LIverpool

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The trip on the Trans-Pennine express was flat from Hull to Leeds, and you could see the terrain that was once the floor of a tropical sea. West of Leeds there were undulating hills and some long tunnels as we crossed the Pennines, the spine of England. Wonderful landscape with the Peak district south of us and the Yorkshire Dales to the north.



Walking out of Lime Street station one is on the Cultural Quarter - the grand St George’s Hall with four lions left over from Trafalgar square, (or was the tour bus guide kidding, with that irrepressible Scouse humour?), and St John's memorial park behind it commemorating different regiments, different wars, victims of persecution and pre-term babies, and the newest - the Hillsborough monument.

The street beside this has the World Museum, the Walker Art Gallery, and what I consider to be Liverpool's finest jewel, the Library. All these buildings are very fine, but this last took my breath away. Inside has been redesigned and has a huge modern space full of people, books and computers round a central staircase and escalators leading up to a glass roof. To one side a round building, the Picton Room is as it would have originally been with wrought iron spiral staircases leading up to book lined shelves with beautiful wood panelling. There were life-size installations of people reading or writing at tables, and they were made of cardboard and brown paper.



We had a guided walk and a hop-on hop-off bus tour and learned all about Liverpool's history, which is relatively modern compared to the other cities we have visited - it was mentioned in the Domesday Book and became a city under King John in 1207, but there seemed to be no mention of Romans, though there was a mention of Viking settlement in the Liverpool Museum.

The museums down on Albert Dock, (which has been regenerated with cafes, restaurants and shops housed in the old warehouses), include the Maritime Museum (old warehouse) and the Liverpool Museum (a new building given the Carbuncle Award for its ugliness).

Part of the Maritime Museum is the Slavery Museum and it gave me a different slant on the architecture - all these beautiful buildings have been built on the money generated by slavery. Those civic dignitaries who donated cash and built monuments got their money from the capture, imprisonment and forced labour of people brought from West Africa and transported across the Atlantic.

The museum left me in tears.



Liverpool was the City of Culture in 2008 and they have made good use of the fund and opportunities. The large shopping centre of Liverpool One has a high level park on the second floor suurrounded by cafes, and with good views across much of the city.

We had drinks and a meal in the Philharmonic Dining Rooms, another fabulous building run by Nicholson's who make gin and brew beer. Originally a gentleman's drinking club, it retains its decor and furniture, large comfortable leather armchairs, Tiffany lampshades, colourful topped floors and wood panelling. The gents’ loos are Grade 2 listed, the ladies aren't because women weren't allowed in then.

The Catholic cathedral (Paddy’s wigwam) is an innovative design with fabulous stained glass, which we were lucky enough to see with the sun shining through it. The Anglican cathedral was OK, a bit Brutalist in architecture but with a wonderful low level graveyard, which next time I shall picnic in. Posh afternoon tea in Panoramic 34 at £20 a head was worth every penny, and from the 34th floor of West Tower down near the docks we could see all over the city and down to the sea.

Liverpool has had quite a few ’firsts’ - the Birkenhead tunnel under the Mersey was the longest and widest tunnel in the world when it was built (it is still the widest), the first elevated railway, the first intercity railway between (Manchester and Liverpool) and the first tidal measurements was taken here.

All this with the friendliness of the north, and the guttural lilt of the Liverpudlian accent.

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