Dome of Home The Hairy Builder

Want to know about British history? You better get your hands dirty.

Don't bury your head in a guidebook, ask a brickie,

a chippy or a roofer.

Ever since I were a boy, I've had a passion for our past, so

I'm going to apprentice myself to the oldest masonry company in the

country. Mastering their crafts and

scraping away the secrets of Blighty's poshest piles.

From castles to cathedrals, music halls to mansions,

palaces to public schools.

These aren't just buildings,

they're keys to opening up our past and bringing it back to life.

Today I'm in the Victorian beach resort of New Brighton,

just a ferry ride across the Mersey from Liverpool,

to visit this impressive church, nicknamed the Dome of Home.

What a cracking view.

I'll be getting stuck in with the restoration work.

Zen and the art of pointing.

Discovering the amazing story behind the church's origins.

He invested the money in the stock markets.

So a priest is playing the stock market during the Depression.

And I'm finding out what secrets lie

beneath Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral.

Father Tony, you've got an incredible basement.

In the 19th century, Liverpool was loaded.

It had a thriving port for trading connections across the globe.

Merchants flocked here, and one of them, James Atherton,

decided the region could do with an upmarket seaside resort.

So in 1830, he purchased a section of the Merseyside coastline.

The plan was to create a resort to emulate Brighton in the South.

And they called it New Brighton.

The holiday resort was hugely successful and the town expanded rapidly around it.

Amongst all the new developments was the spectacular new church of Saints

Peter and Paul and Saint Philomena.

Built on top of a hill in the 1930s,

the imposing building with its green copper dome dominates the skyline.

And inside the interior is just as striking.

Grand and spacious,

it was built to seat 1,000 people and its cathedral-like dome is an

impressive 40 feet wide.

With stunning marble altars shipped from Italy,

it looks like no expense was spared.

Well, on the decor at least.

For the fabric of the building, it's a different story.

Built during the great Depression,

they came up with a state-of-the-art but lower cost concrete

superstructure clad in brick.

But 80 years on, this beautiful church, nicknamed the Dome of Home,

is crumbling.

Construction firm William Adderley has the job of restoring it,

and I'm here to meet site foreman Gary Newton.

Ey up, Gary. Should I come up?

Yes, just come up, Dave, it's fine.

The current phase of works revolves around the southern end of the

building.

What a cracking view.

It must be a great place to work, this.

It is, and you can see it from miles around as well.

You can. You've got Liverpool's iconic skyline, Liver Building,

the Catholic Cathedral, the Anglican Cathedral.

Anfield, and of course, this side of the Mersey,

you've got the Dome of Home.

-And it's a lovely building.

-It is.

I should imagine it's quite exposed here.

Yes. That's probably the main reason behind us doing the work on the

building, the exposure to the elements and where it is.

It's quite a new building to need so much restoration.

Is it that it was shoddily built?

No, it's not the fact it's a shoddily built building,

it's just the materials which they used when it was built.

They are at the end of their life.

This is one of the world's first concrete churches.

The building is built primarily in concrete instead of stone.

And with that, it can have its own set of problems, can't it?

Yes.

Basically what happens is, once the concrete is exposed to water,

then that is the problem because the reinforced steel will get rusty,

the concrete starts coming away from your steel and your paintwork and

your plasterwork blows,

-so then you're into a load of more problems there as well.

-Yes.

Moisture has been getting into the building,

causing the steel and the pillars to rust and expand,

which in turn has made the concrete

crack and the plaster to peel off the walls.

The whole building needs weather proofing and damage repaired.

The budget for the project is £290,000,

and scheduled to take around four and a half months.

During that time, they will be fixing the porch roof,

restoring the rose window,

replastering and repairing the brickwork.

But before I get stuck in with the renovations,

I want to know more about this intriguing building.

The construction was revolutionary, indeed a bit newfangled,

but with its 100-foot dome, twin bell house and its marble altar,

it's the finest example of Scouse baroque.

But how did such a grand building end up being built on an obscure

stretch of the Wirral?

It was the brainchild of Father Mullins,

an Irishman who came to New Brighton in 1909.

The seaside resort was developing into a commuter suburb and his

church couldn't accommodate the booming population.

So Father Mullins made it his personal mission to build a new,

much grander one.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-I'm Dave.

-How do you do?

