St.Lawrence Church interior
The parish of St Lawrence is situated 3 miles north of the city centre and is part of Liverpool North Deanery. St Lawrence originated as the daughter church of St Mary’s, Kirkdale and was consecrated on All Saints Day, 1st November 1893 by Bishop Ryle. It had a seating capacity of around 1200. It was built 9 years previous to that date for £10,000. The official reason for the delay between the building of the church and the consecration was given by the Bishop as a ’lack of funds to pay an incumbent’. However, within a year of Canon Thomas Major Lester’s retirement (the incumbent of St Mary’s) the post was filled. It was generally felt that the Bishop and the Canon did not get on.
Canon Major Lester was concerned with local social issues. He was responsible for building a hospital in Kirkdale as well as 4 schools, including a school in St Lawrence parish. The parish of St Lawrence was a massive housing estate, the main employer was the docks, and so it was a very working class parish with relatively high employment.
Unfortunately the original church building became unsafe and was eventually abandoned in 1977. Services were then held in the Church Day School, Croylands Street.
In 1980 a single storey detached building was purchased from Liverpool City Council. This had originally been built as a supermarket for the new housing estate, but had never been occupied. It was converted to a place of worship which would seat 120 people. The total cost to purchase and convert the building into a worship centre was £113,000. The consecration took place in July 1981.
