The site of the hall was formerly occupied by the first
Liverpool Infirmary from 1749 to 1824. Triennial music festivals were held in
the city but there was no suitable hall to accommodate them. Following a public
meeting in 1836 a company was formed to raise subscriptions for a hall in
Liverpool to be used for the festivals, and for meetings, dinners and concerts.
Shares were made available at £25 each and by January 1837 £23,350 (£1,760,060
as of 2012)] had been raised. In 1838 the foundation stone was laid to
commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria . A competition in 1839 to design
the hall was won by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, a London architect aged 25 years.
There was a need for assize courts in the city and a competition to design
these was also won by Elmes. The original plan was to have separate buildings
but in 1840 Elmes suggested that both functions could be combined in one
building on a scale which would surpass most of the other public buildings in
the country at the time. Construction started in 1841, the building opened in
1854 (with the small concert room opening two years later). Elmes died in 1847
and the work was continued by John Weightman, Corporation Surveyor, and Robert
Rawlinson, structural engineer, until in 1851 Sir Charles Cockerel was
appointed architect. Cockerell was largely responsible for the decoration of
the interiors During the 2000s a major restoration of the hall took place
costing £23m and it was officially reopened on 23 April 2007 by HRH Prince of
Wales.
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A rare aerial shot of the pre blitzed St George's Hall in Feb
1941
it was damaged in an air raid just 12 weeks later
Photo courtesy of Ged Fagan 'Inacityliving'
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Organ and organists
The organ was built by Henry Willis and completed in 1855
with 100 speaking stops across four manual divisions (of non-standard compass,
63 notes GG to a) and pedals (30 notes). It comprised a total of 119 ranks of
pipes, plus 10 couplers, 10 composition pedals, and 36 pistons to set
combinations of stops. It was initially tuned to meantone temperament to the
specification of S. S. Wesley but in 1867 W. T. Best, city organist, retuned it
to equal temperament. The organ was rebuilt in 1896 when the key action was
changed from the Willis-Barker lever assisted tracker (i.e. pneumatic assisted
mechanical) action to pneumatic action. Also the manual compass was changed to
the now standard CC to c, 61 notes, making the bottom 5 pipes on every manual
stop redundant. In 1931 it was reconstructed by Henry Willis III when the
number of stops was increased to 120 and electro-pneumatic action introduced
for the combination systems and some of the key action. Its power source was
still the Rockingham electric blowing plant which had replaced the two steam
engines (one of 1855 and a second which had been added in about 1877 to run the
increased pressure required since 1867 for some reed stops. In the interim this
higher pressure had been hand blown!) The 1924 electric blowers remained in use
until 2000 when the present new low and high pressure blowers were fitted by
David Wells.
In 1979 it was given a general clean and overhaul by Henry
Willis IV. The total number of registers, including 24 couplers, is 144. With
7,737 pipes, it was the largest organ in the country until a larger one was
built at the Royal Albert Hall in 1871, after which an organ even larger than
the one at the Royal Albert Hall was constructed at Liverpool Anglican
Cathedral, using over 10,000 pipes.
As part of the 2000–2007 restoration of the hall repairs
were made to the organ, including replacement of the bellows leather. The organ
is maintained by David Wells, Organ Builders.
The first organist was W. T. Best (1826–97) who was appointed
in 1855 and served until 1894. He was succeeded in 1896 by Dr Albert Lister
Peace (1844–1912) who continued in the post until the year of his death. In
1913 Herbert Frederick Ellingford (1876–1966) was appointed organist. On 21
December 1940 the hall and its organ were damaged in an air-raid. It was not
possible to obtain sufficient money to rebuild the organ until the 1950s. In
1954 Henry Willis & Sons were asked to undertake this project and Dr
Caleb E. Jarvis (1903–80) was its consultant. Dr Jarvis was appointed organist
in 1957 and on his death in 1980 he was succeeded by Noel Rawsthorne (born
1929), who had just retired as organist to the Anglican Cathedral. Noel
Rawsthorne served as organist to the hall for four years. Following his
retirement in 1984, Professor Ian Tracey, who is also Organist Titulaire of the
Anglican Cathedral, was appointed to the post.
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The Magnificent Minton Floor in St George's Hall Liverpool.
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The interior is dominated by the main hall 169 feet long
with a floor of Minton tiles which is normally protected from the feet of the
day to day users, but opened to viewing usually once a year.
The St George's Hall Courts
The Florence Maybrick Trial
"Of all the famous trials that were heard in St
George’s Hall in Liverpool, the case that lingers in the mind of people to this
very day was the story of Florence Maybrick in 1889.
She stood trial for the murder of her husband, James
Maybrick. Florence was a southern belle from Alabama, and James Maybrick was a
Liverpool cotton-broker, 20 years older than Florence. Maybrick was obsessed
about his health, he was a hypochondriac and he purchased arsenic on a regular
basis.
Florence purchased 12 dozen fly-papers, soaked them to
obtain from them arsenic, claiming later it was for her complexion. Maybrick’s
health deteriorated rapidly and he finally died. They discovered at the autopsy
a presence of arsenic in his system.James Maybrick also had a mistress in
London.The relationship between Florence and James deteriorated and was accelerated
by Florence meeting another man in her life.
Florence stood trial at St George’s Hall on July 1899 and
was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. She was reprieved at the
last moment and served 15 years’ imprisonment. Mr Justice Steven, who presided
at the trial, seemed to be trying her along with the jury for adultery rather
than murder because the evidence against her was wafer thin because of course
Maybrick had taken arsenic himself.
This is regarded as one of the most famous cases of a miscarriage
of justice and remains a concern to crime historians to this very day.
Florence Maybrick was extremely fortunate and her life was
saved by having as counsel Sir Charles Russell, who believed in her innocence
and during the long years of 15 years imprisonment he visited her on a regular
basis, pleading constantly for her to be release.
Liverpool’s St George’s Hall has seen the presence of some
of the greatest counsel this country has ever produced. Marshall Hall, Sir
Patrick Hastings, F.E. Smith, the local man, who rose to be Lord Chancellor.
Charles Russell certainly compared favourably with any of
them and I believe Florence owed him a great debt for believing as I believe
that she should never of been convicted for this murder.
On her release, after 15 long years, she returned to her
native America, wrote her life story and died in 1941. She returned to this
country once and that was to see the Grand National. "
Small concert room
Small concert room
The room has a capacity of 1,200 and the stage was designed
to accommodate an orchestra of 60 performers and a semi-chorus of 70.
The room's fabric is deceptive and much of the decoration is
not wood, marble or stone but made from plaster.
The entrance hall has a frieze based on the Parthenon, but
does include one slight aberration - a man in what appears to be a bowler hat
on a horse!
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A traditional Greek bowler hat.
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