St George's Hall, Liverpool

On the east side of the hall, between it and the railway station, is St George's Plateau and on the west side are St John's Gardens.

St John's Gardens is an open space in Liverpool, England, to the west of St George's Hall.

St George's Hall is on Lime Street in the centre of the English city of Liverpool, opposite Lime Street railway station.

With the arrival of the railway line in 1836, the street moved from a marginal to a central location in the city, a position that confirmed by the creation of St George's Hall, on the side of the street opposite the railway station, in 1854.

The hall is included in the William Brown Street conservation area.

The site of the hall was formerly occupied by the first Liverpool Infirmary from 1749 to 1824.

The infirmary has its origins in a small building on Shaw's Brow which was opened by the 11th Earl of Derby on part of the site which is now occupied by St George's Hall on 25 March 1749.

St George's Hall is on Lime Street in the centre of the English city of Liverpool, opposite Lime Street railway station.

The area is dominated by neo-classical architecture, of which the most prominent, St George's Hall, is widely regarded as the best example of a neo-classical building anywhere in Europe.

St George's Hall is on Lime Street in the centre of the English city of Liverpool, opposite Lime Street railway station.

Liverpool Lime Street is divided into two sections: the mainline station, which offers national inter-city and regional overground services including local City Line routes, and services on the Wirral Line on the Merseyrail network, located underground between the mainline station and St George's Hall.

By July more than eighty entries had been received, and was won by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, a London architect aged 25 years, the second prize went to George Alexander of London.

In July, 1839, he was successful among 86 competitors for a design for St George's Hall, Liverpool.

This front has a central portico of 16 Corinthian columns flanked on each side by series of square, unfluted columns, between which are reliefs that were added between 1882 and 1901 by Thomas Stirling Lee, C. J. Allen and Conrad Dressler.

Lee's commission for 28 panels for the exterior of St George's Hall, Liverpool, resulting from an open competition held by Liverpool City Council in 1882, is regarded as his most important, but it was the subject of controversy, when the first two featured naked girls, depicting "the child Justice" and "the girl Justice".

:''"How frequently I observe the great & true end & aim of Art entirely lost sight of in the discussion of some insignificant detail or quaint Antiquarianism. Bold and original conceptions never can find favour while so much stress is laid upon precedent"'' Harvey Lonsdale Elmes in a letter to Robert Rawlinson Elmes died in 1847 and the work was continued by John Weightman, Corporation Surveyor, and Robert Rawlinson, structural engineer, until in 1851 Charles Cockerell was appointed architect.

Three years later he returned to Liverpool, to superintend the design and construction of the famous brick-arched ceiling in the St George's Hall, in succession to, his friend H. L. Elmes.

This front has a central portico of 16 Corinthian columns flanked on each side by series of square, unfluted columns, between which are reliefs that were added between 1882 and 1901 by Thomas Stirling Lee, C. J. Allen and Conrad Dressler.

On the steps is a statue of Benjamin Disraeli by Charles Bell Birch, moved here to make way for Liverpool's cenotaph.

The niches contain the statues of William Roscoe by Chantrey, Sir William Brown by Patrick MacDowell, Robert Peel by Matthew Noble, George Stephenson by John Gibson, Hugh Boyd M‘Neile by George Gamon Adams, Edward Whitley by A. Bruce Joy, S. R. Graves by G. G. Fontana, Rev Jonathan Brookes by B. E. Spence, William Ewart Gladstone by John Adams-Acton, the 14th Earl of Derby by William Theed the Younger, the 16th Earl of Derby by F. W. Pomeroy, and Joseph Mayer by Fontana.

In 2004, the hall and its surrounding area were recognised as part of Liverpool's World Heritage Site.

Amongst the buildings that are focal to this part of the WHS are St George's Hall, Lime Street station, the Walker Art Gallery, the World Museum Liverpool, the former Great North Western Hotel and the entrance the Queensway Tunnel.

The doors are bronze and have openwork panels which incorporate the letters SPQL (the Senate and the People of Liverpool) making an association with the SPQR badge of ancient Rome.

At the south-east corner is a bronze statue of Major-General William Earle by the same sculptor.

There is a bronze statue of him outside St George's Hall, Liverpool, by sculptor Charles Bell Birch.

