s the exterior of the church had become darkened by atmospheric pollution, and was nicknamed "The Blackie". Although the exterior was cleaned in the 1980s, it retained this name until it was formally changed to "The Black-E".

Architecture

The building is constructed in stone, and is in two storeys with a basement. There are nine

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

along the sides. At the junction of the two streets is a semicircular

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

, with

fluted Fluting may refer to: *Fluting (architecture) * Fluting (firearms) * Fluting (geology) * Fluting (glacial) *Fluting (paper) Arts, entertainment, and media *Fluting on the Hump ''Fluting on the Hump'' is the first album by avant-garde band Kin ...

monolithic A monolith is a monument or natural feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock. Monolith or monolithic may also refer to: Architecture * Monolithic architecture, a style of construction in which a building is carved, cast or excavated ...

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

columns carrying a recessed circular tower. Around the tower is a band of small circular windows, and on the top is a shallow dome. Along the sides of the church are Corinthian unfluted

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s, between which are two tiers of windows; the windows in the upper storeys have round heads, and those below have square heads. The only remaining internal feature from the original design is the double staircase with iron

baluster A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its cons ...

s under the dome. The interior of the dome is

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also c ...

ed. Outside the building are ornamental iron railings.

References

{{Commons category, The Black-E, position=left Grade II listed buildings in Liverpool Grade II listed churches in Merseyside Churches completed in 1841 Congregational churches in Merseyside Churches in Liverpool Former churches in Merseyside

History

Architecture

See also

References