Thursday, February 2
I've posted on Sir Edwin Lutyens's proposed design for Liverpool Cathedral in the past--not the completed monstrosity I mentioned earlier this evening, of course, but a magnificent edifice that sadly was never fated to be. Anyway, here's some interesting statistics I didn't know on the unbuilt structure:
The central feature of his design, he decided, was to be a great dome 168 feet (51 meters) in diameter with an internal height of 300 feet (91 meters). The nave and aisles would consist of a series of barrel vaults running at right angles to each other. The High Altar would be twelve feet (4 meters) above the nave floor [strangely enough, existing diagrams indicate it may have meant to be versus populum, and this in the 1930s] and a total of 53 altars [!!!] would line the nave and transept, apses and sacristies. The height from the lowest step of the Western front to the top of the lantern would be a colossal 520 feet (158 meters). (By comparison, the tower of the Anglican Cathedral rises to 330 feet ( 101 meters)).If it would have been finished, if I remember some of the diagrams I've seen, it would have nearly approached St. Peter's in size!
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
