An old Liverpool Church - St Luke's, Bold Place - was completely gutted by fire. Only the burned-out shell remains. Very few of the historic properties could be saved, but among those which were brought out of the reach of the flames were the lectern, two memorial chairs, a memorial desk and most of the altar cloths.
The bells of St Luke's crashed to the ground soon after the fire obtained a fierce hold. Everyone of the stained glass windows, installed years ago, was destroyed. Items saved were a memorial chair, the silverware and the altar cloths.
The Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the city of Liverpool and its surrounding area with Bootle and Wirral the most heavily bombed areas of the country outside of London, due to their importance in the British war effort. St Luke's was hit by an incendiary device just after midnight on Tuesday May 6th 1941 and the resulting fire was described by the Liverpool Echo as "magnificent".
Photographs of the clock from the aftermath show the hands at 3.36 meaning that this would have been when the fire reached the upper stories of the tower. Although the bell frame remained intact, 3 of the bells were badly cracked and broken whilst the further 5 bells fell to the floor of the tower. Evidence can still be seen of the broken tiles at the base of the tower.
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So exactly what happened to the 'bombed out' Church. Well, the building was never really 'bombed out' as such. An incendiary device is a weapon designed to start fires and this is what crashed in to the roof of the building which started a fire. At this time, the water was cut off from the surrounding streets and so there was no water to fight the fire.
It was by chance that as the fire took hold, the Vicar and PCC members were able to access the building and drag out what they could, the silverware, altar cloths, the memorial chairs and the documents from the history of the Church.
Once the roof had caught fire, the roof would have collapsed in on the interior of the building and set alight to everything else. A fierce fire took told of the building and then spread to the base of the tower.
The tower would have simply acted like a chimney once the fire took hold inside the structure and it is incredible that the world's first metal bell frame sagged inside the tower and became 'wedged' in the structure, so this wasn't lost also.
By the time water was pumped up from the Mersey, it was just a case of damping the building down as much as possible and seeing what was left.
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On the 20th May 1941, having learned of the daange to St Luke's through the press, Messrs John Taylor and Co, Bell-founders had written to the vicar and expressed their sympathy at the destruction of the church and suggested that they could arrange to salvage as much metal as is possible and store same until such time as the peal could be restored and reinstated. The vicar responded and asked for this to be done as 'the smaller broken pieces are at the mercy of the looter.'
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The Church authorities made no effort to protect the shattered fragments of metal lying in the base of the tower and by the time the bells had been removed in June 1941, almost 12cwt of bell metal had disappeared!
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The bells lay on a floor in the foundry from 1941 till 1963. The foundry wrote to the Corporation requesting what was to be done and during 1965, the Diocese of Liverpool eventually agreed to sell the remains of St Luke's Bells to Taylors of Loughborough, the decision having finally been taken not to rebuild the Church nor reinstate a ring of bells in the tower.
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And thus, St Luke's stands today. A gutted shell without a roof. The tower stairs are still in excellent condition but there is no floor to the ringing chamber. The massive cast iron bell frame installed by George Gillebrand is still there and thankfully during the 'light restoration' of St Luke's in 2015, I made Liverpool City Council aware of the world's first all metal bell frame in the tower. That it should not be removed for any purpose and that it should be kept in the tower and made safe. The tower now has a roof on, floors in the tower have been made safe and it is now possible to walk up the spiral staircase, up through the clock chamber, in to the bell chamber and take the metal ladder to the top of the tower.
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St Luke's 'bombed out' Church stands as a War Memorial for all those who perished in the Liverpool Blitz and more should be done to recognise this. ​
I was recently contacted by a student who is doing a 'reconstruction' project on St Luke's Church for University. David Oldham has brought the 1930's photographs taken by Jean Parry in to 'life' and now shows how the church would have looked upon completion.
This are the first true 3D designs of St Luke's Church from many angles and show how beautiful the building was before WW2. While I am on the fence to have the church restored and or to leave it like it is, I'd love to see it returned to its former glory after seeing these images! Top marks to David for his stunning work for all to see.
THE HISTORY OF ST LUKE'S CHURCH
