When I originally put this post together less than a week ago it was a bit of a challenge but I had a lot of time on my hands and it was a useful distraction at a stressful moment. I ended with the statement that I might update it later, which I have now decided to do. I have left the original text in bold. The original unadulterated post is here.
The main reason that making the post was a challenge was that at the time I only had the use of one eye, and it was my much weaker eye at that. I decided to recount my experience here, something I would not normally do, because I thought people may be enlightened by the information and that the awareness might even help someone down the line.
My right eye had just undergone a procedure that just over 24 hours before I had never even heard of.
In short - Plaque radiotherapy is a type of radiation therapy used to treat eye cancer. Radioactive seeds are attached to one side of a thin piece of metal (usually gold) called a plaque. The plaque is sewn onto the outside wall of the eye near the tumor. The seeds give off radiation which kills the cancer.
For anyone who is faced with this treatment in the future, please do not be afraid. I was horrified when it was explained to me but I can honestly say that the fear is worse than the reality. During the whole experience, I suffered no pain, just a couple of short periods of discomfort, during the installation and then the removal of the device, which was easily bearable under local anaesthetic
Because of the nature of the materials used the waiting process takes place in some degree of isolation. The device is placed on the eye and has to stay there from between one day to seven depending on the size of the tumour. It is then removed in the reverse procedure. One of the side effects of sitting in the same room for four days is boredom, hence my decision to try and put together my original blog post. It is a testament to the procedure itself that while it was underway I was able to carry out a process like making a blog post.
This post is a bit different for several reasons. First, I suddenly found myself in Liverpool, which is where I am now. I'll get to why, later. I've already seen the Cavern Club by accident when we got lost on a walk, and been in some wonderful old pubs. The number of beautiful old buildings has been a surprise. I had assumed that Liverpool would have lost as many as Birmingham did during WW2. Hitler's bombers obviously found the distance more of a challenge. Liverpool got plenty though.
This post is mainly about the iconic Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. I first saw it in 1967 when my family briefly visited the city. That was the year it was completed. Liverpool has two landmark cathedrals at either ends of a long avenue, and I remember my father pointing them out and explaining that one was the Catholic and the other Anglican. The distinctive tower of this building filled my seven year old self with awe and I always wanted to see inside.
When we arrived at our hotel and pulled back the curtains, this was what we saw. The roof of Lime Street Station, a seagull staring me straight in my eye, and in the distance the tower of the cathedral, which was pretty much all I saw back in 1967. Only a 15 minute walk away, it had to be done.
In my case the procedure involved a silver plaque lined inside with Ruthenium. Being an ardent quizzer, I once tried to memorise the Periodic Table and did a fairly good job at the time although being the age I am, holding on to that information gets harder over time. What I can trawl out of my memory though does sometimes win an extra point here or there. For example this question that came up a while ago, "It's a theatre in London and a chemical element, what is it? Even with my decaying memory I knew straight away that it was Palladium.
I have always been fascinated by the chemical elements which are the building blocks of the universe so I knew the name Ruthenium but could not recall much about it. I had assumed wrongly that it was one of those named after a historic or mythic character, Ruth. It turned out to actually have been named after the old Latin name for Russia, Ruthenia, as it was discovered by a Russian.
By this point I have now realised that this is going to be a slow process. Factors to take into account are all of these photos being taken on my phone, which is limiting, trying to make this post on a Samsung tablet, which the blog interface does not like, and the fact that I only have the use of one eye at the moment. That is all just for context, not by way of complaint.
What it means is that I will have to forego all of my building info until I am home on the PC.
if I try to toggle between Wikipedia and this post, the interface goes back to square one and is very cumbersome. So I am forced to compromise on the amount of text, not due to ocular issues, but IT issues. For that reason I will at this point just let you enjoy these photos until we get inside.
Ruthenium is a silver coloured metal in the Platinum group and is considered very rare. As it happens Palladium is part of the same Platinum group. I was amazed to discover that Ruthenium was discovered extremely early way back in 1844 by Karl Ernst Claus, a Russian scientist of Baltic-German ancestry. It would be another 24 years before Helium was discovered by Georges Rayet, and that is the second most abundant element in the universe. The world only produces about 30 tons of Ruthenium annually. They only used a few micrograms on my eye so there is plenty left.
1844 was a good year for science as it turned out, a very Goodyear, as Charles Goodyear patented the vulcanisation of rubber and Samuel Morse sent his first message using Morse Code. Henry Fox Talbot published the world's first book to contain photographs taken with a camera, and the Dublin iron-founder Richard Turner started to put together the world's first large scale structural wrought iron building, the Palm House at Kew Gardens in London. That Palm House still stands to this day.
Back to the cathedral. There was quite a bit of information I wanted to add about the building which proved too difficult to do on my tablet while in hospital, this was for technical reasons using the blog interface while toggling back and forth between different windows. The Wix editor didn't like my Samsung.
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, officially known as the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King and locally nicknamed "Paddy's Wigwam", is the seat of the Archbishop of Liverpool and the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool in Liverpool, England. The Grade II* Metropolitan Cathedral is one of Liverpool's many listed buildings. Wikipedia
So why "Paddy's Wigwam"? Hopefully the wigwam part is fairly obvious as the shape of the roof closely resembles the Native American structures, even down to the pole like points emerging from the tower. The Paddy part comes down to the colloquial name long ago adopted by Liverpudlians for the large Irish expat community in the city. Liverpool is the largest and most proximate English port to Ireland which has long been a destination for Irish emigres looking for work abroad. Paddy of course is a diminutive form of the male given name Patrick. It is also a nickname. A hundred years ago as many as a quarter of Irish males were called either John or Patrick.
