13/01/26 - Liverpool's Religious Buildings

With one in the Good Beer Guide

Walk 10 of Liverpool's Hidden City Walks takes me on a crawl with a difference. Not my usual pub type, but one of the significant religious buildings in the City. A fantastic city that is always throwing up surprises, not least with St Peters. The City's oldest church and also a Good Beer Guide 2026 entry. That must be a first!

Hope Street divides the two Cathedrals. The Anglican Cathedral, the biggest in Britain and the Metropolitan Catholic. 

From the Catholic down to the Anglican

Another surprise is how modern the two Cathedrals are. The Catholic one completed after 40 years in 1967. The Anglican started in 1904 and completed in 1978. Only one way to determine the reason for this. Ask ChatGPT.

Liverpool’s two cathedrals are relatively new because the city itself rose to prominence far later than England’s historic cathedral centres. For centuries Liverpool was a modest port, only expanding rapidly in the 18th and 19th centuries with Atlantic trade and industrial growth, and it did not become an Anglican diocese until 1880. When Liverpool Cathedral was begun in 1904, it was conceived as a bold statement of civic and imperial confidence, though its completion was stretched across wars and economic hardship well into the late 20th century. The Catholic cathedral is newer still, reflecting the long suppression of Catholic cathedral building in England after the Reformation and the city’s expanding Irish Catholic population in the 19th century. Together, the two buildings are less the product of medieval inheritance than of modern history, shaped by industrial expansion, migration, war and changing religious confidence.

In the interests of space - simple pictures. Until we reach the pub.

The garden below the Cathedral well worth a visit

Inside, where it is unlucky to still have Xmas decorations up

German Church - started out on a disused boat on the Mersey

The Synagogue

A rare Bellcote Tower at Vincent De Paul Catholic Church

Metropolitan Cathedral peeping through the trees

Modern flying buttresses

All about the light

St Paul's Tavern should have been discovered on the Ropewalks journey from this guidebook. Down Seel Street in St Pauls Tavern - hosted in the first church in the City, built in 1788.

More than mild on offer

In a City of great pubs, here is another unique offering. Inside, it maintains much of its religious paraphernalia - the altar, the stained glass windows, the crypts, candles and even the memorial stones. A lengthy bar offers enough cask to get it noticed by CAMRA. The Timothy Taylor Landlord Dark in good enough condition to warrant its inclusion on the 2026 Good Beer Guide.

Classy

The altar

One of those pubs that warrants a wander around, pint in hand. You can go upstairs, into booths in side crypts, admire the art, admire the memorial dedications. All this and a quality pint for £4.50.

As usual for Liverpool, there was more to do. The 'spoons are back in the GBG. There were mosques. There were controversial sculptures of Christ. There were churches bombed out by the Luftwaffe.

The blog could have turned into an epic.

Walk Details

Distance - 6 Miles

Geocaches - 5

Walk Inspiration - Liverpool A-Z City Walks, Walk 10

Previous Liverpool A-Z City Walks - Walks 1 and 2, Walk 3, Walk 4, Walk 5, Walk 6 and 7, Walk 8 and 9