Sights in Liverpool
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
A
Liverpool FC
Doff o' the cap to Evertonians and Beatle-maniacs, but no single institution represents the Mersey spirit and strong sense of identity more powerfully than Liverpool FC, England's most successful football club. Virtually unbeatable for much of the 1970s and '80s, they haven't won the league championship since 1990, but in 2005 they became European champions for the fifth time and followed it with an FA Cup in 2006.
The club's home is the marvellous Anfield, but plans are afoot to relocate to a new 60,000-capacity stadium a stone's throw away in Stanley Park before 2010. The experience of a live match is a memorable one, especially the sound of 40,000 fans singing 'You'll …
reviewed
-
B
Beatles Story
Liverpool's most popular museum won't illuminate any dark, juicy corners in the turbulent history of the world's most famous foursome - there's ne'er a mention of internal discord, drugs, Yoko Ono or the Frog Song - but there's plenty of genuine memorabilia to keep a Beatles fan happy.
Particularly impressive is the full-size replica Cavern Club (which was actually tiny) and the Abbey Road studio where the lads recorded their first singles, while George Harrison's crappy first guitar (now worth half a million quid) should inspire budding, penniless musicians to keep the faith. The museum is also the departure point for the Magical Mystery and Yellow Duckmarine tours.
reviewed
-
C
Everton FC
Liverpool's 'other' team are the blues of Everton FC, who may not have their rivals' winning pedigree but they're just as popular locally. Tours of Goodison Park run throughout the year except on the Friday before home matches.
reviewed
-
D
Speke Hall
This diagonally patterned Tudor home dates from 1490-1612, and is filled with gorgeously timbered and plastered rooms. The house contains several 'priest's holes', where the hall's sympathetic owners hid Roman Catholic priests during the anti-Catholic 16th and 17th centuries.
A marvellous example of an Elizabethan half-timbered hall, Speke Hall was formerly surrounded by thousands of acres of land, but these days all that remains is the drive and an oasis of meticulously maintained gardens; the hall's Chapel Farm became the nucleus of nearby Liverpool Airport. A bus runs from Lime St to Speke Hall, but the walk from the bus stop is about a kilometre and a half.
Tours to Pa…
reviewed
-
E
Walker Art Gallery
Liquid brown eyes, luscious long hair and an enigmatic smile... No, we're not talking George Harrison circa 1965 - we're talking about all those Pre-Raphaelite beauties on show at Liverpool's superb Walker Art Gallery. Visual treats include Rossetti's Dante's Dream, Millais' Lorenzo & Isabella and Holman Hunt's The Awakening Conscience.
Other classic Victoriana includes Lord Leighton's Perseus & Andromeda and WF Yeames' And when did you last see your father? The gallery also has an important collection of Italian, Flemish and Impressionist artworks, and more recent icons include Hockney's much-copied Peter getting out of Nick's pool. The Liverpool Museum next door offers …
reviewed
-
F
Merseyside Maritime Museum
The story of one of the world's great ports is the theme of the excellent Merseyside Maritime Museum and believe us, it's a graphic and compelling page-turner. One of the many great exhibits is Emigration to a New World, which tells the story of nine million emigrants and their efforts to get to North America and Australia; the walk-through model of a typical ship shows just how tough conditions on board really were.
But the real highlight is the Transatlantic Slavery exhibit, which pulls no punches in its portrayal of the shameful trade that made Liverpool rich and left us with the scourge of modern racism. This is heady stuff, and should on no account be missed.
reviewed
-
G
Liverpool Cathedral
At Hope St's southern end stands the neo-Gothic Liverpool Cathedral, the life work of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), whose other contributions to the world were the red telephone box, and the power station in London that is now home to the Tate Modern. Size is a big deal here: this is the largest church in Britain and the largest Anglican cathedral in the world.
The central bell is the world's third-largest (with the world's highest and heaviest peal), while the organ, with its 9765 pipes, is probably the world's largest operational model. There are terrific views of Liverpool from the top of the 101m tower.
reviewed
-
H
World Museum
Natural history, science and technology are the themes of thes sprawling World Museum, whose exhibits range from birds of prey to space exploration. It also includes the country's only free planetarium.
This vastly entertaining and educational museum is divided into four major sections: the Human World, one of the top anthropological collections in the country; the Natural World, which includes a new aquarium as well as live insect colonies; Earth, a geological treasure trove; and Space & Time, which includes the planetarium. Highly recommended.
reviewed
-
I
Fact Media Centre
Proof that Ropewalks has more to offer than just booze and bars, this media centre - whose acronym stands for Foundation for Art & Creative Technology - showcases film and new media such as digital art.
Two galleries feature constantly changing exhibitions and three screens show the latest arthouse releases - although we've noticed that the odd mainstream release has crept into the schedule, proof that financial pressures often override creative intent. There's also a bar and cafe.
reviewed
-
J
Albert Dock
Liverpool's biggest tourist attraction is Albert Dock, 2.75 hectares of water ringed by a colonnade of enormous cast-iron columns and impressive five-storey warehouses that make up the country's largest collection of protected buildings, and now a World Heritage Site. A fabulous development programme has really brought the dock to life; here you'll find several outstanding museums and an extension of London's Tate Gallery, as well as a couple of top-class restaurants and bars.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
K
National Conservation Centre
If you've ever wondered how art actually gets restored, you'll get your chance at this terrific centre, which is unconventionally housed in a converted railway good depot. Hand-held wands help tell the story of the processes involved, but the real fun is actually attempting a restoration technique with your own hands.
Sadly, our trembling paws weren't allowed near anything of value - that was left to the real experts, whose skills are pretty amazing.
reviewed
-
L
Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King
The city's two cathedrals are separated by the length of Hope St. At the northern end, the Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King was completed in 1967 according to the design of Sir Frederick Gibberd and after the original plans by Sir Edwin Lutyens, whose crypt is inside. It's a mightily impressive modern building that looks like a soaring concrete tepee, hence its nickname, Paddy's Wigwam.
reviewed
-
M
St George's Hall
Arguably Liverpool's most impressive building, St George's Hall was built in 1854 and is the first European offering of neoclassical architecture. Curiously, it was built as law courts and a concert hall - presumably a judge could pass sentence and then relax to a string quartet.
Tours of the newly renovated hall are run in conjunction with the tourist office; check for times.
reviewed
-
N
Tate Liverpool
Touted as the home of modern art in the north, the Tate Liverpool gallery features a substantial check-list of 20th-century artists across its four floors as well as touring exhibitions from the Mother Ship on London's Bankside. But it's all a little sparse, with none of the energy we'd expect from the world-famous Tate.
reviewed
-
O
Combined Headquarters of the Western Approaches
The Combined Headquarters of the Western Approaches, the secret command centre for the Battle of the Atlantic, was abandoned at the end of the war with virtually everything left intact. You can get a good glimpse of the labyrinthine nerve centre of Allied operations.
reviewed
-
P
Pier Head
The area to the north of Albert Dock is known as Pier Head, after a stone pier built in the 1760s. This is still the departure point for ferries across the River Mersey, and was, for millions of migrants, their final contact with European soil.
reviewed
-
World of Glass
Winner of a tourism award in 2006, World of Glass explores the history of glass-making at the old Pilkington factory. See live glass-blowing demonstrations and multisensory special-effects shows, explore the old furnace's underground tunnels and get lost in a maze of mirrors. There's also a collection of rare and beautiful glass pieces from around the world.
reviewed
