09 April, 2012

Letter from UK 2012 (3): Liverpool

Letter from UK 2012 (3): Liverpool

On a windy and dreary day we visited Liverpool. In many ways the city is like Manchester, with few tall buildings and an even more compact central area. One can see the radio tower everywhere, and the broadcasts were redolent with, what else, The Beatles.

Albert Dock To a New Yorker, this looks like combination of South Street Seaport and Red Hook. The re-vitalization of the waterfront is on all counts a highly successful effort.

Merseyside Maritime Museum This is a very nice museum for kids and adults alike. I enjoyed the exhibit on the fascinating tale of the tragic fates of three cruise ship associated with Liverpool, the RMS Lusitania and RMS Empress, and the Titanic of course. The story of the RMS Lusitania, sunken by a German U-boat, is especially engrossing, and I noted that the exhibition (probably deliberately) did not cover many points discussed in depth in the wikipedia entry.

As Liverpool played an important role in the slave trade, the International Slavery Museum, enclosed within the same compound, proves highly educational.

Tate Liverpool This branch of the Tate came as a most welcome surprise. On exhibit in the small spaces are literally the who's who in modern art, from the Dadaists to Andy Warhol, as well as little known names. The various artists seem to play off each other in the relatively small space, and I enjoyed it more than many larger modern art museums. My favorite has to be Marcel Duchamp's infamous Fountain.

After a quick meal at an Irish pub I managed to get a few LPs from the charity shops on Bold Street before retreating back to Chester.








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