The Churches of F. X. Velarde
Thursday 15th October, 18:15 for 18:30 start
Presented by: Dominic Wilkinson, Principal Lecturer in Architecture Liverpool John Moores University
The buildings of F X Velarde represented what Nicolas Pevsner once described as “epoch-making” examples of English church architecture, briefly during the 1930’s this looked like a new direction, British Expressionism. In this lecture Dominic Wilkinson will be examining these together with Velarde’s less well known and more personal post-war churches, many of which are published for the first time in the upcoming C20 book by Wilkinson and Andrew Crompton.
In this lecture Dominic Wilkinson will examine the life and work of F X Velarde, starting with his 1930s expressionist churches, influenced by travels in Germany in 1928 accompanied by Charles Reilly. The lesser known post-war churches completed for the Dioceses’ of Liverpool and Shrewsbury, including: St Teresa’s, Upholland, English Martyr’s, Wallasey, and the thanksgiving Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, Blackpool. The talk will conclude with Velarde’s later works in London, notably St Luke’s, Pinner and the nearby diminutive chapel for The Grail Society, which is not normally accessible to the public. All these represent a very personal exploration by an architect who quietly continued producing carefully crafted and highly idiosyncratic churches, which are now, 60 years after his death being rediscovered.
You can purchase Dominic Wilkinson and Andrew Crompton's book on F. X. Velarde in our C20 Architect's series here.
We’ll send you a Zoom link by email after you book, which will enable you to “join” the event, and we’ll be using the Q&A function to take questions at the end. If you’ve not used Zoom before, clicking on the Zoom link will take you through the set-up process, hopefully simply and smoothly! You should receive an automated link within an hour of booking so please check your spam/junk emails if you haven't received this. Any further problems please contact coordinator@c20society.org.uk.
The event is free but we welcome donations towards C20’s campaigning here.
Image credit: Alun Bull, Historic England.
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