St. Cecilia, Tuebrook

Introduction

The church was built in 1929-30 by Ernest Bower Norris with mosaic work by Ludwig Oppenheimer Limited, in Italian Romanesque style. The church is known for its richly decorated Baroque sanctuary and high-quality mosaic work by Ludwig Oppenheimer Limited.

History

The parish of St Cecilia's was created in 1905 and included both Tuebrook and Clubmoor areas of Liverpool. The foundation stone of the present Church of St Cecilia was blessed on 22 September 1929 by Archbishop Thomas Whiteside.

Architecture and furnishings

The interior has exposed brick walls and nave arcade piers, with plaster above the springing of the arcades. The nave, transepts and sanctuary share a ribbed barrel-vaulted roof with clerestory windows and stencil decoration to the ribs. The sanctuary walls are clad in black marble with extensive mosaic work, including depictions of angels, St Patrick, St Anthony of Padua, and winged creatures symbolic of the four evangelists. The sanctuary includes a mosaic depiction of the Crucifixion above the altar and reredos.

The sanctuary's N side wall includes a depiction of a sanctified soul being received into heaven, while the S wall has a dramatic mosaic imitation of a medieval Doom painting depicting a damned soul being plunged into hell. The reredos is over 20 feet high, composed of various white, black and pink marbles, and is Baroque in style with a broken pediment and half-columns. The altar was originally attached to the reredos but was sliced off and moved forward slightly in the 1970s. The altar incorporates a Baroque effigy of St Cecilia in white marble, based on Stefano Maderno's 1599-1600 original in Rome.

The S transept contains an octagonal marble pulpit adjacent to the sanctuary arch. The side chapels off the transepts are dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart and have marble altars, marble-clad walls and mosaic work. The sanctuary rails are composed of various black, pink, green and cream marbles and continue across the front of the side chapels. The church has a parquet floor throughout, though largely hidden under later carpet as of 2016.

The church has an arcaded narthex with an organ gallery above, accessed via a stair at the S end of the narthex. The church has a boundary wall, railings, gate piers and gates, which are included in the listing. The church's elevations incorporate round-headed windows of varying size with gauged-brick heads and stained and leaded glass, and painted cast-iron rainwater goods with hoppers bearing decorative reliefs and the date '1930'. The S transept also incorporates a SW entrance, which has double doors in the same style as those to the W entrance and a solid tympanum with a painted relief depiction of the Virgin Mary holding an infant Jesus.

The recess is flanked by shallow buttress-like projections adorned with a concrete cross, and patterned brickwork to the gable apex forms a cross motif. The deep two-bay sanctuary has two clerestory windows to each N and S side and a flat-roofed three-sided windowless apse. Most of the windows contain stained glass, including Christian symbols. The four-bay nave has an arcade to each N and S side comprised of round arches resting upon brick piers with stencil decoration to the intrados of each arch.

The side aisles contain Stations of the Cross and have cross-vaulted ceilings with round arches spanning across to meet each nave pier. At the E end of the nave the N transept has two blind arches set into the N wall containing six-panel doors that lead into two confessionals and the vestry and sacristy respectively. The sanctuary has two arched openings to each N and S side; those to the W lead into the side chapels and those to the E are blind. Bench pews are provided in the nave and side aisles.