St George's Hall, Liverpool

This drawing was exhibited at the Liverpool Academy exhibition displayed at the Walker Art Gallery (no.124) in 1954. It was purchased from the exhibition in the same year. It shows the south portico of St George's Hall, on of the buildings most dramatic features, and a memorable introduction to the city when seen obliquely by travellers emerging from Lime Street station. In 1910-11 there were controversial proposals to alter this aspect of the Hall by introducing flights of stairs to form a setting for a statue of Edward VII, but the statue was sited instead at the Pier Head and the south portico's surroundings remained largely unaltered until the complete redevelopment of the area in the 1960s. Tankard trained in Manchester but moved to Liverpool in 1922 and specialised in watercolour views of his adopted city.