Split over Grace . . . the one built 100 years ago
Dec 13 2002
As Controversy Continues To Rage About The Fourth Grace On Liverpool'S Waterfront, The Centenary Of A Decisive Moment In The City'S Maritime History Has Gone Almost Unnoticed. David Charters Reports
ONE hundred years ago, members of the Royal Liver Friendly Society dreamed of a monument which would tell the world of their good works.
That dream became the Royal Liver Building - symbol of a maritime city, crowned by two strange, wide-winged birds, which still thrill homeward-bound sailors.
But in its early days, the gleaming, sky-piercing structure divided the modernists and traditionalists almost as completely as architect's Will Alsop's Cloud, chosen by Liverpool Vision as the Fourth Grace.
Detractors, though, have already dubbed Cloud the 'Ugly Sister' - a reference to the fact that the classical Three Graces, were goddesses of charm and beauty as the daughters of Zeus.
In fact, the Royal Liver Building had more earthly roots.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the society's staff and members were discussing plans for a new building, which should be a towering totem to their ambitions and those of their city, then the fastest growing in Britain.
The old headquarters in Prescot Street, Liverpool, had done splendid service, but their time was up.
Nothing in the architecture immediately around the Pier Head suggested Liverpool's lofty place in international trade, though St George's Hall (opened in 1854) and other fine monuments spoke of its confidence and vision.
In 1902, the society held its annual general meeting in Cork because of its success in Ireland as well as the mainland. Delegates pressed the committee to obtain "a building that should be fit for a society of our magnitude."
As nothing appropriate was available, it was finally decided to find a site, which could accommodate a high building of shining stone like those across the Atlantic in New York.
At the end of 1906, the society acquired for £70,000 the former site of George's Dock for the new "chief offices". The following year, plans had been approved. Letting office suites covered the costs of the building, which would be,"in the very front rank as an architectural feature of Liverpool." The foundation stone was laid on May 11, 1908, and it opened on July, 1911.
It was a remarkable structure, though some felt it had an American look, not in keeping with Britain's maritime past. Undoubtedly, it was impressive at 322ft from the ground to the tip of the Liver Birds' feathered heads. The birds alone were 18ft tall.
Inside the building, there were 17 floors, 12 lifts and 483-steps from the basement to the tower.
It was the second of what are now popularly called the Three Graces. The Port of Liverpool Building opened in 1907 and the Cunard Building in 1916.
From the start, the Royal Liver Building excited the imagination of young lovers walking the Pier Head. It had been constructed by a revolutionary technique using a self-contained ferro frame with a network of columns and steel beams to carry the weight of the outer and inner walls and the floors. The outer walls were weather screens made from thin panels of concrete clothed in granite. It had been designed by W Aubrey Thomas and constructed by Nuttall and Company of Manchester. And there must have been much satisfaction in watching Mancunians toil under the rising columns of what would become Liverpool's most famous building.
Older Liverpudlians don't remember hearing the description The Three Graces used, heard so often in the past few months, though some may have used it as a poetic term reflecting the trio's grandeur. And Fritz Spiegl, the musician, writer, wit and defender of Liverpool's heritage, said 'The Three Graces' as a description had come into currency very recently.
"But I think the controversy about this new monstrosity should be kept alive," he said. "In mythology the Three Graces were goddesses who bestowed beauty and charm and were themselves embodiment of both. Well, I think you could probably say that about the three buildings, but you couldn't say it of the fourth which is an ugly sister."
Steve Binns, Liverpool City Council's community historian, said: "The early reaction to the Royal Liver Building was rather like that the Fourth Grace got last week. There was quite a lot of general criticism about it. Some people didn't think it fitted in with what was already there.
"I don't remember the Three Graces being in popular parlance until recently. The name must have been taken from classical myth-ology."
Royal Liver Assurance, which replaced the old Royal Liver
Friendly Society, has no plans to commemorate the meeting which gave rise to the building, but they will be celebrating the centenary of its opening in 1911.
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