Liverpool Attractions

The facade of the Classical St George's Hall (Brown Street) by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, 1838-1854, is decorated with Corinthian columns. The Great Hall, with one of the world's largest organs, is used for concerts and congresses. To the rear are St John's Gardens, in which are statues of prominent Liverpool citizens.

Two roads further south from the Playhouse Theatre in School Lane is the Bluecoat art center with an excellent gallery and concert hall.

Housed in the former Midland Railway Goods Depot (built in the 1870s), the Conservation Centre allows visitors to see how conservators preserve and restore everything from fine art and sculpture to space suits and ancient archaeological treasures.

Croxteth Hall is a mansion on the outskirts of Liverpool. Its rooms are filled with Edwardian furniture and character figures. The Victorian walled garden should not be missed. Special events are held on most weekends.

Adjoining the Polytechnic building, the Liverpool Museum contains a variety of collections, covering almost every field of knowledge from archaeology to the sciences. Among them are an interesting collection of model ships and the department of space travel, the famous Ince Blundell Collection (ancient marble) and the Sassoon Collection of carved ivory, and Egyptian, Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities.

This annual festival takes place in October.

Opened in 1986 the Merseyside Museum of Labour History, located in the former Lancashire County Sessions House, documents the life of the worker over the last 150 years (changing living and working conditions, struggle for political rights, development of the trade union movement).

The Museum of Liverpool Life is housed in a former boat hall and building used by pilots controlling traffic along the river. Exhibits feature collections that celebrate the people of Liverpool, their culture, achievements and contribution to national life.

The Picton Reading Rooms and the Hornby Library are in a building named after the Liverpool architect Sir James Picton, adjacent to the Liverpool Museum.

Next to the shopping center on Williamson Square is the Playhouse Theatre, England's oldest repertory theater.

To the north of St George's Hall is an imposing group of neo-Greek buildings, at the west end the Liverpool Polytechnic Building (1902: with Liverpool allegories and a Minerva statue).

The center point of Liverpool's St John's shopping center (pedestrianized), which can be reached via Lime Street, is "The Beacon", a 450ft/137m-high tower with a viewing platform and good views.

Adjoining the Polytechnic building is the William Brown Library, named after a wealthy Liverpool businessman who subsidized the building.