Pier Head

Ian Jones, Food and Drink Editor

Visit now

Pier Head

Pier Head, Georges Parade, Liverpool, L3 1DP
Pier Head
Liverpool Ice Festival
Book now

The Pier Head got to be Liverpool’s most iconic walking spot, and will be the go-to sight for anyone interested in Liverpool’s historic architecture. The river-front Pier Head has a collection of Liverpool’s most famous buildings: The Liver Royal Building, The Cunard Building, and The Port of Liverpool Building – aka ‘The Three Graces’. The Pier Head plays a starring role in Liverpool’s status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a title the city has had to fight to keep in recent years.

The Pier Head was the focal point of the economic life of the city when Liverpool was the second city of the British Empire. It’s origins- the site dates back to the 18th century- are bound up with the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade which is inseparable from the history of Liverpool. The legacy of the trading of enslaved people can be seen across the city, with streets such as Parr Street named after slave-traders. Neighbouring the Pier Head is the Royal Albert Dock, home to the International Slavery Museum where the histories and legacies of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade are laid bare.

The Pier Head is also a destination for lovers of contemporary art. Open Eye gallery is just a short walk from the waterfront, where the exhibitions of photography often spill out into the surrounding area. The Liverpool Biennial has unveiled a public, site-specific artwork nearby. Nathan Coley’s From Here sees 20 meters of tube-lighting wrapping the St. George’s Dock Pumping Station with poetry.

Just a few minutes’ walk from the hustle and bustle of the city centre, the Pier Head’s broad public spaces, historic buildings, and views out over the River Mersey make for a definitively Liverpudlian walk.

What's on near Pier Head

Until
ActivityLiverpool
Old Dock Tours, Liverpool

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.

8.50 with concessions
Modern Nature
MusicSheffield
Modern Nature at Rough Trade Liverpool

Modern Nature bring their shape-shifting blend of folk, free jazz and psych-tinged post-rock to Rough Trade in support of their new album, The Heat Warps.

From £15.00
Image of a performer dressed as a creepy moon, wearing a beige suit jacket, grinning in front of a lamp
EducationCity Centre
British Science Festival

Enjoy comedy shows to art installations, dynamic performances and more at this amazing celebration of all things science.

Free entry

Where to go near Pier Head

Waterfront
Museum
The British Music Experience

It’s a discotheque for the senses, an incredible collection of artefacts and memorabilia, audio guides, music and stories. There are iconic costumes worn by David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Dusty Springfield, the Spice Girls and Adam Ant, and musical instruments played by some of the world’s most renowned artists from Noel Gallagher to the Sex Pistols.

Waterfront
Café or Coffee Shop
Royal Liver Building

An iconic landmark, the Royal Liver Building was one of the first multi-storey buildings made using a steel-reinforced concrete structure.

Liverpool
Gallery
RIBA North

RIBA North is the national architecture centre on the Liverpool Waterfront and a temporary home to Tate Liverpool.

Afternoon tea at Oh Me Oh My
City Centre
Café or Coffee Shop
Oh Me Oh My

A secret space and tea room, Oh Me Oh My lives in the stunning surrounds of Liverpool’s West Africa House. We take a look.

Culture Guides

Cinema in the North

This month we recommend a season of Film noir, cult Australian movies and a huge celebration of DIY community cinema.

Author portrait
Literature Events in the North

Our latest round-up features plenty of one-off live literature events to wrap your ears about, so get those diaries ticking over...

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

This season’s theatre is gloriously eclectic: from radical cabaret and reinvented classics to new musicals and boundary-pushing performance.

Sprints
Music in the North

10 fresh shows across Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, threading together noise, ritual, euphoria and release in all their messy, beautiful forms.

Detail of an abstract sculpture, with burned materials and rusty chicken wire at the centre, with rusted metal bars bent around it.
Exhibitions in the North

Chocolate fountains, beautiful batiks and medieval marginalia - this month's supersized Exhibitions Guide has it all.