-How are you?

-Adrian?

-Yep.

-Hi.

Lovely to meet you. So this is it,

this is almost like the birth certificate.

Something like that.

One way of looking at it.

It's fantastic. You're the architect, what would you describe the style?

It's Byzantine style.

Like Westminster Cathedral.

It is neoclassical, baroque,

I think, is the official terminology of it.

But I think there's a bit of a mixture of all things in there,

within the style of the architecture,

but broadly, it's Byzantine.

Mullins wanted to recreate the Basilica da Estrela in Lisbon,

a church with a giant dome,

which he had become enamoured with whilst studying in Portugal.

So did Father Mullins have an easy time getting the building built?

Well, I think the Bishop didn't want a dome,

but Father Mullins decided he wanted a basilica-like church and he told

his architect, go ahead and do it.

Fantastic.

The Bishop didn't find out about the dome until it was too late.

And when Father Mullins was asked why he'd ignored his wishes,

he just said, well, if he hadn't,

he would have ended up with a miserable church.

There's one thing that fascinates me about this building,

it was built right in the middle of a depression.

How did he raise the money?

He was very enigmatic,

he was the kind of person who would stand at the back of church,

as people went in, and as people were coming out with the plate,

he made them put the money in.

But it was crowded as well, the church was packed.

And he invested the money in the stock market.

Which, yes... It raised a few eyebrows.

So a priest is playing the stock market during the Depression.

-That's got courage.

-Yeah.

Mullins' gambles paid off, and the church was completed in 1935.

And he paid for this building, £58,000.

It was built free of debt in 1935, which is amazing.

It is amazing. Because that doesn't sound an awful lot of money.

I mean, even now, translated to nowadays,

it's only something like £4 million.

That doesn't sound a lot. He's got a lot of building for his money.

He has. I think part of it was the method used in building,

using the concrete frame which was part of the innovative style of the

church at that time, it was still quite a new building process.

-The Empire State building was a concrete frame, at the same time.

-Yes, indeed.

Father Mullins' faith in new technology meant he could afford

the type of grand building he'd envisaged.

But this listed building is long overdue some serious care and attention.

Builders are on site repairing the roofs,

and attending to the brickwork.

The original cement mortar, innovative at the time,

ended up storing problems for the future.

It sealed in the damp, causing major damage to the interior.

The builders are now having to remove all the cement from between

the bricks and re-point them with a more appropriate mortar.

I think it's time I gave them a hand.

Right. The martial art of pointing.

So this has all been raked out?

This has already been raked out.

The old mortar what was in was...

a cement-based mortar.

-That is wrong, isn't it?

-Wrong on a traditional, old building.

-Right.

-It should be put back in a lime mortar.

Why is lime mortar better?

It helps your building to breathe, basically.

-Right.

-So any moisture that gets into your building,

it allows it to escape.

-Right.

-Whereas if you use a cement-based product,

then what happens is it holds it in to your building.

A keeps it inside and that is bad for the building.

-An unhealthy building.

-You get an unhealthy building.

-Yeah.

If you think of a building as a person,

we allow moisture to come out of us and it keeps us healthy inside.

-Yeah, yeah.

-So it's the same with a building, really.

If you allow the mortar to come out, your building'll be preserved and

everything else inside.

It's funny though, isn't it. A lot of the old ways were better.

-Correct.

-Yeah.

Before we put in the mortar, the wall is prepped.

Firstly by removing any dust and then by wetting it down.

This is to stop the joints being too dry,

which would cause the mortar to shrink and pop out.

And that's your mortar board.

-And that's the mortar.

-Hence your teacher's head.

Do you know what I mean? The mortarboard at school?

This is a finger trowel.

-Right.

-There's your board.

-Thank you.

-I will allow you to have a go.

Thank you. Don't you want to do a bit first and show us?

-Do you want me to?

-Yeah, go on.

-Are you sure?

-Yeah, of course.

-I thought you'd done it before?

I have done it before, but only... flat.

No, no, I want to do it right.

That's all right, it's not a problem.

Basically, what we want is, we want it to be flush to the joints.

Oh, no. You don't want like...

pigeon stuff all over there.

Exactly. So basically...

That's a technical term you know?

"Pigeon stuff". I wouldn't say stuff on the site.

-Snots, as we like to call them.

