Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, officially known as the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King and locally nicknamed "Paddy's Wigwam" or "The Mersey Funnel", is the seat of the Archbishop of Liverpool and the mother church of the Archdiocese of Liverpool in Liverpool, England. The Grade I Metropolitan Cathedral is one of Liverpool's many listed buildings. The cathedral's architect, Frederick Gibberd, was the winner of a worldwide design competition. Construction began in 1962 and was completed in 1967. Earlier designs for a cathedral were proposed in 1933 and 1953, but neither was completed.
History Prior to the English Reformation Liverpool was a small riverside town, and lay in the diocese of Lichfield. In the 18th and 19th centuries, and especially during the Great Irish Famine (1845–1852) the Catholic population of Liverpool increased dramatically. About half a million Irish, who were predominantly Catholic, fled to England to escape the famine; many embarked from Liverpool to travel to North America while others remained in the city. In 1850, when the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales was re-established and because of the increase in the Catholic population, Liverpool was chosen as the seat of one of the 13 new dioceses thus formed. The co-adjutor Bishop of Liverpool, Alexander Goss (1814–1872), saw the need for a cathedral, and chose as its location the grounds of St. Edward's College on St. Domingo Road, Everton.
Pugin's design
In 1853 Goss, then bishop, awarded the commission for the building of the new cathedral to Edward Welby Pugin (1833–1875). By 1856, the Lady chapel of the new cathedral had been completed. Due to financial resources being diverted to the education of Catholic children, work on the building ceased at this point and the Lady chapel – now named Our Lady Immaculate – served as parish church to the local Catholic population until its demolition in the 1980s.
Lutyens' design
Following the purchase of the 9-acre (3.6 ha) former Brownlow Hill workhouse site in 1930, Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944) was commissioned to provide a design that would be an appropriate response to the Giles Gilbert Scott-designed Neo-gothic Anglican cathedral, then partially complete further along Hope Street. Lutyens' design was intended to create a massive structure that would have become the second-largest church in the world. It would have had the world's largest dome, with a diameter of 168 feet (51 m) compared to the 137.7 feet (42.0 m) diameter on St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Building work based on Lutyens' design began on Whit Monday, 5 June 1933, funded mostly by the contributions of working class Catholics of the burgeoning industrial port. In 1941, the restrictions of World War II wartime and a rising cost from £3 million to £27 million (£1.18 billion in 2025), forced construction to stop. In 1956, work recommenced on the crypt, which was finished in 1958. Thereafter, Lutyens' design for the cathedral was considered too costly and was abandoned with only the crypt complete. The restored architectural model of the Lutyens cathedral is on display at the Museum of Liverpool.
Scott's reduced design After the ambitious design by Lutyens fell through, Adrian Gilbert Scott, brother of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (architect of the Anglican Cathedral), was commissioned in 1953 to work on a smaller cathedral design with a £4 million budget (£97 million in 2025). He proposed a scaled-down version of Lutyens' building, retaining the massive dome. Scott's plans were criticised and the building did not go ahead.
Gibberd's design The present Cathedral was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd (1908–1984). Construction began in October 1962 and less than five years later, on the Feast of Pentecost 14 May 1967, the completed cathedral was consecrated. Soon after its opening, it began to exhibit architectural flaws. This led the cathedral authorities to sue Frederick Gibberd for £1.3 million on five counts, the two most serious being leaks in the aluminium roof covering and defects in the mosaic tiles, which had begun to come away from the concrete ribs. The design has been described by Stephen Bayley as "a thin and brittle take on an Oscar Niemeyer original in Brasilia," though Nikolaus Pevsner notes that the resemblance is only superficial. A grade II* listing was given to the Lutyens crypt in 1975, which was amended to include the entire cathedral in 1994. The listing was upgraded to grade I in 2025.
Architecture
Concept The competition to design the cathedral was held in 1959. The requirement was first, seating for a congregation of 3,000 (later reduced to 2,000) all with direct line of sight to the altar, so they could be more involved in the celebration of the Mass; and, second, for the existing Lutyens crypt to be incorporated in the structure. Gibberd achieved these requirements by designing a circular building with the altar at its centre, and by transforming the roof of the crypt into an elevated platform, with the cathedral standing at one end. The construction contract was let to Taylor Woodrow.
Exterior
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