Entrance to a Catacomb St. James's Cemetery

St. James's Cemetery was closed for burials in 1936. Densely packed with smoke-blackened tombstones and overgrown with vegetation it had an atmosphere of highly romantic melancholy, something which is conveyed in this watercolour. In the late 1960s the cemetery was almost completely destroyed and transformed into a featureless public garden. Ward was a student at Liverpool University School of Architecture when he painted this view. It was produced as part of the 'Recording Merseyside' project, a scheme which used local artistic talent to record the region's appearance during a period of rapid change. This particular view was not on the official list of subjects to be recorded.