Great George Street Congregational Chapel

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Sat, 01/06/2024 - 00:00

One of beautiful Liverpool’s most beautiful buildings was once the town’s premier Congregational Chapel. On Great George Street, close to the modern Chinese arch, this 2000-seater auditorium was built in 1840 to replace an earlier building which had burnt down by faulty stoves left on over night to warm rooms for the Sunday School. Although it looks a little ostentatious to my plain eye, it was designed gratis by the city’s architect, perhaps as part of a plan to ensure that Liverpool’s architecture was world class. Its last service was held in 1967, when a local foundation bought it for the promotion of the arts. It was known as The Blackie by the 1970s because of its blackened walls caused by pollution, but this was changed to Black-E due to a greater sensitivity to racial issues. The walls were cleaned and today look rather smart, but the old name has stuck.

I have no doubt that modernist theology was preached from the pulpit for decades before it closed, and which was almost certainly its primary cause. Yet its nickname got me thinking. Although it is now a clean building, it is still known for its former colour and state. A good reputation is more easily lost than a bad one; a bad name is more readily gained than a good one. Despite the old chapel’s elegance and splendour, it is its former colour for which it is now remembered, despite successful attempts to remedy this.

Be careful of your reputation.