Another view
Designer: Ronald P. Jones
Designed by Ronald P.
Jones and built by Thomas Shelmerdine, this is a memorial to the chapel
that previously stood here in 1905. Both
William Roscoe (1753-1831) and
Joseph Blanco White (d.1841) were buried in the chapel grounds and
plaques mark the monument. William Roscoe was a rags to riches to rags
polymath and famous Abolitionist. He wrote pamphlets and poetry
supporting abolition and was briefly elected as an MP for Liverpool.
Along with William Rathbone, Roscoe was unceasing in his call for an end
to slavery and warning of a time of reckoning “Forget not Britain,
higher still than thee, sits the great Judge of nations, who can weigh
the wrong and can repay.” I note with wry amusement that he was recently
voted the 21st greatest Liverpudlian of all time, sandwiched by Lily
Savage and Ringo Starr at numbers 20 & 22. White (born José María Blanco
Crespo), was a Spanish theologian and poet educated for the Catholic
priesthood, but after ordination in 1800, religious doubts led him to
escape from Spain to England. There he entered the Anglican Church &
became Archbishop of Dublin in 1831. While in this position he embraced
Unitarian views, and he found asylum amongst the Unitarians of
Liverpool. Just to the east of the Memorial is a stone plaque set into
the wall of the adjoining building. This marks the site of The Pleasant
Street Schools. Alan Maycock © 2008 |