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The Great Hall |
St George's Hall is in Liverpool city centre on Lime Street opposite Lime Street railway station. It is a building in neoclassical style which contains concert halls and law courts,
and is a Grade I listed building. On the east side of the hall, between it and the railway station is St George's Plateau and on the east side are St John's Gardens. The hall is included in the William Brown Street
conservation area. In 1969 Pevsner called it "the freest neo-Grecian building in England and one of the finest in the world". In 2004 the hall and its surrounding area were recognised as part of Liverpool's World Heritage
Site.
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.
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North Entrance |
The main entrance crosses a corridor and leads into the Concert Hall. The roof is a tunnel vault carried on columns of polished red granite. The walls have niches for statues and the
panelled plasterwork of the vault has allegorical figures of Virtues, Science and Arts. The highly decorated floor consists of Minton tiles and it is usually covered by a removable floor to protect it. The Minton floor
contains over 30,000 tiles. The doors are bronze and have openwork panels which incorporate the letters SPQL (the Senate and the People of Liverpool) making an association with the SPQR badge of ancient Rome. The organ is at
the north end and at the south end is a round arch supporting an entablature between whose columns is a gate leading directly into the Crown Court.
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St George's Hall reliefs |
In the basement is part of a unique heating and ventilation system devised by Dr Boswell Reid. This was the first attempt at air conditioning in a public building in the United Kingdom, its aim
being to warm and ventilate the building without draughts. Air was warmed by five hot water pipes which were heated by two coke-fired boilers and two steam boilers. The air was circulated by four 10 feet (3 m) wide fans. It
was controlled a large number of workers opening and closing a series of canvas flaps.
The Concert Hall is the largest area, rectangular in shape, and occupies the centre of the building with an organ on its north wall. To the north of the Concert Hall is the Civil Court
and beyond this is the elliptical Small Concert Room. To the south of the Concert Hall are the Crown Court and the Grand Jury Room. Smaller court rooms are on the periphery of the larger courts. The floor below consists of a
cavernous basement with cells for prisoners along the west wall.
Following the restoration leading to the reopening of the hall in April 2007 it was granted a Civic Trust Award. It included the creation of a Heritage Centre which gives an
introduction to the hall and its history. Guided tours, a programme of exhibitions and talks are arranged. |
