Welsh Presbyterian Church (Liverpool)

Welsh Presbyterian Church, Liverpool
Welsh Presbyterian Church, Liverpool, from Princes Road
Welsh Presbyterian Church, Liverpool Location in Liverpool
Coordinates: 53°23′38″N 2°57′50″W / 53.3938°N 2.9638°W / 53.3938; -2.9638
OS grid reference	SJ 360 890
Location	Princes Road, Liverpool, Merseyside
Country	England
Denomination	Presbyterian Church of Wales
Architecture
Functional status	Redundant
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	14 March 1975
Architect(s)	W. & G. Audsley
Architectural type	Church
Style	High Victorian Gothic
Groundbreaking	1865
Completed	1867
Specifications
Spire height	200 feet (61 m)
Materials	Stone, slate roof

The Welsh Presbyterian Church is a disused church on Princes Road in the Toxteth district of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is a redundant church of the Presbyterian Church of Wales, and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. Because of its tall steeple, the church has been nicknamed the "Welsh Cathedral", or "Toxteth Cathedral", although it was never an actual cathedral.

The church was built between 1865 and 1867, and designed by the local architects W. & G. Audsley. At the time it was built, because of its steeple rising to a height of 200 feet (61 m), it was the highest building in Liverpool. In 1982, when it was no longer used as a Welsh Presbyterian Church, it was sold to the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, a religious organisation with headquarters in Nigeria. They ceased to use the church in the 1990s, it became vacant, was vandalised, and became derelict. There were plans for the leasehold to be acquired by a partnership of the Merseyside Building Preservation Trust and the Heritage Trust for the North West. As of 2013 the Merseyside Building Preservation Trust is undertaking a feasibility study with the intention to make a bid for a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The denomination was created in 1811 and formalized in 1823 as the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. See Welsh Methodist revival and Calvinistic Methodists. From 1928 on, the denomination was also known as the Presbyterian Church in Wales. So this church, and other buildings may be called Methodist, Calvinist or Presbyterian, but belong to the same establishment (or actually Disestablishment).