-Snots, yes!

It's like welding, isn't it? They say "snotty".

"We're welding, snotty."

Basically what you do, you get your

pointed iron,

-flatten the edge down...

-Yeah.

..and what you're looking to do is fill this in one...

one swift movement.

One neat, tidy...

-Tidy.

-..efficient sweep.

-You'll get it off...

-Look at that.

And then you'll put it in the wall.

It's such a therapeutic job, pointing, isn't it?

It's relaxing.

You're away with your thoughts, on your own, nobody to bother you.

It's all a bit Zen, isn't it?

Yeah! Would you like to have a go?

-Yeah, thank you.

-Away you go.

I see you're right-handed?

-Yeah.

-So if you can start from the right and work your way left.

As you can see, it's not as easy as you think.

No. It's like juggling snot.

Oh, look at that. It's so satisfying.

When you get a nice bit on there, like that,

and it just fits right in the hole, you drag it across, put it in,

mustn't mess with my snots.

-Leave them alone.

-I know, I know.

It's tempting, though, isn't it?

-It is, it is.

-You know, because you want to...

If you was working next to me, I would have told you off for that.

Right. Right.

Scoop, doop, push.

It's great to be part of renovating this famous landmark but in 2008,

its future wasn't looking so rosy.

Lack of maintenance due to rising

costs rendered the building unsafe and it was closed to the public.

A campaign was launched to save it with many locals rolling up their

sleeves to make it habitable again.

I've come down to the rectory to meet some of the parishioners to

find out why this building means so much to them.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

-Hello.

-Hello.

I've just been having a look at your wonderful church.

I mean, who remembers Father Mullins?

-Do you remember him?

-Yes.

Yes?

What was Father Mullins like?

I remember him standing after mass at the main door,

plate in hand.

My mother used to say,

"Pity help anyone who walks past

"and doesn't put something in the plate!"

He wanted a silver collection, you see, to build this church.

-Yes.

-Which was at least sixpence or a shilling.

So everybody was scratching around

for threepenny bits, which is silver.

And he'd say, "Don't be giving me threepenny bits!

"They won't buy the lines on the bull's eyes."

He seemed to be such a strong man.

I mean, to have that sense of will

to build what's effectively a cathedral during the Depression.

To keep everything going through the Blitz.

They bombed here in March, April.

-Right.

-And he wouldn't leave.

At the height of the Blitz,

he used to walk up and down the aisle of this church saying

his rosary in his long johns.

So was the church very badly damaged during the Blitz?

-I don't think it was.

-It wasn't touched.

They were always frightened, weren't they, Doctor, that the cross on the

top would be hit by a stray piece of big shrapnel?

You know, like the end cone of...

a shell or something. But it was never hit, was it?

The Dome of Home as the sailors called it.

Yeah. Yeah.

The Church picked up its nickname the Dome of Home during the battle

of the Atlantic in World War II.

Convoys of ships filled with vital supplies of food, weapons and fuel

were crossing the Atlantic from the US.

The ships came into dock on the Mersey,

but in an effort to win the war,

the Germans sent in U-boats to destroy them.

Scouser Pat Moran spent some time in the Merchant Navy.

Well, the main problem with the Mersey during the Second World War

was mines. The U-boats used to wait for the slack water...

..release the mines and then,

when the tide flowed in,

it used to carry the mines into the river and there would always be

a number of ships anchored, waiting to go into port,

and they would be blown up.

The U-boats were causing havoc,

on average sinking four ships every day in the Atlantic.

And by March 1943, it was estimated

the UK only had three weeks' supply of food left.

With all looking lost, Churchill turned to Admiral Max Horton,

who came up with high-risk tactics to search and destroy the German

U-boats.

One of the bravest things he did was to withdraw the escorts from

the convoys and form them into hunter-killer groups,

and their idea from then on -

and this is when we started winning the Battle of the Atlantic -

instead of defending the convoys,

he went out hunting the U-boats and the first idea was that he would go

ahead of the convoys,

force the U-boats down under the water and they couldn't go fast

enough to keep up with the convoys then.

But then he got more ambitious and thought,

"I'm going to kill the U-boats!"

And he didn't half kill them.

The crucial battle for the Atlantic had been won and Britain was saved.

For the sailors who survived,

the church on the top of the hill became an important symbol.

