Bluecoat Chambers on School Lane in central Liverpool holds the distinction of being the oldest surviving building in the city centre, constructed between 1716 and 1717 as a charity school. Now operating under the name the Bluecoat, it lays claim to being the oldest arts centre in Great Britain — a title rooted in its long association with art societies stretching back over a century.
From Charity School to Arts Centre
The school was founded in 1708 by the Reverend Robert Styth, rector of Liverpool, and Bryan Blundell, a sea captain who later served as Mayor of Liverpool twice, in 1721-22 and again in 1728-29. The original building went up in 1716-17 and was extended through to 1718 to accommodate boarding pupils. By the following year it housed 50 children, with capacity for 100 more, and construction was fully complete by 1725. When the Liverpool Blue Coat School relocated to Wavertree in 1906, the building faced demolition. The architect Charles Herbert Reilly, head of the Liverpool School of Architecture, intervened by persuading the industrialist William Lever to rent the building in 1909 and later purchase it, renaming it Liberty Buildings. Lever entertained plans to transform it into an art centre around 1913-14, but abandoned the idea by 1918. His death in 1925 again raised the prospect of demolition, prompting a public fundraising campaign that led to the establishment of the Bluecoat Society of Arts in 1927 as a charitable trust to manage the building.
War Damage and Restoration
On 3 May 1941, during the Liverpool Blitz, an incendiary bomb severely damaged the concert hall and adjoining rooms. The following night, a bomb blast destroyed the rear wing entirely. Restoration work was carried out after the war and completed by 1951. The building was designated a Grade I listed structure on 28 June 1952 and is recorded on the National Heritage List for England. The Bluecoat Display Centre, a contemporary craft gallery, opened in the rear courtyard in 1959. From 2005, a further restoration programme was undertaken and a new wing added, with the building reopening in March 2008 to coincide with Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture.
Architecture and Layout
The Bluecoat is built in brick with painted stone dressings and a slate roof. Its plan is H-shaped, and while the rear originally mirrored the front elevation, a remodelling in 1821 gave it a convex-shaped rear facade. The Sandon Studios Society, an independent art school and art society, began renting space here from 1907, and the Bluecoat Society of Arts formed from that tradition in 1927. The building had been known as the Bluecoat Arts Centre from the 1980s before adopting its current, shorter name.