Threads

The UK’s largest cathedral - Liverpool - viewed from St James’s Gardens. I’ve not been here for a long time - it always feels distinctly spooky, is accessed through a dark slope and tunnel, is out of sight and not overlooked, and people seem to stay away (most probably don’t even know it’s here) so it can feel a bit “edgy”. It’s a hidden green space.

Originally it was a quarry - the stone was used to build 18th century Liverpool’s major buildings. Then from the 1820’s to the 1930’s it was the city’s major cemetery, thus there is a profusion of monuments and gravestones. Above it stood St James’s Mount, used as a public park from the 1760’s for the well to do to promenade and take in the view over the city. The Mount was chosen as the location for the Anglican cathedral in 1901, and at some point the cemetery was rebranded as “Gardens”.

I had come to the cathedral to visit the “Threads through the bible” exhibition, a part of which (“Threads through Creation”) I had come across last year at Lichfield cathedral - and was hugely impressed. It doesn’t matter if you have faith or don’t, the 44 panels (old bedsheets are the foundation) created using 25 million stitches by Jacqui Parkinson over ten years are wonderful. Her imagination and skill are impressive. A few temporary pics in extras.