When they came up the river and they saw that green dome and they passed

the green dome, nicknamed the Dome of Home,

they knew they'd finally made it home.

And they were OK.

It was never the intention for just one dome

to be overlooking the Mersey.

They were meant to have two.

At the same time plans for the Dome of Home were drawn up,

across the river in the city of Liverpool,

which was still hugely wealthy from shipping,

the Catholic Church were developing their own monumental domed building,

designed by world-renowned architect Edwin Lutyens.

A model housed at the Museum of Liverpool shows it with a dome

to rival Saint Peter's in Rome.

Work commenced in the 1930s,

but the building finally completed 30 years later bears

little resemblance to the plans.

Affectionately known as the Mersey Funnel,

the Metropolitan Cathedral has a very modern

and evocatively designed interior.

But how did it end up so different

from what the architect intended?

To find out, I'm heading down to the crypt.

Hello, Father Tony.

I'm Dave, nice to meet you.

-Hi, welcome.

-I didn't know...

-That this was down below?

-No.

-This is the original Lutyens design, a famous architect.

It was going to be the biggest cathedral in the world,

with a dome of the size of Saint Peter's.

Why wasn't it built?

They started to build in 1933,

and then of course that led up to the Second World War,

then a lot of the construction workers were called up in the war

and then following the end of the Second World War,

there was really no appetite after that.

The materials were not available.

Yeah, absolutely. So really, you've got the groundworks done,

like the crypt and everything, of the world's biggest cathedral.

-That's right.

-Do you wish that the cathedral would have been built,

-the Lutyens one?

-No, I think what we've got is a good mix, really.

-Yeah.

-I think if this had been completed,

we have been paying for it for ever.

-Yeah.

-It would have been sort of hundreds of millions of pounds,

which probably would have crippled the local community,

trying to raise the funds to pay off the debt.

-But it's a wonderful place, really.

-It is. It's well worth coming to.

The thing is, if you do come, the top bit's wonderful,

but it's a bit of an iceberg, really.

You need to go downstairs and see what's going on.

And what an iceberg it is.

It would have taken a titanic effort to create these stunning vaulted

ceilings. This is incredible.

I mean, the scale of the crypt!

When you think this is one of the chapels below the main building,

you know, it just gives you an idea of the size and scale of the design.

There's about six million bricks here.

Good grief.

And all the other materials they used.

It's proper classical architecture,

which we've got in the Dome of Home across the Mersey.

Across the Mersey, yeah. Which was going to probably mirror,

in a smaller way, what was to be here on this side of the river.

-Yes.

-You had the Dome of Home on the other side.

Such is the power of... What a gateway to the Mersey!

Yes.

Father Tony, you've got an incredible basement!

Back in New Brighton, the builders have another month left on site.

With the vital weatherproofing works done,

they can now get on with repairing the cracks

and cosmetic damage on the inside.

The compromised areas have been revamped with a lime-based plaster

with added hemp for extra flexibility.

Matt Coleman is one of the plasterers.

This is a three-to-one lime mortar with hemp.

They've let the water out.

It'll stay dry.

There'll be three layers of plaster to get the perfect finish.

It's tried and tested.

You know it'll work.

It's going to last another few hundred years.

Outside, there's still the delicate job of refitting the original rose window,

which sits 15 metres above the porch at the front of the building.

The lead had taken a beating from the elements and the glass was

perilously close to falling out.

Having painstakingly removed the whole window and restored it,

the team now have the task of putting it all back together again.

-Hello, gents.

-Hi. This is Dave and Andy.

Hi, nice to meet you. They're the glass specialists.

So, that's stating the obvious, you're putting a new window in.

Putting a new rose window.

What sort of condition was the window in when you took it out?

Poor. The seals had gone around the leads and they'd sealed them up with

some sort of proprietary seal at some time in the past.

The glass was all basically intact, so we were able to dismantle it,

clean it all and reassemble it with new lead, put new cement in,

so effectively it's a brand-new window but using the original glass.

So, have you made a new frame?

No, this is the original frame.

We've taken it out, we've blast cleaned it,

we've re-tapped all the holes and replaced the screws with stainless steel ones.

Today, it's ready for the glass to go back in.

-Can I give you a hand?

-Yes, you certainly can.

