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Liverpool exploded into life in the 18th century, rapidly turning from a small town into one of the world’s most important port cities. For 200 years, it eclipsed most of Europe in the trading stakes – nationally and internationally – Liverpool was where it was at.
What does that mean for the visitor today? You’ve only to look up: a skyline that’s part of a World Heritage Site, a waterfront that never fails to impress, and Georgian streets that are as graceful as they are grand. It is these architectural cheekbones that, along with the grand sweep of the River Mersey, make Liverpool such a visual treat. Sure, the city was for years on its uppers, its post-industrial decline as swift as it was comprehensive. But Liverpool has reinvented itself, as the UK Capital of Culture in 2008, as the home of the leading visual arts event Liverpool Biennial, as the place where artists make work and where a new, creative future is being written.
Step straight out of Lime Street Station and you’ll find yourself in the middle of the bustling St George’s Quarter. Together with the World Museum, is the Walker Art Gallery, housing a collection of historic and contemporary art. The Liverpool Empire, Royal Court and the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre are close by too. With two stunning cathedrals that sit on either side of Hope Street in the Georgian Quarter, the area is also home to the Everyman Theatre and some of the finest restaurants and bars in the city: The London Carriage Works, Pen Factory and the architecturally marvellous Philharmonic Dining Rooms are among our favourites.
Head to Liverpool Waterfront for a world-class visual arts offering alongside important historic exhibitions. Aside from an abundance of independent shops and eateries, the Dock is home to Tate Liverpool and its collection of contemporary art and changing exhibitions; the Merseyside Maritime Museum exploring Liverpool’s long nautical heritage and the uniquely important International Slavery Museum, examining Liverpool’s part in the Transatlantic slave trade.
Like the Liver Birds sitting atop the city’s most famous building, one turned to the sea, one turned to home, Liverpool is a city with a world view, yet a place with a personal, personable one too.
The Old Dock tour is a treat for younger and older visitors alike, fans of Liverpool’s maritime past, and anybody curious about local history.
Come along to ‘Under a Hot Sun’, presenting the 2020 John Moores Painting Prize winner Kathryn Maple’s first solo exhibition.
One of the most exciting directors around – Miranda Cromwell – tackles this new play based on Christy Lefteri’s bestselling novel, The Beekeeper of Aleppo.
The 12th edition of the UK’s oldest and largest festival of contemporary visual art is back this year, bringing with it art focusing on ancestral knowledge, wisdom and healing.
This year, Tate Liverpool will have the pleasure of hosting what is possibly the most important event in contemporary art in the UK – the Turner Prize.
See JWM Turner’s work like never before paired with Lamin Fofana’s immersive exhsound environment in ‘Dark Waters’, a very special exhibition at Tate Liverpool opening this September.
FACT presents the final instalment of the Radical Ancestry programme with a new show by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley & Josèfa Ntjam.
Open Eye Gallery presents ‘Craig Easton: Is Anybody Listening?’, an exhibition of photographs examining the (mis)representation of Northern communities.
A little way out of Liverpool City Centre, and a short and leafy walk from…
As city centre districts go, this one is relatively small: a cluster of buildings along…
The waterfront, which takes in the Albert Dock and the Pier Head, is an integral…
The Ropewalks is a part of Liverpool that combines old and new. Once crowded with…
One of Liverpool’s most graceful quarters can be found along Hope Street. Named after the…