Luytens’ Crypt in Liverpool | Atlas Obscura

The Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral is one of Liverpool’s two largest churches as well as a notable part of Liverpool’s skyline. The brutalist Catholic church features a conical structure topped by a cylindrical spire. The interior is noted for its unusual round layout, with the altar placed at the center of the church and with chapels arranged along the church’s periphery.

However, what is truly unexpected for such a modern and unconventional church is the spacious neoclassical crypt hidden directly underneath it. The reason why the architectural styles of the top and bottom parts of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral differ so dramatically from each other is a consequence of the complicated history of the building’s construction. 

The local Catholic church leadership decided in 1922 to pursue the construction of a cathedral for the city’s burgeoning Catholic population, and they initially employed famed British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens to design the church. Luytens’ design featured an enormous neoclassical brick building topped with a giant dome that would have been 520 feet (158 m) tall. Such a building would have been comparable in size to the Liverpool Cathedral being built nearby by the Church of England at the same time, and its dome specifically would have been bigger than the dome of St. Peter’s in Rome.

The cornerstone was laid in 1933, and construction proceeded on the cathedral’s crypt until rising costs and disruptions from World War II brought the building work to a stop. Sir Edwin Luytens would unfortunately pass away in 1944 without seeing the realization of his grand project.

The worksite stood idle for multiple years after World War II simply because the original design was too costly to construct. In 1960, a competition was held to redesign the church so that the something affordable could be placed at the incomplete construction site, and Sir Frederick Gibberd’s brutalist conical design won. Construction of the concrete structure on top of Luyten’s neoclassical crypt began in 1962, and by 1967, the new brutalist cathedral was completed and consecrated.

While the brutalist cathedral is widely recognized as one of Liverpool’s architectural treasures and while it still plays a major role in Liverpool’s society today, the crypt is not only less prominent architecturally but also psychologically. Still, the crypt continues to be used by the church for multiple purposes. The crypt contains chapels and meeting spaces as well as a small exhibtion area and a treasury containing many historical religious items from a range of time periods extending to before the Reformation. Visitors to this hidden area can not only learn about the history of the cathedral but get insights into the original architect’s ambitions for the building.