From an engraving by T. Malton, after G. Perry, 1792, in the possession of the Athenaum.
ST. GEORGE’S CHURCH has an interesting history. In 1704 the Corporation applied to the Crown for a lease of the Castle site, with licence to demolish the Castle, and to erect in its place a new corporation church. Though the application was successful, it was not until 1726 that the plans were passed, and not until 1734 that the church was opened.
The new church is said to have included the ground covered by the chapel of the Castle, the position of the altar corresponding with that of the chapel altar. It will be noticed that the church stood upon a raised plateau, considerably above the level of the street. This plateau was the remains of the outcrop of rock to which the Castle had owed its dominating position. In it were hewn out a series of vaults, where many leading citizens were buried.
The octagonal buildings shown in the engraving at the south-east and south-west corners of the plateau were put to very practical uses, the western one being occupied by the clerk of the markets, which were held in the space on the south of the church until the construction of St. John’s Market, Great Charlotte Street, in 1822, while the eastern one was used as a temporary “lock up” for disturbers of the peace. The architect was Thomas Steers, the designer of the first dock, and in its original form the church was a handsome building. But Steers seems to have overlooked the fact that he was placing the tower partly on the site of the old Castle Ditch, the land of which settled under the weight, with the result that the spire had to be taken down in 1809. In 1819 both church and tower were entirely reconstructed in a much interior style.
The second building was taken down in 1899, and its site is now occupied by the monument to Queen Victoria. The obelisk, to which is attached an ornamental lamp, seen in the engraving, was erected by John Tarleton, who was Mayor of Liverpool in 1764, and it was removed very many years ago.
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Bibliography
Muir, Ramsay, et al. Bygone Liverpool. Liverpool: Young, 1913. Internet Archive online version of a copy in the University of Toronto Library. Web. 29 September 2022.
Last modified 28 September 2022