It’s all here at The World Museum with treasures from around the world, the bottom of the ocean and even outer space. A hybrid of old and new: outside, it’s all Corinthian columns and neo-Classical architecture. Inside, five floors of natural history exhibits: dinosaur displays, bugs and insects, planetarium, aquarium and on the world cultures floor – Ancient Roman, Greek and Egyptian artifacts rub shoulders with contemporary ethnography. This museum is unashamedly family focused and as you might expect it is mobbed on weekends and school holidays.

This northern outpost of arguably Britain’s most important arts institution opened at Liverpool’s Albert Dock in 1988. Tate Liverpool is housed inside a Grade I-listed former warehouse, a redbrick beauty designed by Jesse Hartley in 1840 that was once an integral part of Liverpool’s gargantuan port industry. The warehouse was converted into a gallery by architect James Stirling; it now has four floors dedicated to modern and contemporary visual art, with previous blockbuster exhibitions including Jackson Pollock, Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol.

The oldest building in the city centre, the Bluecoat was once a school, and is now one of the city’s liveliest arts hubs, an art gallery showing work by major national and international artists that also stages regular performances, readings and more. Clustered around its front courtyard are independent craft and design shops, while at the back you’ll find the highly-rated Bluecoat Display Centre.

Since opening in 2003, Liverpool’s FACT (AKA the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) has supported artists working with new media, commissioned countless (and occasionally seminal) artworks and dedicated itself to digital media. Three arthouse cinemas screen both popular and cult films, two galleries show new work, and other spaces within the building are regularly used for digital and new media events. It also has an excellent ground-floor cafe with a vegan/veggie vibe – operated by the super-cool folk behind nearby Bold Street’s LEAF – and a first-floor bar.

The Everyman reopened in March 2014 after extensive renovation to its stage, restaurant and backstage areas; the newly opened version is sustainable, accessible and really rather swish. Inclusiveness runs through the new design – its frontage, dominated by a new “portrait wall”, shows 105 different Liverpool residents, cut into a metal facade. Twinned with Liverpool Playhouse in Williamson Square.