The Leggate Theatre

Ordinary bricks and terracotta dressings were selected for the Gothic exterior, which led to the coining of the phrase red brick university by Bruce Truscot, the pseudonym adopted by Edgar Allison Peers, a Professor of Spanish at Liverpool (1922 - 52), who wrote an influential book of the same title about universities originating in the 19th century. The interior was finished to a similarly high standard. The entrance hall was elaborately decorated with faience of terracotta, turquoise and buff glazed tiles, while corridors were lined with glazed ivory and brown bricks, divided into bays by arches. Additions such as electric lighting were ahead of their time for buildings of that period.