Gustav Adolf Church ( sv, Gustav Adolfs kyrka) or the Scandinavian Seamen's Church ( sv, Skandinaviska sjömanskyrkan) is a historical building located in Park Lane,

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wir ...

, England. It consists of a church, built between 1883 and 1884, and an attached minister's house, and provides a centre for the Liverpool International Nordic Community. The combined church and minister's house 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, a ...

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 I ...

History

During the later part of the 19th century, large numbers of Scandinavian emigrants were passing through Liverpool, and there was a need to serve their spiritual needs. The first Scandinavian priest was appointed in 1870, who visited the emigrants in ships and boarding houses. There was perceived to be a need for a permanent centre. The commission to design a church and minister's house was gained by W. D. Caröe, whose father, Anders Kruuse Caröe, was the Danish Consul in the city. It was Caröe's first independent commission to design a church. Building started in 1883 and was completed the following year, at a cost of £15,000 (). During the 1960s the interior of the church was divided horizontally, when the gallery was removed and a mezzanine floor was added. This was to provide an area for social activity, between the basement and the church itself. At the same time the minister's house was converted from a single-storey building to one with two storeys. Further changes were made in the early 1990s. The lower area was converted into a community meeting room with a kitchen, a café, and other facilities.

Architecture

Exterior

The building is constructed in red brick, with a roof of tiles and

copper sheathing Copper sheathing is the practice of protecting the under-water hull of a ship or boat from the corrosive effects of salt water and biofouling through the use of copper plates affixed to the outside of the hull. It was pioneered and developed b ...

, and consists of a church with a minister's house attached to the southeast. The entrance front on Park Lane is in seven

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 na ...

, and is in two and three storeys with basements. The central bay consists of a three-storey stair tower, containing windows with pointed arches, and surmounted by a lead-covered spire. At the midpoint of the spire are

lucarne In general architecture a lucarne is a term used to describe a dormer window. The original term french: lucarne refers to a dormer window, usually set into the middle of a roof although it can also apply to a façade lucarne, where the gable of t ...

s with wooden

bargeboard Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...

s. To the right of this, the middle of the three bays rises to a greater height, and has a crowstepped

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...

containing three stepped

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet ...

s. The windows in the ground floor of these three bays have segmental heads, those in the middle storey have pointed heads, and the two lateral bays contain

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

windows. Behind the gable, and rising to a greater height is an octagonal lantern. Around this are four gablets, and on its roof are four small

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...

s. The lantern is surmounted by a lead

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 of a dome, spire, towe ...

and cross. The dormers and gablets are decorated with Scandinavian carvings. To the left of the central tower is a modern entrance porch, and to the left of this is the two-storey minister's house, which contains a crowstepped gable on its left side.

Interior

The lower floor contains a meeting room, a kitchen, bedrooms, toilet facilities, showers, an office and a television room. The upper floor, under the central octagonal lantern, comprises the church. Inside the church are five plaster

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s by

Robert Anning Bell Robert Anning Bell (14 April 1863 – 27 November 1933) was an English artist and designer. Early life Robert Anning Bell was born in London on 14 April 1863, the son of Robert George Bell, a cheesemonger, and Mary Charlotte Knight. He studied ...

. These originally formed a

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for e ...

, but are now hung separately in the church. Also in the church are two sculptures by the local sculptor,

Arthur Dooley Arthur John Dooley (17 January 1929 – 7 January 1994) was an English artist and sculptor. Biography Born in the Dingle area of Liverpool, after leaving school at 14, Dooley began work as a welder at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead. I ...

, which depict Christ, and the

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

References

External links