Church of St Luke

Former Anglican Church of St Luke

This deconsecrated church stands on Berry Street in Liverpool, built between 1811 and 1832. The original design was by John Foster, the prominent Liverpool architect appointed by the Corporation of Liverpool, though the work was amended and completed by his son, John Foster junior. Minor amendments were made between 1864 and 1873 by William and John Audsley, also of Liverpool. The building was severely damaged by bombing in May 1941.

The church is constructed of ashlar sandstone in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The setting comprises a 3-sided approach from Berry Street with stepped approach steps and a raised flagged forecourt, stepped down the sloping site.

The focal point is a west tower with three storeys. The west entrance features four orders with an ogival hood mould topped by a poppyhead. Flanking porches to either side contain 2-light windows with entrances to north and south. Polygonal buttresses flank the angles of the tower. The second stage displays 3-light windows and a traceried frieze above with clocks on all sides. The third stage contains 4-light windows with ogival hood moulds, traceried panelling to spandrels and buttresses, a battlemented parapet, and four flat-topped pinnacles.

The nave comprises five bays with 3-light windows between panelled buttresses that rise to crocketed pinnacles above the battlemented parapet. The chancel has four bays with an apsidal end, flanked by porches at the west end. Its windows are 3-light openings set between panelled buttresses with crocketed pinnacles and panelling above. The east window contains five lights. Panelled octagonal finials with flat tops cap the composition.

The interior was severely damaged during the 1941 air raid, with interior finishes now exposed as brick and stone. A brick 4-centred chancel arch remains. The church retains its bell frame in the tower, believed to be the first cast-iron bell frame ever made, inscribed "GEORGE GILLEBRAND BELL HANGER 1828".

The site was purchased by the Corporation of Liverpool in 1791 to serve the new suburbs being developed on the Corporation Estate for the prosperous. When works commenced in 1805, the brief was revised to make the building serve both as a ceremonial place of worship for the Corporation and as a fee-paying concert hall. The unusually spacious chancel was designed to provide a segregated area of worship for Members of the Corporation. This concert hall function continued until the erection of the Philharmonic Hall in Hope Street in the mid-19th century.

The church forms a group with surrounding railings, plinth walls, gates, piers, and steps that define its setting. Despite severe wartime damage, St Luke's Church and its railed enclosure remain an outstanding example of early 19th-century ecclesiastical Perpendicular Gothic architecture and an architectural, historical, and historic townscape ensemble of monumental significance at the heart of Liverpool.