Liverpool

There's so much to see and do in Liverpool and we've visited many times. One of my favorite spots is the Albert Docks.

There are countless little shops and restaurants in what was once a warehouse when shipping was king in Liverpool.

The Merseyside Maritime Museum is there, though it's closed until 2028 for essential repair work and refurbishment. The Beatles Story Museum is there, the Tate Liverpool is there though it, too, is undergoing a major revamp and won't reopen until 2027, though it's operating two small galleries in the RIBA building near the docks.

My favorite museum on the docks is the Museum of the City of Liverpool.

(Liverpool Museum on the Left, RIBA building on the right.)

It tells the story of the city and its past in a really entertaining way.

One great little exhibit there is all about the Liver bird (pronounced Live-er, not like the organ meat.) The liver bird is actually a mythical figure that serves as the symbol of the city. The story of the Liver bird is said to date back to 1207, when King John decided to award Liverpool a Royal Charter, making it an official town. The document was sealed with the image of a bird - and so, the Liver bird was born. Commonly depicted as cormorants, the legendary Liver bird may be inspired by a number of British birds. This is where my favorite display comes into play. Many taxidermied birds share a display case and each makes its case for why it's the real Liver bird.

It's all a bit silly, but I'll bet that kids like it. The Liver birds in question sit on the Liver building, as the cormorant said. They're 18 feet tall and have a 24-foot wingspan.

A bit further down the dock is the building of the Mersey Ferries, made famous by Gerry and the Pacemakers in 1965.

The day I visited the docks it was sunny and very warm. Very, very warm. I slowly made my way up Duke Street, past the Chinese archway

to the Anglican Cathedral, which I love to visit.

It's calm and welcoming and, on this day, about 15 degrees cooler than the rest of the city.

The Lady Chapel is particularly beautiful and is the oldest part of the Cathedral.

On another day Bruce and I took a tour of the Williamson Tunnels. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but I'm pretty sure I didn't expect this. We met in a trailer in what looked like a construction site, got our hi-vis jackets and hard hats and got ready to walk to the tunnels. The conversation in the trailer was fascinating. No, it wasn't led by the tour operators, it was led by two men who were paranormal investigators, aka ghost hunters. They talked about their experiences with ghosts - and there were many. At least I'm pretty sure that's what they were talking about; the accent of one of them was so thick that I only caught about 10% of what he said. It wasn't a Liverpool accent. I have no idea what it was, Welsh? Some Scottish isle? Geordie? No clue. Anyway, as we walked to the tunnel we heard about the history. It turns out it isn't technically a tunnel at all. This was an area from which sandstone was mined and which created a giant hole in the ground that stretched for miles. When the mining was finished, Joseph Williamson, weighed the options for dealing with the space. He determined that filling it in would have been cost prohibitive, so he built a series of arches out of brick. which would support buildings on the surface. Apparently, the construction of an arch creates an incredibly strong surface which is virtually as strong as solid fill.

We walked to the padlocked entrance of the tunnel and descended the stairs into the top layer. There was lots of signage about the excavation which supported the stories told by our guide, Mandy.

There are tiny stalactites in the ceiling caused by water slowly leaking in.

The tunnels were excavated in 1999 by volunteers. They removed all the dirt and detritus one bucket at a time. No machinery was involved. The things that were discovered in the tunnel was the thrust of the tour.

A little background might be helpful here. Joseph Williamson moved to Liverpool as a youth to work in the tobacco business. He later started his own tobacco business, accruing a large fortune. It was this fortune that allowed him to construct houses and warehouses above the arches. One of the warehouses was that of John Boots, founder of Boots pharmacy. The men Williamson used for the construction were men who were destitute, many of them veterans of the Napoleonic wars. This program was designed to give these men a way to support themselves with dignity, rather than relying on charity. The tunnels were gradually infilled with rubble and spoil during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

One thing to remember about 19th century England is that there was no regular rubbish collection. You had the rag and bone men, poor men who collected rags, bones and glass, which they would sell to the merchants. It was really the earliest form of recycling, because scraps of cloth and paper could be turned into cardboard, glass could be melted down and reused, bones could be used for knife handles, toys and ornaments and the grease from them could be used in soap. Anyway, the easiest way to dispose of things was just to toss them into the alley or the nearest open hole. This would explain a lot of the items that were eventually thrown into the tunnels.

Among the items excavated were ceramic jugs,

bits of pottery,

pipes, toys, and small ceramics

and bottles of every conceivable size and shape.

Mandy pointed out a couple of special items. The blue bottle contained poison. You can see the letters on the side that spell "not to be taken", but if you couldn't read, the striations on the side of the bottle told you not to drink it. Those striations only appeared on bottles of poison.

There was a selection of royal memorabilia

including a very plain cup which, when held before a light, showed the image of King Edward VII.

From the 3rd level down where a lot of these items were displayed, we climbed down a rather frightening set of metal stairs and ended up at the bottom of the tunnels. This was originally a well. A pump currently keeps the water from filling it up.

Mandy demonstrated the "great acoustics" by stomping on the platform. It was actually a giant echo chamber but it is occasionally used as a tiny concert venue. Great, I suppose, for someone who likes a lot of reverb.

Up we climbed back the seven levels to the street, back to the trailer where we handed in the incredibly uncomfortable hardhats and the hi-vis jackets. After the chilly tunnel, it was nice to get back to the warmth of the street.