A very late, spare design, at the tail-end of the Gothic Revival. The baldacchino is a good feature of the interior.

Waterloo grew as a seaside suburb of Liverpool after the arrival of the railway in 1848. The parish was established and the present church built in 1933. The architect has not been established with certainty; the Directory attributes it to Edmund Kirby & Sons, and the fact that Edmund Kirby senior was architect to St Thomas of Canterbury,  Waterloo  may  be  relevant.  However,  a  report  in  the  Archdiocesan archives attributes the design to Anthony Ellis, and the design certainly has similarities with Ellis’ St Dominic Huyton.

Description

Fairly large church in stripped lancet Gothic style, red brick laid in garden wall bond with red sandstone dressings and Westmorland slate roof. The church consists of nave, aisles, and chancel with flanking chapels, with an asymmetrically placed west tower, south porch, sacristies etc to the north. The tower is in three stages and has clasped buttresses with sandstone offsets; statue of St Edmund in a niche in the second stage, narrow louvred openings to the top belfry stage and a sandstone crenellated  parapet.  Gabled entrance porch with sandstone arch and buttresses; stepped triple lancets over and sandstone cross on the gable. South porch similarly detailed to the west porch; aisle roofs with Westmorland slates, canted and windowless east end.

The narthex leads into a wide nave with narrow circulation aisles. The nave design has an unusual rhythm of four bays with simple unmoulded two-centred arches, with short, paired clerestory openings over, followed by three bays with wider, lower openings under four-centred arches with longer paired clerestory lancets over. The lower arches of the nave lead to the side chapel areas. There is a western organ gallery over the narthex and a boarded roof with the ribs marking the bays picked out in black. The main feature of the area is the fine baldacchino at the east end, with a polychrome Gothic canopy carried on columns.

Heritage Details