Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral looks like a concrete spaceship that landed in 1967, and it's genuinely striking. The circular modernist design centers around a massive crown-shaped lantern tower that floods the interior with light through John Piper's extraordinary stained glass. You'll spend most of your time craning your neck upward at the kaleidoscope of blues, purples, and golds that shift throughout the day. The building sits above Edwin Lutyens' abandoned cathedral crypt, which you can visit separately for £5.

Walking inside feels like entering a cosmic cathedral where traditional church architecture got completely reimagined. The circular nave means there's no bad seat, and the altar sits in the center with seating radiating outward. The stained glass creates pools of colored light that move across the floor as the sun shifts, making afternoon visits particularly rewarding. The acoustic properties are excellent, so if there's a service or concert happening, you'll hear every note clearly from anywhere in the space.

Most guides oversell this as revolutionary architecture, but honestly, it's more interesting than beautiful. The real draw is experiencing how radically different a 1960s cathedral feels compared to Liverpool's Gothic Anglican Cathedral down the road. Skip the gift shop, which is forgettable, but don't miss the Lutyens Crypt if you're interested in architectural history. The £5 entrance fee feels steep for what's essentially an unfinished basement, but the massive brick arches show what could have been Britain's largest cathedral.