The Great Port
Continuing the popular theme of waterfront attractions
I've put together this short article review of the museum of liverpool to give you a taste of what's on the inside and to give my opinion of the outside of the building.
So let's now make our way to the museum. We enter via the atrium, which has a theme of spirals. The galleries 'Little Liverpool' and 'The Great Port' take us from the port's earliest origins to its highpoint
We see a medieval-style merchant ship and the Manchester Dock gates, built in 1780. This model of a dock is one of many magnificent models in the museum. Pride of place goes to the Lion locomotive, built in 1838 and star of the 1953 film 'The Titfield Thunderbolt'. It's incredible to think that this locomotive worked on the Manchester and Liverpool railway, and is a precursor of the state-of-the-art 21st century train I travelled on along the same route earlier today.
Maps, photos, paintings, films and memorabilia begin to tell us the story of Liverpool. The exhibits are so dense and so varied, I can only take in so much. The museum repays further visits. There's a photo of mine somewhere in the museum - it's of Merseyside Police. Headquarters - but I've not managed to find it yet. Let me know if you see it! Now we enter Global City, about Liverpool's place in the British Empire and the world. There's a strong Chinese theme. Liverpool's Chinese community goes back to the 19th century.
We learn about the secret deportations of Chinese merchant seamen who served in World War 2 but weren't allowed to stay here with their families. Liverpool is twinned with Shanghai and we can see a similarity between two famous buildings. There are many examples of Chinese arts and crafts on display. We see medals, pipes, weapons, You can try on Chinese costumes and admire yourself in a Chinese mirror, though not at the moment due to Boranovirus restrictions. Chinese designs had an influence on the fashions worn by Liverpool merchant families. Liverpool's earliest Chinese laundry is featured and ,amy other aspects of life that have long since disappeared. I love the large model of a Chinese junk, echoing the maritime history of both cities. It would be great to see one of these out on the River Mersey! Now we are on the first floor.
That's Mandy, designed by Patricia Lee. Mandy is one of the Superlambananas you'll see around the city. Behind her is Ben Johnson's panoramic cityscape of Liverpool, displayed in 2008 around the same time as my Manchester Megaphoto was on display at Urbis. The atrium looks great from the first floor. Later we'll see a view from higher up. The current special exhibition is Blitzed Liverpool lives, with photographs and recordings of eyewitnesses describing the bombing during World War 2. Now we reach my favourite area of the museum, dedicated to the Liverpool Overhead Railway, also known as the Docker's Umbrella. It was opened in 1893.
It ran from Dingle in the south, all the way along the Docks by Pier Head and the Three Graces, up along the northern docks as far as Seaforth Sands, where there was a link onto the main line. The museum was able to secure an original carriage with its distinctive wooden body. This one is number 3, destination Dingle at the south end of the line.
The interior with its wooden seats reminds
Me very much of the old berlin s-bahn carriages.
The railway offered a magnificent moving panorama of the docks. Posters advertised it as a tourist attraction, though it was also an essential form of transport for dock workers. I think a section of the Liverpool Overhead Railway should be brought back in replica form, using today's technology. Theme park? Sure, what's wrong with a theme park if it recreates something that was wrongly shut down and would no doubt become a world-famous tourist magnet.
On the same floor, there's a display about City Soldiers and the King's Regiment. There are views through the blinds towards the Albert Dock. From the second floor, that spiral staircase looks magnificent. Shades of the Guggenheim. Museum though here it's not a ramp but stairs and there are quite a lot of them! It's a hard slog but well worth it in order to experience 'The People's Republic', which gives a brash, chaotic and irreverent view of the city with its unmistakable accent, attitude and sense of humour. There are photographs and memorabilia about the social history of Liverpool over decades. We can look at the sadly lost Gerard Gardens public housing development are portrayed in a model. There are paintings, displays, posters, an old post box, a recreation of the old tenement building, a Ford Anglia and a model of the original gargantuan design for Liverpool's Roman Catholic cathedral.
But perhaps the most impressive exhibit is the one you can look at from those gigantic windows, in the shape of the Pier Head, with its magnificent Three Graces and the relatively new canal link. The Pier Head was once a working dock, then a tram and bus terminus and a busy ferry terminal used by thousands of commuters. Today it's a place of leisure, heritage and tourism, where you can go for a ride on the Mersey Ferry, a place to appreciate Liverpool's proud and maybe not so proud history. We can see all the way up to the cranes of the north docks and out onto the Irish sea. I could stand at that window all day and all night. I took some great still images and movies including a timelapse, which will appear in another article. We've only scratched the surface of what's in the museum of liverpool but my main aim is to encourage you to come and visit this place. I had to be told to make my way to the exit by the friendly gallery attendant.
She told me I was the last one out. When I return I'm going to be the first one in! The Museum of Liverpool was opened on the 19th of June 2011 and received some EU funding. But what about the outside? The building was designed by Kim Herforth Nielsen of Danish architects 3XN, and it was delivered by AEW Architects. There was a legal dispute between AEW and the Museum. The Museum won. It doesn't look photogenic from every angle though, but that's something for another article. Some have criticised the design, including Rowan Moore in his bilious Observer article written in 2011, but he was wrong. The building fits well into its surroundings, it's striking and unique.