Ullet Road Unitarian Church

Ullett Road Unitarian Church stands in Sefton Park, Liverpool, a Grade I listed building completed in 1899. The red Ruabon brick exterior mixes Gothic Revival lines with Art Nouveau touches, while the interior glows with Runcorn sandstone and copper fittings. Inside, Morris & Co. stained glass designed by Edward Burne-Jones fills chancel and clerestory windows. A three-manual organ from 1869, rebuilt in 1910, still fills the space with music. The church’s plan centres on a wide nave flanked by narrow aisles and a curved chancel. The building matters because it was the first UK place of worship to register a same-sex civil partnership in 2012. Its architects, Thomas and Percy Worthington, created one of the country’s most elaborate Nonconformist ensembles. The vestry ceiling shows Gerald Moira’s allegory of Truth, while the hall opposite carries memorials moved from earlier chapels. Sir John Brunner and Henry Tate’s son paid for the cloister and hall, linking art and philanthropy. Visitors enter through an oak door clad in beaten copper and pass a niche statue of Christ beneath a rose window. The nave arcades rest on round piers, and choir stalls carry finely carved canopies. The reredos copies Leonardo’s Last Supper, and electroliers supplied by the Artificers’ Guild hang from the ceiling. Outside, a walled garden framed by Grade II gates completes the collegiate setting, offering quiet space between buildings.