The cathedral's architect, Frederick Gibberd, was the winner of a worldwide design competition. Construction began in 1962 and was completed in 1967. Earlier designs for a cathedral were proposed in 1933 and 1953, but neither was completed. Wikipedia
Following the purchase of the 9-acre former Brownlow Hill workhouse site in 1930, Sir Edwin Lutyens was commissioned to provide a design which would be an appropriate response to the Giles Gilbert Scott-designed Neo-gothic Anglican cathedral then partially complete further along Hope Street. Wikipedia
The Anglican cathedral is a whole other story which I hope to address on a future visit to the city. Suffice to say it took 74 years to build, interrupted as it was by two World Wars.
Lutyens' design was intended to create a massive structure that would have become the second-largest church in the world. It would have had the world's largest dome, with a diameter of 168 feet (51 m) compared to the 137.7 feet (42.0 m) diameter on St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Building work based on Lutyens' design began on Whit Monday, 5 June 1933. Lutyens' design for the cathedral was considered too costly and was abandoned with only the crypt complete. Wikipedia
This is that crypt which forms the base of the later cathedral.
After the ambitious design by Lutyens fell through, Adrian Gilbert Scott, brother of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (architect of the Anglican Cathedral), was commissioned in 1953 to work on a smaller cathedral design with a £4 million budget (£141 million in 2023). He proposed a scaled-down version of Lutyens' building, retaining the massive dome. Scott's plans were criticised and the building did not go ahead. Wikipedia
The present Cathedral was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd (1908–84). Construction began in October 1962 and less than five years later, on the Feast of Pentecost 14 May 1967, the completed cathedral was consecrated. Soon after its opening, it began to exhibit architectural flaws. This led the cathedral authorities to sue Frederick Gibberd for £1.3 million on five counts, the two most serious being leaks in the aluminium roof covering and defects in the mosaic tiles, which had begun to come away from the concrete ribs. Wikipedia
Just one thing to point out here. In the distance, caught between the massive buttresses of the cathedral you can see the tower of the Anglican cathedral.
The building is supported by 16 boomerang-shaped concrete trusses which are held together by two ring beams, one at the bends of the trusses and the other at their tops. Flying buttresses are attached to the trusses, giving the cathedral its tent-like appearance. Rising from the upper ring beam is a lantern tower, containing windows of stained glass, and at its peak is a crown of pinnacles. Wikipedia
The competition to design the cathedral was held in 1959. The requirement was first, seating for a congregation of 3,000 (later reduced to 2,000) all with direct line of sight to the altar, so they could be more involved in the celebration of the Mass; and, second, for the existing Lutyens crypt to be incorporated in the structure. Gibberd achieved these requirements by designing a circular building with the altar at its centre, and by transforming the roof of the crypt into an elevated platform, with the cathedral standing at one end. Wikipedia
To the sides of the entrance doors are reliefs in fibreglass by William Mitchell, which represent the symbols of the Evangelists.
Above the entrance is a large wedge-shaped structure. This acts as a bell tower, the four bells being mounted in rectangular orifices towards the top of the tower. Below these is a geometric relief sculpture, designed by William Mitchell, which includes three crosses.
Here we are, inside, and it really is a wonderful space bathed in the vivid hues of the stained glass, glowing with the last of the sun's rays on this winter day.
What I hadn't expected was an impromptu performance of Handel's Messiah, presumably a dress rehearsal. What a privilege, and well worth the nearly sixty year wait to see the interior.
The focus of the interior is the altar which faces the main entrance. It is made of white marble from Skopje, North Macedonia, and is 10 feet (3 m) long. The floor is also of marble in grey and white designed by David Atkins. The benches, concentric with the interior, were designed by Frank Knight.
Around the interior are metal Stations of the Cross, designed by Sean Rice.
Above is the tower with large areas of stained glass designed by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens in three colours, yellow, blue and red, representing the Trinity. The glass is 1 inch (3 cm) thick, the pieces of glass being bonded with epoxy resin, in concrete frames.
To see more of their work in St Andrews, Plymouth, check out my post Plymouth Royal Parade to St Andrews
Just seen on the right here above the altar is a baldachino designed by Gibberd as a crown-like structure composed of aluminium rods, which incorporates loudspeakers and lights. Baldachino was a new word for me.
Baldachino - A baldachin, or baldaquin (from Italian: baldacchino), is a canopy of state typically placed over an altar or throne. It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy, but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature, particularly over high altars in cathedrals, where such a structure is more correctly called a ciborium when it is sufficiently architectural in form. Wikipedia
The steps which lead up to the cathedral were only completed in 2003, when a building which obstructed the stairway path was acquired and demolished by developers.
Ultimately this trip to Liverpool saw me change views from the window of The Liner Hotel, to this one from my room at The St. Paul's Eye Unit, at The Liverpool University Hospital.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the fantastic staff here for their skill and care during my stay. I may return to this post to add some information at a later date. For now I'm just going to keep it simple.
When did I ever keep things simple?
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