Kat in the North

I live less than 30 miles from Liverpool and it has always been my “go to” city for shopping and days out. In recent years I have been going less frequently, partly because I worked away from home, partly because clothes shopping in the UK became a miserable experience. Some 15 years ago a return Merseyrail ticket from Chester cost £4.50, it’s nearly £10 now but still very affordable. Liverpool was declared “European city of culture” in 2008 (which always reminds me of coming back from Liverpool Airport on a cold February evening that year, and watching in horror how thugs were throwing blocks of ice at an Airlink bus…city of culture my ass mumbled one of the passengers). It also gained a coveted Unesco status in 2004, but lost it in 2021, because too many new buildings spoilt the waterfront. Dumb decision, in my opinion. Every city must evolve and grow to stay relevant, and the unique Liverpool waterfront still looks as glorious as ever.

Liverpool was once one of the most powerful and wealthy cities in the British Empire, an important seaport and a trading centre, importing cotton from America and sending it to Lancashire textile mills. Liverpool was in fact a part of Lancashire, until a new county of Merseyside, named after river Mersey, was created in 1974. The name most likely meant “a muddy pool”, and the tidal river made it possible to easily move goods from England and Wales – coal, salt, sheep – to the sea and vice versa. Colonial goods, like sugar, tobacco and spices were brought in, while African slaves were transported to the colonies. Ingenious city merchants financed the world’s first enclosed wet dock, which made loading and unloading so much more efficient. In other words, Liverpool was at the forefront of modern capitalism, engineering and progress and its architecture and infrastructure eventually began to influence that of New York, including an overhead railway, which, if it had survived, would today look like this (pic from https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/how-waterfront-overhead-railway-liverpool-17081612):

The iconic Royal Liver Building, built in early 1900 with reinforced concrete, one of the first European skyscrapers, offers guided tours – worth it for the views alone, but also for a fascinating story and a striking audio-visual experience. The clock’s face is larger than Big Ben’s!

We were quite lucky that weekend because it didn’t rain too much, it was warm if a little humid and we could enjoy well deserved drinks in one of the bars in beautifully preserved Albert Docks. I loved the shiny black building; was Unesco status lost because of it ?

Castle Street was a lovely surprise and had a very different vibe to what we experienced later, nearer Matthew Street 😉

Architecture nerds will have a fantastic time in Liverpool, especially in the commercial area near the docks. According to our tour guide, the best scouse – Liverpool’s own legendary stew, not unlike Irish beef stew, named after lapskaus dish brought by Norwegian sailors – is served at St. Nicholas church cafe. According to my friend, St. Nicholas is a patron saint of sailors and prostitutes 🙂 Think of it next Christmas Day…

Liverpool’s Chinatown is a home to the oldest Chinese community in Europe. It has been in decline for many years. Young people don’t want to run restaurants or grocery stores like their parents and escape, leaving dated establishments behind. There is a glimmer of hope; a £200 million “New Chinatown” regeneration plan, which, if successful, will deliver new homes, offices and a hotel situated between the Cathedral and the Baltic Triangle.

Speaking of the Baltic Triangle, my friend dragged me there because she’s into street art and less flashy neighbourhoods; me, not so much 😉 But I admit I enjoyed the stroll, even though it rained heavily for a short period of time. The art wasn’t like some amazing murals I saw in Glasgow and apart from an impressive former Cains Brewery (Baltic food market) and a few pop up bars I didn’t see anything interesting. Again, the area had a different, more studenty vibe, unlike what we saw later.

Liverpool’s quirky side includes lambbananas, which – you would never guess – symbolize trade, and to be precise, import/export. Sending out lambs in exchange for bananas 😉

We didn’t manage to see the Central Library and its roof terrace, because it was closed on Sunday. Museums were on strike. But the Puccini recital in the Philharmonic went ahead without any problems.

It is worth noting that there is more to Liverpool than trashy hen nights, Irish bars and drunken shenanigans at noisy Matthew Street, where we walked through only once never to come back again. There is homelessness and poverty, because the city has been in economical decline for decades now, and it’s mostly associated with its odd accent, drug dealing and infamous tracksuits 😉 In all honesty, I saw more rough people in trackies in an East Hertfordshire town, 45 min by train from London, than in Liverpool City Centre. On the other hand, Liverpool boasts more museums than any UK city outside London. It’s waterfront and dock system is one of a kind in the world. Add the music heritage in the mix, and the fact that it used to be a melting pot of cultures and nationalities, from England, Ireland and Wales, Eastern Europe and China, Scandinavia and the Jewish communities – before New York became such a melting pot itself – and you get a truly fascinating city. And it’s right on my doorstep.

One or two people at work got all excited when I mentioned a long weekend in Liverpool (“we did it, Matthew Street, 80s cruise, it was brilliant!”), some reacted with cold indifference and a few confessed they had never been despite living rather close. Prisoners of geography, eh…