St Luke’s Church, known locally as The Bombed Out Church, stands on the corner of Leece Street and Berry Street. The tower is easily seen as you walk from the city centre up Bold Street. Few people ever call it by its true name. When I first visited the city it featured in many directions to places given to me by locals, “go past the bombed out church”, “oh that’s near the bombed out church”, but sadly no map referred to it as such! It is much a part of the city as the Mersey Ferry or The Liver Building. It is a Liverpool icon.
The church was built between 1811 and 1832. Designed by father and son John Foster and John Foster junior in the gothic style, it is built from sandstone. In its early years it was also a concert hall until the building of the nearby Philharmonic Hall in the late 1840s. Around this time it was locally called The Doctors Church as it was the place of worship closest to Rodney Street, the home of many of the cities private doctors.
During these second World War Liverpool was bombed heavily as it was the major port on the west coast and vital for supplies coming across the Atlantic from America. Bombing of the city began in August 1940 and went on until January 1942 though it reached its peak in May 1941. The church was hit by a fire bomb on 6th May 1941 and the much of the building was destroyed, only the walls remained.
In total 4000 people died in the bombings of the Liverpool area and it was decided to leave the church standing as a memorial to them. It is now a managed ruin and in recent years opened for the first time since the bombing. It has hosted events including weddings, markets and even hosted a cinema. The gardens are open to wander around and it is a popular lunchtime spot in the summer for students and local workers.
In December 2014 the installation ‘All Together Now’ by sculptor Andy Edwards was placed in the garden to mark the football match that took place at Christmas 1914 between British and German troops in no mans land between trenches. Although only a temporary exhibit it returned in 2018 to commemorate the end of the first World War.
