I am constantly on the lookout for relevant articles of
historic interest to add to this web page, and try to avoid mundane stories
that people have heard many times before, on a recent bus journey into
Liverpool I passed the ‘Blackie’ and remembering various snippets of its
history, made a mental note to find out what its current status was. Well, I
have been pleasantly surprised, a lot has happened there. The Chapel was opened 18 months after the first church on
the site (built in 1811) was destroyed by fire in 1840. What’s incredible about
the huge former Great George Street Congregational Church next to the arch at
the heart of Chinatown is the speed of its erection in early days of Queen
Victoria’s reign. The plans and designs for the new church were donated by
Joseph Franklin, the City Architect. The foundation stone was laid on 7 July
1840 and the magnificent building opened for worship barely 15 months later in
October 1841. The chapel cost £13,992 to build and seated almost 2,000. It became
popularly known as 'Liverpool's Third Cathedral'.
In the years after WWII, the number of worshippers declined,
many leaving the city centre for pastures new, and in February 1967 the grand
organ fell silent. A year later it was bought by the Peter Moores Foundation
and became home to the UK’s first community arts programme, run by Bill and
Wendy Harpe. Since then they and the team have provided a feast of
community projects, mainly for the local population of this part of the inner
city. The dream, though, was always to create a huge multi-purpose cultural and
arts centre. Today, the Black-E, formerly known as the Blackie, a name derived
because, like many buildings in Liverpool, it was discoloured by a century of
soot propelled from tens of thousands of domestic coal fires, and the smoke
from the fires created by two world wars, has relaunched itself to build on its
tradition as a multi-purpose community arts facility. Now boasting a vast
performance space, the city centre has an amazing new venue, a proper arts
centre; a space capable of staging anything from boxing to fashion shows to
exhibitions and demonstrations, and appropriately a church group holding Sunday
services in the building.
You can find out more about the Black –E by visiting their
website on the link below.
Link
Robert F Edwards Pin It
