Two weekends ago I met up with an old Cambridge friend at the Tate Modern. He is one of those people who has probably never been horrible to anyone in his whole life, and the afternoon I spent was one of the best I had in a long time.
My walk from London Bridge station was surprisingly relaxing. Despite the biting cold. Past Borough market, Southwark Cathedral, cobbled streets, the river and then you come to an open clearing and this beautiful piece of industrial architecture. All clean lines and the perfect juxtoposition with St Paul's directly across the Thames.
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. He's who we have to thank for this. It reminds me of Cambridge University Library, and lo and behold he designed "The Tower". I would be lying if I told you that "The Tower" was my favourite part of the U.L. We all know that would be the tea-room which some part of me thinks was probably a later edition to the building, when the powers-that-be realised that if you were committed enough to go to the U.L you were going to make it worth your while and stay there all day.
I was more surprised however to find that he played his part in the new Anglican cathedral in Liverpool, where the foundation stone was laid in 1904 and the whole building was completed in 1978. I suppose surrounded as I am by a million and one identikit "Barratt homes" that pop up in a matter of months, for a building to have taken 74 years to complete in the twentieth century is in many ways incomprehensible.
I feel a bit ashamed to have
just referred to a beautiful if, compared to some cathedrals not as ornate, building in the same paragraph as Barratt homes. So here's a photograph that I took even more weekends ago when I went to Liverpool to see old school friends, this time.Can you believe that out of the designs submitted for the Anglican Cathedral, his, a 22 year old with no previous buildings to his name, was chosen?
I think you can see links between this and his later work. For the UL, Bankside Power Station, Battersea Power station, and all the other buildings it is his almost signature use of a certain type of brick which tells you that they are brother and sister buildings (sort of). With this, for a cathedral, in the gothic style, is it not overly ornate, there are not too many details to distract from the whole. The solid expanse and the solid tower. This was a guy who liked towers. It's worth mentioning that he died before the cathedral was even completed.
