Visit to St John the Baptist followed by a talk from local historian Martin Strauss at the restored Lister Drive Library, Tuebrook

St John’s, an Anglo Catholic church, designed by Bodley, with an interior described by Pevsner as ‘glorious … richly coloured’, is a gem. With splendid stained glass windows by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, ornate stencilling and painted panels the Church deserves the accolade of ‘one of the most important Victorian buildings in Liverpool’. 

Father Nicholas conducted a tour of the Church and explained something of the history of liturgical conflict in which Disraeli, Gladstone and Queen Victoria feature. 

We then moved to The Old Library, Lister Drive - a Thomas Shelmerdine designed, Carnegie funded, building that has recently been beautifully restored. The architects, OMI, and the Library have won two regional 2022 RIBA awards. Here we had a talk by Martin Strauss who reviewed the career of Shelmerdine, Liverpool City architect from 1871 to 1914, whose buildings sought to meet the social problems of late Victorian England. Many buildings, including Lister Drive, survive - a tribute to his success and that of the City Council. Martin is a retired history teacher and local historian with a keen interest in Victorian architecture and the social history of Liverpool.