Join us for a captivating conversation as we delve into the remarkable legacy of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and his lasting influence on Liverpool Cathedral and the city’s architectural landscape.
Explore how this iconic Cathedral fits into Liverpool’s rich heritage, the ongoing challenges of preserving such a monumental structure, and how Scott’s vision is being adapted to meet the demands of the 21st century.
This dynamic ‘in conversation’ event brings together leading experts who will discuss the architectural and cultural significance of Liverpool Cathedral. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask questions and engage with our distinguished panel of speakers:
- Dr Ataa Alsalloum – Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urban Heritage, Liverpool School of Architecture
- Mike Darwell – Liverpool Cathedral Architect
- Joseph Sharples – Architectural Historian
- Moderator: Dominic Wilkinson, Principal Lecturer in Architecture, Art & Design, Liverpool John Moores University
Enjoy a welcome drink as we reflect on the past, present, and future of this magnificent building, an enduring testament to Scott’s architectural brilliance.
This event is held in partnership with RIBA North and the Liverpool Architectural Society.
Thank you to The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art for supporting this event
image ©J-E-Marsh-Hoylake
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Dr. Ataa Alsalloum
Dr. Ataa Alsalloum is an architect by training and a Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urban Heritage at the Liverpool School of Architecture (LSA). She has a distinguished academic and professional background, having held key positions at Damascus University and other institutions in Syria from 2011 to 2016. Since joining LSA in 2017, Dr. Alsalloum has focused her expertise on sustainable heritage management, with a particular interest in the intersection of global policy and community engagement.
Her research, driven by a passion for heritage-led sustainable management, covers the Middle East and North Africa, the cultural heritage of the UK, and intangible cultural heritage. From 2021 to 2024, Dr. Alsalloum served as a distinguished member of the University of Liverpool Senate.
A valued member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC), Dr. Alsalloum chairs the ICOMOS-UK Education, Training, and Events Committee and serves as an Expert Member of the International Scientific Committee on Education and Training (CIF) for ICOMOS.
At LSA, she is the founder and director of the MA in Sustainable Heritage Management , a program recognised by the IHBC for its focus on building conservation and historic environment expertise. In collaboration with Dr. Nick Webb, she co-founded a heritage-focused design studio within the BA3 program, and collaborated with several partners including Liverpool Cathedral.
Mike Darwell
Mike Darwell has been the cathedral architect at Liverpool since January 2019 and is now in his second 5-year term in theposition having been retained by the Dean and Chapter. Mike has been in practice since 1998 and is a chartered architect member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He is listed on the RIBA Conservation Registration as a Specialist Conservation Architect and is included on the on the list of Architects Accredited in Building Conservation (AABC).
As well as being the Cathedral architect, Mike is a member of the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) at Liverpool and Leeds Diocese.
Joseph Sharples
Joseph Sharples is the author of the Pevsner Architectural Guide to Liverpool (Yale University Press, 2004).He moved to Liverpool in 1990 to work as an assistant curator at the Walker Art Gallery. Later, as an English Heritage-funded researcher at Liverpool University, he investigated the building activities of the city’s Victorian merchants. He spent a year at the University of Aberdeen, writing about that city for the Buildings of Scotland series of architectural guidebooks, followed by three years at the University of Glasgow, producing an online catalogue of the architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He is currently Curator of Mackintosh Collections and Applied Art at the Hunterian, University of Glasgow, but he remains deeply interested in Liverpool and its buildings.
Dominic Wilkinson
Dominic Wilkinson is an architect, author, researcher and principal lecturer at LJMU.
Working as an architect and academic in the Northwest of England for 35 years he has been involved in the design of award-winning buildings together with published research and books in the field of architectural history. Monographs on the renowned church architect F X Velarde and exhibitions on the alternative designs for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral are some examples of his recent research into Twentieth Century religious buildings
Active in a number of charities Dominic is Secretary of the Hilbre Community Land Trust, a member of Liverpool Modernist Society and past chair of the RIBA North West region.
Originally from ‘the South’ he has made Merseyside his home since coming to Liverpool University as a student in the 1980’s and enjoys nothing more than thwarting fellow southerners’ preconceptions about the city.
