 | | Elmes - the original architect |
Harvey Lonsdale Elmes was born near Chichester, West Sussex in 1814, the son of a architect. He worked for his father in London and had only completed two projects before winning the competition to design St George’s Hall. His previous work was:
The interiors for a solicitors offices
Planning and surveying of an estate of about 800 houses for Lord Strathmore. He won the commission for St George’s Hall and the law courts by entering competitions in The Times. During the work on the hall Elmes also managed several other projects, most notably in Liverpool The Liverpool Collegiate Institution in Shaw Street. In 1847 ill health forced him to take a break from work and he retired to the Isle of Wight. In September he went to Jamaica to avoid the cold winter in Liverpool but two months after his arrival there he died of consumption.  | | Cockerell was an advisor to Elmes prior to his death. |
Although Elmes had completed the plans as far as possible they were changed by the replacement architect. Charles Robert Cockerell was appointed, initially as a consultant, to take over where Elmes left off. The exterior of the building is a Elmes designed it but the interior was altered quite drastically by Cockerell The addition of the organ in the great hall was his idea, without it the judges in both courts would have sat facing each other - possibly a deliberate idea but… The Small Concert Hall was exclusively Cockerell's idea as was the famous Minton tile fall in the Great Hall. | 
