14 September - Around Liverpool

The usual routine for the last couple of days has been, coffee, watch the BBC news, have breakfast, then head to Starbucks to use the wifi. I’ll be so happy when we get to Manchester tomorrow and I don’t have to devote my morning to waiting for photos to download on slow wifi. Yes, I know I’m spoiled.

In the quest to fill the Mowgli book, we headed to the other Mowgli in Liverpool, on Bold Street. This is in what is known as The Knowledge Quarter, because several universities are there. It could also quite reasonably be called the Party Quarter, because that’s primarily what I’ve seen when I’ve passed through. Lunch was, as always. Terrific. I had the Mowgli Paneer, Bruce had the Angry Bird, which came with a lovely side of sauteed red cabbage with raisins. We shared a Puri bread that was light as air.

Bruce was feeling far less wobbly, so we walked across town to the Western Approaches HQ museum. This place is just fascinating.

According to their website, “Commanders, WRNS and WAAF personnel worked day and night in the Operations Room, the nerve centre of the Battle of the Atlantic. Here they monitored convoy routes and vital shipping lines, pin-pointing enemy locations on a huge map wall, where total accuracy was necessary to enable the Royal Navy to contact and destroy the enemy."

The Operations Room has remained exactly how as it was left when the doors were closed on 15 August 1945.

The sad part of the story of this museum is that the original space was about three times larger, but the space was filled in and paved over for a parking lot. When the last remaining section was discovered, there was some discussion about whether to do the same with it. Thankfully, the powers that be decided it was worth preserving, because the artifacts it houses are treasures. If you want to read about it in detail, their website is https://liverpoolwarmuseum.co.uk/ If you find yourself in Liverpool, it’s decidedly worth a visit.

Within the museum is another museum dedicated to the Wrens, the amazing women whose accomplishments have been so often overlooked, simply because they’re women.

When we were here last year, we visited the Anglican Cathedral, which is the largest in England and the 4th largest in Europe. (We also visited the Catholic one, the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, nicknamed Paddy’s Wigwam because of its shape.) Anyway, the acoustics of the Cathedral are phenomenal, so I fancied attending an evensong service. We tried last year, but the cathedral’s schedule and ours didn’t mesh. This time around, we were going to be able to attend. It’s a bit of a hike from the museum to the cathedral, so we stopped at two pubs along the way. The first one, The Jacaranda, is a small bar and performance space where the Beatles performed when they were a new and unknown band. They still have music 7 nights a week. A rather steep uphill walk then led us to Ye Cracke, a very small pub where, as the memorial plaque states, “…John Lennon’s other band never played a note.” Musician John Lennon, artists Stu Sutcliffe and Rod Murray and writer Bill Harry called themselves “The Dissenters”. In 1960, these four attended a poetry reading by Royston Ellis whose work was heavily influenced by Allen Ginsburg and other American writers. The group went to Ye Crack to discuss what they had heard. They were unimpressed and decided to put Liverpool ‘on the map’ each in their own way. The rest, as they say, is history. Just before we reached the pub, we met a lovely little cat who needed petting. (I’m always happy when there’s a cat involved.)

At last we made it to the Cathedral, arriving just in time to take our place in the stalls. The cathedral has a magnificent pipe organ, the low notes of which send vibrations right up your spine. The organist played as the choir, cantor and Rev. Sue Jones marched in. The service was lovely and the choir excellent. It was a small choir, just 16 people, but the acoustics are so wonderful, the sound just filled the cathedral. At the end of the service, the minister said a prayer, the likes of which I had never ever heard. She prayed for the usual healing of the sick, recently deceased, the poor, but then added prayers for, among other things, peace, for all the people displaced by the aggression against Ukraine, by those suffering after the earthquake in Morocco and flooding in Libya, for those people escaping lands wracked by injustice, poverty, and violence. Prayers for people of all faiths, and prayers that people would look up from their electronic devices and notice the beauty of the natural world so that they may be inspired to do their part to mitigate climate change. It was a memorable service. On the way out, I noticed a small sign near the choir stall. It acknowledged that the city of Liverpool was built on the slave trade and that though the church finds the thought of that abhorrent, it must acknowledge its part in it because it has benefitted from the economic rewards that slavery brought to the city. As we walked back to the flat, all I could think of was how much I wished more places of worship throughout the world, and especially in the US, would be brave enough to acknowledge their privilege and indebtedness to people who have been exploited for the benefit of others.