Saturday 4 June 2011

Liverpool One Shines Brightly in the Sun


I've just arrived home after an overnight visit to Liverpool to see my youngest son who is at the University of Liverpool and it was fantastic to see him again after what seems like ages!

Liverpool is a fantastic city and thoroughly recommended for a visit. The last time we were there, we concentrated on the Albert Dock area which has seen a fabulous refurbishment and on it's own took a full two days top visit. This time, we were walking around the extensive 'Liverpool One' which I think is what you and I would call the city centre. A memorial to John Lennon is on the left.

Liverpool One is extensive, safe, clean, tidy colourful, vibrant and a pleasure to be in. The variety of things to do is good as you might expect and what is a bonus is the architecture. I guess from the revenue from successful commerce over the centuries, there are some massive buildings, gorgeous edifices of different style, variety, size and age.

I did visit a lovely spiritual resource centre on Renshaw Street and it is packed with spiritual goodies of all kinds!

The most impressive I guess is the opera house, vast sandstone building with massive columns at the front guarded by lions. But that's not alone, there are many mini grand buildings like this one, the Adelphi Hotel is unique, square and almost white, there are churches everywhere, some in good repair, some not so good like St Lukes, damaged during WW2 but still performing a function to attract visitors despite there being no roof. As you walk further afield, there are some empty shops and buildings like everywhere else, and I've put a picture of one of them here, the picture house, which must have been very impressive in its heyday.

Nevertheless, there were many city centre staff to keep the place clean, help visitors and despite it being packed to the gunnel's on this lovely day (26 degrees and wall to wall sun) I never saw a police officer or PCSO and frankly there was no wonder because the atmosphere was so positive and the people so friendly.

We paid a visit to the World Museum which was okay and mostly shopped for bits and pieces for the boy. I can now boast I have been in Primark in Oxford Street, London, Carr Lane in Hull and in Liverpool One! I know how to party! 

Below is a picture of leaf cutter ants in the 'insect' section of the museum carrying some cut leaves to their nest along a piece of rope kindly provided by the staff for the entertainment of visitors! 


I like the Liverpool sense of humour, dry and self-critical usually, but there was a sign in a cafe which cheekily read, "A balanced diet is a piece of cake in each hand!" How true! (I was very good, I only had a croissant and a coffee.)

We had a couple of meals at the Childwall Abbey Hotel, a converted Abbey house would you believe, in Liverpool 16, and the food was excellent.

Well I'm home now to be greeted by a gale force wind, 13 degrees and drizzle! How can two halves of the country be so blooming different and only two hours apart.

Enjoy the second half of your weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

19 comments:

  1. What a change from 50 years ago! My husband is a Liverpudlian and I taught for a year on the Kirkby Housing Estate therefor our first year of marriage 1959 -60. We left for Canada in 1960. I too love the Liverpudlian sense of humor. You should meet my husband for a good taste of that. Remember Arthur Askey, Tommy Handley, and Ken Dodd. I'm thinking George Formby was from there too. If not, he was certainly from Lancashire -- so you see we have the 'war of the roses' in our house.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi ChrisJ
    A red and white rose in the same house! You probably wouldn't recognise the City I guess, the transformation from the pictures that are available on the net and from what my son tells me and from what I've read elsewhere, they've spent probably billions bringing it 'up to date.'
    Yesterday, I can't remember the name of the road, I saw that they had domolished hundreds of jerry built two up - two downs and grassed the areas added to by good quality fencing. New cheaper housing is all around. Of course there are still slightly run down areas, but nothing dramatic at all.
    There was also Jimmy Tarbuck and Stan Boardman from Liverpool - Ken Dodd (at his peak) was my favourite comic from that fair city.
    XX

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds like it's changed a lot.

    I was at Liverpool Uni as a mature student and the city looks wonderful - I agree. But I was mugged once (and lost two teeth in the process), burgled three times and had my car broken into seven times in four years. They tell me that was about half what you could have expected 15 years ago and I'd been very lucky.

    It was a place of extreme contrasts. The salt of the earth come from there - but so do an awful lot of scumbags!

    I'm glad you enjoyed it - but I'm not rushing to go back!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I often ask myself the same question RLS. In the Lakes it was still 23 on Saturday, here it took it all its time to reach 13. Here in the east it is two fine days and then the weather breaks.

    Try the RC cathedral for a real treat in Liverpool next time. It is years since I went but it made a profound (architectural nor religious I hasten to add) impression on me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi MorningAJ
    I am sorry you had those experiences, and I fully accept it is a city of contrasts, something that the occasional visitor like me doesn't see directly, although the student quarters are 'interesting' places.
    XX

    Hi Weaver
    We saw the RC church building at a distance, but never got time to go - perhaps that's for our next visit when my parents would like to go to Liverpool to see my son. What if the weather was consistent and boring - we would have nothing to talk about!
    XX

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm glad that you found better weather than we've had in East Yorkshire this week - funny how the clouds always know when the kids are on half term - and you had a good time to boot.x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Elizabeth
    Now I'm back in East Yorks, it's a lot chillier! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
    XX

    ReplyDelete
  8. It looks lovely, I've never been to Liverpool but it looks like a great place to go visit xxx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Auntiegwen
    If you ever think about going, let me know and I have some tips of where you might like to go. Hope you are okay.
    XX

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