Church of St Clare, Liverpool
| Church of St Clare, Liverpool | |
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| Coordinates: 53°23′28″N 2°56′12″W / 53.3910°N 2.9367°W | |
| OS grid reference | SJ 378 886 |
| Location | Liverpool, Merseyside |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Website | http://www.st-clares.org.uk/ |
| History | |
| Founder(s) | Francis and James Reynolds |
| Consecrated | 1890 |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Parish church |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | Grade I |
| Designated | 28 June 1952 |
| Architect(s) | Leonard Stokes |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Gothic Revival |
| Groundbreaking | May 1888 |
| Completed | June 1890 |
| Construction cost | £7,834 |
| Specifications | |
| Capacity | c. 600 |
The Church of St Clare is on the corner of Arundel Avenue and York Avenue in the Sefton Park area of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is an active Roman Catholic parish church in the Archdiocese of Liverpool and the Pastoral Area of Liverpool South. It is the only Grade I listed Roman Catholic church in the Archdiocese of Liverpool. Sharples and Pollard consider it to be "one of the most imaginative churches of its date in the country".
The church was built in 1888–90 and paid for by the brothers Francis and James Reynolds, who were cotton brokers, at a cost of £7,834 (equivalent to £780,000 in 2015). The architect was Leonard Stokes, the godson of Francis Reynolds. It is considered to be Stokes' "first really outstanding ecclesiastical design". The foundation stone was laid on 25 March 1889, the church was consecrated on 3 June 1890 and opened for worship on 20 July of that year. The contractors for the building were Morrison and Sons of Wavertree.
The church is built in buff-coloured brick with Storeton stone bands and dressings, and is in Gothic style. Its roof is of slate. The plan of the church consists of a single vessel with a small north transept, long and low north and south chapels at the east end, and two porches, one at either side of the west end. Along the south wall are confessionals under a lean-to roof. The west face is simple with a large seven-light window. The porches are gabled; over the north doorway is a niche containing a statue of St Clare and in the corresponding position in the south porch is a statue of St Francis. The south chapel, the Sacred Heart Chapel, has its own saddleback roof and four round-headed five-light windows. The north chapel is the Lady Chapel and has a large west window of seven lights. The east face of the church is also simple and contains a short wide nine-light window, the outer two lights on each side being blind. The transept is gabled with one three-light window and a stair turret with a conical roof which gives access to the organ loft. In the angle of the nave and transept is a small octagonal turret with copper flèche.
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