What does it mean to repair an artwork after fire?
Purcell led the repair of fire damaged doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral following an arson attack in May 2022, bringing forward an extraordinary opportunity to work on one of the UK’s most iconic and architecturally significant post-war cathedrals
Yet, beyond the scale of the building itself, the project raised a fundamental question: what are we really trying to preserve when heritage is damaged by fire?
Fire disrupts not only the physical fabric of a building, but also our understanding of how materials age and change over time. Unlike gradual decay, which allows for careful, incremental repair, fire creates a drastic, sudden loss of material and detail. In such circumstances, the role of the conservation architect shifts from fabric-led conservation to interpretation.
Nowhere was this tension more apparent than in the cathedral’s eastern doors. Designed by sculptor William Mitchell, they are not simply functional components but artworks, formed in experimental fibreglass as part of the cathedral’s bold modernist vision. Their repair therefore posed an essential challenge: how should conservation respond when the material is damaged, but the artistic meaning is harder to reconstruct?
This makes their repair inherently complex.
Fibreglass does not weather in predictable ways and does not easily align with established conservation techniques.
Fire therefore presents a dual challenge: while the loss of material is clear, the loss of meaning is harder to define. What does it mean to repair such an element? Is it enough to stabilise what remains, or should we aim to recover something closer to the original intent?
These questions sit at the heart of conservation practice but are brought into sharper focus here. The doors are not only part of a highly significant cathedral but are also among the most unusual elements to be repaired in the UK. Their value lies as much in their authorship and artistic expression as in their physical fabric.
In this context, conservation is not always about preserving material, sometimes it is about preserving intent.
Projects such as this highlight the evolving role of the conservation architect, not simply as a custodian of fabric, but as a mediator between past intent and present condition. A purely fabric led approach risks holding onto elements that no longer reflect the original vision, while too much intervention risks over-restoration. The challenge is finding the right balance.
The project also raises a wider question. The cathedral’s principal fibreglass doors, which remain largely intact, present an opportunity. During a recent project discussion, a question emerged: should we, as custodians, be doing more – recording these features through digital or physical means to safeguard not only the material, but the artistic intent and meaning embedded within them?
