The city is certainly one of the friendliest in the UK. Falstaff takes a look at this year´s Eurovision host.
Ask anyone about Liverpool, and they’ll immediately think about the Beatles or Liverpool Football Club. However, there is so much more to the city than meets the eye.
Yes, it brought the world the Beatles, but also famous international acts such as Gerry and the Pacemakers, Elvis Costello, the Real Thing, Cilla Black, Frankie goes to Hollywood, and Mel C (one-fifth of the Spice Girls), resulting in more number one pop songs than any other city in the world. And aside from the mighty Liverpool FC, there is also their city rivals Everton, a mere two kilometre walk from Anfield.
Liverpool is also a non-musical record breaker
As a stand-alone city, it comes in as the sixth largest in England and holds several records including the world's first commercial ‘wet dock’, built in Liverpool in 1715 (it was the first UK city to import the banana). Europe's first purpose-built prison was built on Great Howard Street in 1786 and it was home to the world’s first passenger railway. There is also the fact that a journalist in Liverpool invented the crossword puzzle and an engineer from the city (John Alexander Brodie) invented the football goal net. Charles Dickens was originally a policeman there and the captain of the Titanic lived in the Waterloo area of the city.
Liverpool has more listed buildings (2,500+) and museums than any other UK city outside of London and is home to the oldest Chinese community in Europe. And the local Church of England cathedral, the UK’s largest (the 5th largest in the world), contains the tallest Gothic church arches ever built, the largest working church organ in the world and the world’s heaviest and highest ringing series of bells.
This is all aside from the city being designated a world UNESCO site in 2004 and enjoying European Capital of Culture status in 2008. And as if the above isn’t enough, the annual musical circus that is Eurovision comes to Liverpool this year, bringing with it several days of extremely over-expensive hotels and other accommodation, proving if nothing else that private enterprise is very much alive and well, and prepared for any opportunity.
Liverpool, for its size, is surprisingly accessible. Most attractions can be reached within a 30-minute walk of the city centre (except the football stadiums and, should you wish to see Penny Lane, which I must advise is just that – a typical suburban road – and the homes of the Beatles which are now accredited tourism attractions).
For your first visit to Liverpool, you must go to Pier Head on the city’s main waterfront. You cannot miss the magnificence of the famous Three Graces, the three signature architectural wonders that are the Royal Liver, Cunard and Port of Liverpool Buildings. From here, you are only a few minutes’ walk from the Liverpool museum, Royal Albert Dock and the 11,000-seat Liverpool Arena (which is the only purpose-built ‘all-in-one connected’ event arena, convention centre and exhibition centre in Europe). The Liverpool One retail centre, and the city centre with its attractions, is less than a ten-minute walk across the ‘main’ docklands’ road.
The Royal Albert Dock comprises dock buildings and warehouses dating back to 1846. It is yet another Liverpool record holder as the first warehouse complex in Britain built only from cast iron, brick and stone. It is a veritable mixture of entertainment, shopping (exclusively local, owner-managed as opposed to chain shops), eating options from around the world, and accommodation. Four of Liverpool’s many museums are there, the Merseyside Maritime Museum, International Slavery Museum, the Beatles Story and Tate Liverpool, one of the UK’s largest modern and contemporary art galleries outside of London. There is always something ‘going on’ at the Dock for visitors of all ages.
The Holiday Inn Express in the complex, a surprisingly large hotel with wonderful views from many bedrooms (do ask for one) over the internal dock complex itself, was, when I stayed just before Christmas 2022, a ten out of ten for cleanliness and provided a superb breakfast. And the Italian restaurant Rudi’s on the Dock is worth visiting if you like excellent pizza.
The Liverpool One retail and leisure area has all the usual retail suspects, and there are plenty of food and drink options in and around the site, and at the far end of John Lewis (technically almost out of the Liverpool One retail area) you will find Browns, with a warm welcome and good food awaiting. A short walk away is ‘downtown’ Liverpool, where you can visit the Cavern Club, the birthplace of the Beatles. Here you can soak up the nostalgia, and you might even catch a 60s Merseybeat tribute act.
You’ll also find numerous restaurants, bars and owner-managed shops to browse for anything from a traditional, old-fashioned postcard costing a few pence to Rolex timepieces. Cuisines available, alongside traditional English, Chinese, and Indian, include Caribbean, Jamaican, Argentinian, Mexican, Venezuelan, Middle Eastern, USA, Mediterranean, French, Italian, Greek and more.
Irish heritage
With possibly the strongest and best Irish heritage of any city in the UK (Liverpool was once referred to as a suburb of Dublin, despite being 178 nautical miles away across the Irish Sea), you won’t be short of an Irish pub. Flanagan’s Apple in Matthew Street is said to serve the best Guinness in the city, and its three floors are on the go seven days a week. Lanigan’s Bar in Ranelagh Street (there is a suburban area in Dublin called Ranelagh (pronounced Rann-eh-lah)) is an Irish bar with genuine roots in Ireland’s 6th city, Kilkenny (there are, in fact, only five cities in the Republic of Ireland, but never challenge someone from Kilkenny that it’s not a city!). As an aside, Lanigan’s claims to have the largest LCD video wall in Liverpool.
