Liverpool Things to Do Tips by yooperprof

Merseyside Maritime Museum AND Slavery Museum Museums Review

All things nautical! The Merseytime Maritime Museum relates the story of Liverpool's development as a port and shipbuilding center - and its connection to the transatlantic slave trade as well. The Maritime Museum houses very interesting exhibits about some of the ill-fated ships connected with the Merseyside region, including the Titantic and Luisitania liners. (Cunard was headquartered in Liverpool.) Another exhibit deals with the important roles played by customs and excise officials - and some of the contraband that they have seized over the centuries.

The International Slavery Museum occupies one of the MMM's floors - but there's a little too much information crammed onto one floor, if you were to ask me. They try to tell ALL of the history of slavery - and its effects - in one place. I think it's great to have a slavery musuem in Liverpool, but it really deserves its own building. (As it stands, the Slavery Museum would be better pedagogically if it were more narrowly focused, I think.)

Address: Albert Docks

Website: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/

Tate Liverpool Albert Dock Review

Merseyside branch of the London-based British and contemporary art museum, located in the Albert Docks Redevelopment Site. The Tate Liverpool has free exhibits as well as ticketed ones, and also features a convenient bookstore and cafe as well. Kudos to the Tate Administration for making an investment in this northern city - I was very impressed with their facility. I saw a longer-term exhibit about sculpture and 3-D objects in modern/contemporary art, with both famous and not-so-famous objects in a variety of galleries. Very well curated!

I particularly liked the exhibit of traditional figure sculptures on a disco dance floor - and they passed out headsets which played 1970s dance favorites!

Address: Albert Dock

Website: http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/

Walker Art Gallery Museums Review

Wonderful "Civic art gallery" (i.e., originally a municipal collection) with some exceptional paintings, many Pre-Raphaelite beauties in particular. The Walker also has a fine collection of Renaissance Italian art, much of which entered the Walker through the donations of 19th century industrial magnates who were very fond of 15th and early 16th century masterpieces.

The main collection of the Walker is free, although there is a charge for special exhibits.

The Walker opened in 1877, making it one of the older Municipal art galleries in the world.

Address: William Brown Street

Directions: Across from St. George's Hall - in the central Civic Plaza

Website: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker

St. George's Hall Museums Review

19th Century Exhibition Building that is part of Liverpool's World Heritage Site. The building contains several impressive public rooms, most notable of which is the Grand Concert Hall, one of the finest interior spaces in all of Britain. (Sir Nicholas Pevsner called St. George's one of the finest neo-Grecian buildings in the world.)

The Hall occupies a prime piece of Liverpool's city centre, adjacent to the Walker Art Gallery and immediately across from Lime Street Station.

Recent restoration of the building carried a price of some 23 million pounds, and was completed in 2007, in time for Liverpool's year of the Capital of European Culture.

Address: William Brown Street

Website: http://www.visitliverpool.com/site/product-p8033