A chapel in a Liverpool cemetery will be the focus of architectural interest this week.
Seventy students from northern universities will be visiting the South Chapel at Anfield cemetery to generate design ideas for the future of the building.
Their visit has been prompted by the Friends of Anfield’s ambition for the chapel.
The Friends Chair, Dr Tom Bradburn explains: “We approached John Moores University some months ago asking if they would be interested in using Anfield Cemetery as the location for an architecture project.
“Our vision is to get the cemetery off Historic England’s At Risk Register and build an International Heritage and visitor Centre by 2025. But we actually got more than we expected from the university.
“Northern Soul is a student design competition involving ten northern university schools of architecture. They meet annually and each city takes it in turn to be the host. It happens to be the turn of the Liverpool universities and they have put together a series of one day design workshops organised through the Royal Institute of British Architects North West (RIBA NW) and the northern schools of architecture.
“The students will work in teams on design ideas and I am sure they will come up with some very interesting and imaginative ideas for how a heritage centre can be developed.”
The undergraduates are visiting the cemetery on the morning of Friday 8 April and will then work on their designs. At the end of the day judging will take place and prizes given out for the best ideas.
The Friends, supported by the city council, are formulating bids to the Architectural Heritage Fund and Heritage Lottery Fund to help further their aims which run alongside the £260m Anfield regeneration project