Qualla: Stained Glass in Liverpool Cathedral

Stained Glass in Liverpool Cathedral: Introduction

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rept0n1x, CC BY-SA 3.0. Carl Edwards was finishing windows in Liverpool Cathedral in the 1970s that the previous generation had begun designing in 1907. Seventy years stretched between the first competition and the last installation. World wars, technological revolutions, and shifts in religious art all intervened. The glass that fills the largest Anglican cathedral in Europe is consequently not one collection but several - dark Edwardian work in deep blues and reds in the Lady Chapel, simplified mid-century reinterpretations of windows destroyed by Luftwaffe bombs, and finally the radiantly luminous post-war glass with its almost abstract jewel-tone clarity. The whole survey can be read as a textbook of twentieth-century stained-glass art, all under one Gilbert Scott roof.

Image: Rept0n1x | CC BY-SA 3.0

Stained Glass in Liverpool Cathedral: A Committee, an Architect, an Agreement

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Basher Eyre, CC BY-SA 2.0. Giles Gilbert Scott won the cathedral design competition in 1903 at the age of 22. The foundation stone was laid on 19 July 1904. The cathedral would not be completed until 1979. From the beginning, Scott understood that the glazing would take generations, and he established a St...

Image: Basher Eyre | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stained Glass in Liverpool Cathedral: The Lady Chapel and the Noble Women

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rodhullandemu, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Lady Chapel was the earliest part of the cathedral built, completed in 1910 before the rest of the structure had even risen above its foundations. The committee held a separate stained-glass competition for it in 1907, won by James Powell and Sons of Whitefriars Glass with de...

Image: Rodhullandemu | CC BY-SA 4.0

Stained Glass in Liverpool Cathedral: The Te Deum Window

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0. The east end of the cathedral is dominated by Brown's Te Deum window - a massive composition rising above the high altar that depicts the heavenly choir praising God in the language of the ancient hymn. Below the risen Christ at the top, four lancets show the four communities men...

Image: David Dixon | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stained Glass in Liverpool Cathedral: Bombed and Reborn

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John S Turner, CC BY-SA 2.0. When the Luftwaffe came on 6 September 1940, much of the new cathedral's glass shattered. The Lady Chapel lost everything. The War Memorial Chapel window by Brown - which dealt with First World War sacrifice - was destroyed. The south choir aisle Gospel windows were destroyed. Ea...

Image: John S Turner | CC BY-SA 2.0

Stained Glass in Liverpool Cathedral: The West Window: Benedicite

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eirian Evans, CC BY-SA 2.0. Scott died in 1960. The west end of the cathedral was unfinished. Scott's original design had called for a small rose window and an elaborate porch. After his death, two of his colleagues - Frederick Thomas and Roger Pinkney - simplified the west front into a flat composition wit...

Image: Eirian Evans | CC BY-SA 2.0