On 15 April 1857 a banquet for 800 people was held in honour of William Brown benefactor of Liverpool's museum and library.

Land for the new building, on a street then known as Shaw's Brow (now William Brown Street), opposite St George's Hall, was donated by local MP and Merchant William Brown, as was much of the funding for the building which would be known as the William Brown Library and Museum.

Elmes died in 1847 and the work was continued by John Weightman, Corporation Surveyor, and Robert Rawlinson, structural engineer, until in 1851 Charles Cockerell was appointed architect.

The niches contain the statues of William Roscoe by Chantrey, Sir William Brown by Patrick MacDowell, Robert Peel by Matthew Noble, George Stephenson by John Gibson, Hugh Boyd M‘Neile by George Gamon Adams, Edward Whitley by A. Bruce Joy, S. R. Graves by G. G. Fontana, Rev Jonathan Brookes by B. E. Spence, William Ewart Gladstone by John Adams-Acton, the 14th Earl of Derby by William Theed the Younger, the 16th Earl of Derby by F. W. Pomeroy, and Joseph Mayer by Fontana.

The niches contain the statues of William Roscoe by Chantrey, Sir William Brown by Patrick MacDowell, Robert Peel by Matthew Noble, George Stephenson by John Gibson, Hugh Boyd M‘Neile by George Gamon Adams, Edward Whitley by A. Bruce Joy, S. R. Graves by G. G. Fontana, Rev Jonathan Brookes by B. E. Spence, William Ewart Gladstone by John Adams-Acton, the 14th Earl of Derby by William Theed the Younger, the 16th Earl of Derby by F. W. Pomeroy, and Joseph Mayer by Fontana.

MacDowell's works include a statue of Sir William Brown in the Great Hall of St George's Hall, Liverpool.

The inspiration for the Great Hall are the Baths of Caracalla.

In the 19th and early 20th century, the design of the baths was used as the inspiration for several modern structures, including St George's Hall in Liverpool and the original Pennsylvania Station (demolished in 1963) in New York City.

The niches contain the statues of William Roscoe by Chantrey, Sir William Brown by Patrick MacDowell, Robert Peel by Matthew Noble, George Stephenson by John Gibson, Hugh Boyd M‘Neile by George Gamon Adams, Edward Whitley by A. Bruce Joy, S. R. Graves by G. G. Fontana, Rev Jonathan Brookes by B. E. Spence, William Ewart Gladstone by John Adams-Acton, the 14th Earl of Derby by William Theed the Younger, the 16th Earl of Derby by F. W. Pomeroy, and Joseph Mayer by Fontana.

Between the equestrian statues is the Grade I Liverpool Cenotaph which was unveiled in 1930, designed by L. B. Budden and sculpted by H. Tyson Smith.

Liverpool Cenotaph stands on St George's Plateau, to the east of St George's Hall in Liverpool, England.

In the basement is part of a unique heating and ventilation system devised by Dr Boswell Reid.

Reid's ventilation method was also applied more fully to St. George's Hall, Liverpool, the only building, he said, in which his system was completely carried out.

With 7,737 pipes, it was the largest organ in the country until a larger one was built at the Royal Albert Hall in 1871, after which an organ even larger than the one at the Royal Albert Hall was constructed at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, using over 10,000 pipes.

In 1885 an Act of Parliament authorised the building of a cathedral on the site of the existing St John's Church, adjacent to St George's Hall.

The niches contain the statues of William Roscoe by Chantrey, Sir William Brown by Patrick MacDowell, Robert Peel by Matthew Noble, George Stephenson by John Gibson, Hugh Boyd M‘Neile by George Gamon Adams, Edward Whitley by A. Bruce Joy, S. R. Graves by G. G. Fontana, Rev Jonathan Brookes by B. E. Spence, William Ewart Gladstone by John Adams-Acton, the 14th Earl of Derby by William Theed the Younger, the 16th Earl of Derby by F. W. Pomeroy, and Joseph Mayer by Fontana.

On 28 October 1870, the Liverpool Council considered a request from the McNeile Statue Committee "that the statue be accepted for placement in St George’s Hall" (Cavanagh, 1997, p. 281).