Right, so we'll put this one in first, Dave.

-The big 'un?

-Yeah, the big 'un.

-You could start with a big 'un.

-Right.

It's the original glass, so we'd really rather you didn't drop it.

-Absolutely.

-So, it wants to go in that way.

-Yes.

-So, should we walk back over and have a go at bobbing it in?

-Righto.

-I'll carry it over.

-All right.

-You don't look so good on your feet.

-If we put it in between us.

-Yes.

So, it's more difficult than, like, panel pins and putty?

Well, it's just what it is.

It's not necessarily difficult but it's just a bit fiddly, really.

-Now, is that tape double-sided?

-Yes. That's exactly what it is.

-Is it very sticky?

-Sticky as sticky stuff.

That's it. Now, we've got it in.

Look at that. It's almost like you knew what you were doing.

The window is anchored into place using copper wires,

which have been pre-welded onto the leaded window.

So, this is what I would call a stained-glass window.

-Is that the right term?

-No, really this is technically a leaded light.

If you think about it, lots of windows are called lights.

You've got roof lights, fan lights, copper lights.

This is a leaded light and what it means is, literally,

it lets light into a building.

All this glass was cleverly coloured 80 years ago and given names like

Cathedral Blue, Yellow Stippolyte and Ruby Flemish.

We've got a stained-glass window that's been painted and fired and

that's just a way of putting an elaborate mask onto a piece of

glass, so you can get a face or whatever.

-Yes.

-Like you see in church windows.

-Yes.

-So, technically, that's a stained-glass window.

This is a leaded light.

I notice you're making me wear gloves with this.

Apart from the fact that I'm looking after your window, is it, like,

-the lead?

-Yes, you don't want to be eating lead.

I know you like eating things but you don't want to be eating lead.

-Not a lead sandwich?

-No, no, it's bad for you.

We've some little spring clips.

I'll tell you what, you can have a go at that.

-You'll like them.

-All right.

He doesn't let me do much, you know.

He doesn't trust me! Before he says, how are you with glass?

I said, I don't know, I've never done it.

-He went, "Oh!"

-You'll like these, nobody can put these in.

So, is this a bit of a swine to get in?

It is a swine to get in, but you'll manage.

-You'll manage.

-All right...

So that's the filler. Hang on now, if I just lend you my knife.

If you can just...

poke that under there.

-Yes, be careful.

-That's it.

-That's it, look at that.

-Is that it?

That's it. But look how clever that is and that's holding that in.

-Isn't it.

-Nice and tight. Glazing springs, they call them.

So, it's not your invention?

No, unfortunately I didn't invent that.

So, but it goes right back hundred years, does that sort of thing.

Wonderful, wonderful.

There are six panels with over 150 individual pieces of antique glass

being taped, clipped and sealed into their new resting place.

The final piece of the jigsaw.

Aye, that's it.

And then we just need to lift it up.

Bob's your auntie, Fanny's your uncle Jim.

So, he's doing the copper wires.

-Aye.

-Dave, do you get a sense of satisfaction now, you know,

the icing on the cake, your work is now done?

Yeah, it's great. You've turned something that were passed it,

that'd had one lifetime,

you've brought it back and given it another lifetime's worth of service.

People inside have seen it all their lives,

most of them can't remember when it were clean and neat and tidy,

so they're going to see it again.

It's going to be new light through old windows.

Fantastic. One window.

-Yep, sound.

-Brilliant.

-Well done, Dave. Congratulations.

-Thanks for coming and having a look.

So, what are you doing next?

Going home and having me tea or our lass'll kill me.

It won't be long before the building is finished and normal service resumed.

Father Mullins had an ambitious vision for his church.

His persistence and willingness to try new technologies allowed it to be built.

And now it's been restored,

this important landmark will remain

on the Wirral skyline for many years to come.

Next time, I'll be in Ampleforth, Yorkshire,

at one of the country's best boarding schools,

with a load of monks.

When you're out and about on business, would you travel in your habit?

I think sometimes if people see you like this it can be a bit...

They can get a bit freaked out.

I'll be restoring the Yorkshire equivalent of Hogwarts.

I missed.

And learning an extraordinary tale of mice and men.

-It's Mouseman's greatest work, really.

-Yeah.

-Oh, there's a mouse.

-There we are.

-See how many you can spot.