Liverpool 2013

Thursday 14th February
10.00- Time to leave Leicester.

12.30- Arrive at Liverpool, park in Mount Pleasant Multi-story car park.  From the balcony we can see the entrance of the Mersey tunnel.  We walk up past St Georges Hall to the Walker Art Gallery.

Walker Art Gallery and Museum

13.00- The costume curator gives a lecture on the life of Emily Tinne.  Emily lived in Liverpool in the early 19th Century.  Born in 1886, she was brought up by her aunt in Edinburgh while her parents worked as missionaries in Calcutta.  She moved to Liverpool to live with her uncle, and married Dr Tinne in 1910.  He, as a very wealthy man, with an inherited fortune from the slave trade, appears relatively oblivious to Emily's spending prowess.  Emily went on to buy over 1000 dresses, many unworn and in perfect condition.  Her youngest daughter gave the Museum many of her dresses after her mothers death in 1967.  This act as the backbone to a powerful social history of life in Liverpool during the first half of the 20th century   It is interesting to note Emily's apparent lack of awareness of her addictive shopping habits, and her husbands apparent complicity with this.

Hope street Hotel

Hope Street Hotel

15.30- We visit our hotel on Hope Street, and learn that Condalisa Rice stayed their when she recently visited Liverpool.

Catholic Cathedral

16.30- We visit the Catholic Cathedral and stay for the evening Mass.  The service is lead by the Dean, Father O'Brien. The service seems open and welcoming.  We decide to share in the Eucharist, as the invitation to receive the bread and wine feels inclusive.  Big mistake   At the end of the service we are told in no uncertain terms that this was wrong.  It was noted that were looked out of place, and it is clear we are from an apostate church. A sad irony as we see that the Cathedral lauds the work of David Sheppard, the late Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, a colleague of Margaret's father, and great mover for Christian unity in Liverpool. Our girls are decidedly unimpressed.

18.00- we visit Kimos, an Egyptian restaurant  for a valentine meal together as a family.  We go back to the hotel and all get into the giant double bed to watch 'The History Boys' on the big wall mounted TV. "This will be about homosexuality" says Elizabeth.  Sure enough it is.  Allan Bennett reveals all.

Anglican Cathedral

Friday 15th February

Ring of 12 bells (plus a chiming bell in the middle).  

Acceding the Cathedral Tower

View from the tower over the city centre

View up Hope Street

Margaret with memorial to David Sheppard and Derrick Worlock

Memorial to Grace and David Sheppard

9.00- We visit the Anglican Cathedral, which impresses all of us.  We start with Breakfast.  Then visit David and Grace Sheppard's memorial.  We climb the tower and marvel at the set of bells.  The view from the top is extraordinary.

11.00- We have 30 minutes to get to the docks to join the 'old docks experience'.  We walk through China Town, and note the mix of complete dereliction and fascinating curios, such as the Nordic Centre, with it's five Scandinavian flags.

Dock side

Nordic Centre (with five flags)

11.30- We make it to our rendezvous at the maritime museum and meet Yaz, or guide.  The old docks experience takes us across into the ultra modern shopping centre called Liverpool One.  Here we enter the basement of John Lewis, and enter an amazing underground cavern.  A small section of the original Liverpool docks from the 18th century has been excavated,  Yaz exudes 'love' for his city, which seems to be common to all scousers.

12.30- After a quick lunch we visit the Customs and Excise Museum with my Aunt Lis at the forefront of our minds.  Liverpool is where Customs and Excise is based, and Lis worked from Liverpool for many years.  The Museum is excellent, and we learn how to rummage ships, and detect shady characters.
13.30- We visit the International Museum of Slavery, and excellent museum  which was able to speak of the barbarity of Slavery, 'the black hollacost' with hope and vision.
14.30- We visited the Titanic exhibition, and the Tate Liverpool.  Here we enjoyed the wonderful 'is it art?' sculptures
15,30- After a walk on the dock side, and on to the next Museum.  This one is in a modern wedge shaped building; The Museum of Liverpool.  Here we see the model of the Lutyens' Catholic Cathedral, a monstrosity in my book.  I far prefer 'paddies wigwam'.  We also saw some exhibits on the Beatles  the most we partook in as I don't think I could even name them correctly.

View from the ferry

HMS Ilustrious

17.00- Ferry across the Mersey. As the sun sets, we enjoy the skyline of Liverpool, and not being in another Museum.

This is the 'open' position,  It seems that it was closed for Winter.

17.30-  On the way to our evening Restaurant, we visit the Town Hall, an impressive 18th Century building, and attempt to see the Moorfield moving wall sculpture,  This is a disk of wall that has been cut out of a semi-derelict building that rotas alarmingly out of the building.  Being winter, I fear the instillation is not working, and the wall remains in an undramatic closed position.

Liverpool Town Hall

18.00- We arrive at our meal destination. 'Forcesena'.  The food is very tasty, but we eat quickly to be able to get to the Liverpool Playhouse in time for our play.
19.30- The Misanthrope, by Moliere, arranged by Roger McGough.  Alceste decides rhyming all his words is 'fake' and steps out as a plain speaker, unlike the rest of the case,  He ends by forsaking happiness with Costanza.  Margaret sees Roger in the audience.  This is the opening night, but she doesn't get to say hello. Roger is busy criticising his opening night.  My grandfather used to call me Alceste for some reason.

Saturday 16th February

10.00- We are scheduled to be shown round the Williamson Tunnels, and are introduced to another Liverpool eccentric.  The tunnels began as an operation in covering open quarries in order form Williamson to use the land above for housing.  This began a mission for building tunnels, which also provided employment for Liverpool soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars.  Some of his tunnels ended up being triple layered.  None had any real purpose.  Sometimes home owners in houses above realised the were living over big voids, and took the opportunity to dump their waste straight into the tunnels.  This has lead to much modern excavating, and where there is muck, there is a lot of broken pottery.

11.00- time for brunch, this time back at the Catholic Cathedral cafe,  They were happy to serve us here.  Then into the Lutyens crypt, which is magnificent.  Bishop Downey is burned their in a tomb with a rolling stone door, live the garden tomb in Jerusalem.

'Another Place'

13.00-  Time to leave Liverpool, but before we return to Leicester, we head up the coast to see Anthony Gormley's sculpture called  'Another Place'.  This consists of about 300 casts of his own naked body, placed in a matrix across three miles of beach.  The effect is curious, both in it's initial lack of impact, and then of it's increasing sense of connecting with the form.
17.30 - We're  home,