Parks and attractions in Liverpool.

Parks and attractions in Liverpool.

Here are some of the free to enter or look at sites in Liverpool. I haven't included the shopping districts or theatres, cinemas or commercial attractions. Apart from the parks I only mention city centre sites for tourists to see.

The two Cathedrals.

The breathtaking Anglican Cathedral ('Liverpool Cathedral', awe inspiring, Gothic red sandstone), and the modern 1960s concrete spectacular Catholic Cathedral (the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King), which has lovely stained glass best viewed inside on a sunny day.

And a walk along Hope Street between the two Cathedrals, past some famous buildings.

St. Georges Hall. Prince Charles is a fan of this fabulous neo-classical edifice.

The Central Library.

It was a funny coincidence that I talked about libraries with one of the students just before I left because when I arrived in Liverpool I sat in St. John's Gardens, behind St. Georges Hall while it was sunny. Then I walked over to the City's Central Library which was reopened refurbished a year ago and is fantastic. Very spectacular when you walk inside. There is an impressive glass dome above an ultra modern arrangement of escalators and staircases (like in a shopping mall); and the fabulous round Picton reading room.

The Central Library, on William Brown Street is in between the World Museum Liverpool (Liverpool Museum) and the Walker Art Gallery (the main classical art gallery). This is near the main Lime Street Station, on the eastern edge of the city centre.

Matthew Street is famous as the location of the Cavern Club (a modern version of the club is in a basement there), home of the Beatles. (This is a side street of bars and pubs in between the shopping areas and the business district). There is a small art gallery here as well, one of several.

The Town Hall.

The business district houses some of the finest commercial buildings in the UK, and the Town Hall is worth looking at. A walk down Castle Street and Water Street takes you past India Buildings (pop inside and take a peek) towards the Pier Head where we have the Liver Building topped by the Liver Birds, the mythical symbols of Liverpool. (Liver here for the buildings and birds is pronounced 'Lie-ver' rather than with a short 'i' as in the part of the body).

The Pier Head: the Liver Building; the Port of Liverpool Building and the Cunard Building have become known as the Three Graces. The new Museum of Liverpool is nearby on the way to the Albert Dock.

The Albert Dock is a restaurant and museum / tourist attraction complex in a fabulously renovated Victorian Dock complex that was derelict for many years until the 1980s. It includes the Maritime Museum and International Slavery Museum (Liverpool's wealth was built on the slave trade but slaves were not brought here); the Beatles Story; and Tate Liverpool (the Liverpool branch of the premier British and modern art gallery, which expanded from its home in London).

Liverpool has a small city centre. You can walk from one side to the other in 40 – 45 minutes. It only takes 15 to 20 minutes to walk anywhere in the centre; maybe half an hour to walk from the centre to the far side of the Liverpool University precinct (there are two Universities in the centre), or to the trendy regenerating 'Independents district' among renovated warehouses on the far side of our small Chinatown.

The city's finest parks.

Sefton Park, Princes Park and Festival Gardens (the ones we live near) show a variety of historic and new styles.

The city has mostly small squares and some small parks in the centre (more have been created over the last fifteen years) but a ring of impressive Victorian parks in the residential and suburban areas, as well as many smaller 'recreation grounds' mostly used for playing football and dog walking. Sefton Park – in south Liverpool; Calderstones Park (South East); Newsham Park (East); Stanley Park (north east of the centre); Walton Hall Park (north east); North and South Parks, in Bootle (north of the Liverpool boundary). Princes Park is less formal (though it was one of the first public parks) and only a mile from the south east corner of the city centre. To my mind Sefton Park is the finest, followed by the very large Calderstones Park. Sefton Park is easy to get to from the centre by bus (as long as you know where to get off) or a ten minute walk from St. Michael's train station. There is a large lake, fields and play areas, and some formal gardens and the Palm House (a giant Botanic Garden conservatory) that is usually open to the public free.

On my return I wrote these notes after a walk in the parks:

On my second day back, 14 May, it was grey earlier on and a bit windy but largely a nice day. I went for a walk through a park called 'Festival Gardens' and a little along our river. This is a park along the waterfront about two miles south of the city centre. It has been sunny but cooler in Liverpool than in Zap. (Now a month later it is 10C cooler in Liverpool than in Zap).

Our road is opposite Princes Park so every day I have a short walk around the Park lake. We are lucky to live in between Princes Park and Sefton Park (and about a mile from Festival Gardens).

“Walking in Sefton Park earlier it struck me yet again how much parts of it are like Dubovka. Though it is a big formal Victorian park; in May and June there are amazingly colourful bushes. We also walked through Princes Park, just at the end of our road, and that is still a nice park but less renovated and a little less formal so more like Dubovka, but not as big and not as many trees. Earlier I was checking how the oak trees I am growing are getting on. They're two years old and about four or six inches tall.”

All of these attractions (except the Beatles Story, and any special exhibitions at the art galleries and museums) are free open to the public, or the civic and commercial buildings you can look at from the outside and appreciate the impressive city scape, even if you cannot go into most of them. The Cathedrals and museums all encourage you to donate money to keep them free and help pay for their upkeep. I haven't included the paid attractions such as the theatres (the Empire, Playhouse and Everyman the main ones), music venues, and concert hall (the Philharmonic Hall), or the shopping centres (the modern Liverpool 1 complex with national and designer brands; shopping streets like Bold Street, noted for its independents; Church Street; or the smaller shopping malls such as Clayton Square, Cavern Walks and the upmarket Metquarter).

Outside of the centre.

The football clubs – Liverpool and Everton – are about two miles north east of the centre. They both have shops (though they also have shops in the city centre) and paid stadium tours.

Sites connected with the Beatles, such as Penny Lane (about twenty minutes from the centre on the 86 bus) and John Lennon's house (a couple of miles further out in a south east district) are quite easy to get to by bus. Penny Lane is an ordinary city suburban street. These are worth going just to walk down, and look at from the outside.

Speke Hall (near the airport, 7 miles south of the city) and Croxteth Hall (east of the city) are stately homes. The grounds of Croxteth Hall are free to enter but there is a charge to enter the houses.

Nearby seaside and towns.

You can go further afield by train to find beaches at Crosby, Formby (towns north of the city – 20 and 30 minutes by train and then a walk) and West Kirby (on the Wirral Peninsular over the river Mersey, 50 minutes by train). There is a small beach at New Brighton, on the Wirral, at the mouth of the River Mersey on the other bank (25 minutes by train). The water would be far too cold to swim in, and probably not clean enough. Formby (and it's continuation Freshfield) has famous sanddunes and pine woods. Crosby beach (from the stations of Waterloo – Hall Road – Crosby) has a major attraction in a water sculpture exhibition by Anthony Gormley called 'the Other Place'. The statues are simply known as 'the Gormleys' and attract visitors from far and wide.

Southport and Chester are pretty towns that you can reach by train in about 50 minutes using the saveaway ticket. Southport is a Victorian seaside town north of Liverpool, and Chester a picturesque historic tourist town between Liverpool and the North Wales border.

Travel.

You can get to the places outside the centre mostly by bus; £2.20 for a single ticket, £4.20 for a multi-use ticket (called a day ticket or similar for the buses). Or buy in advance from a local railway station or Merseytravel bus station travel office a £3.90 Liverpool area (the main city) or £5.10 ('All Zones' city region) 'saveaway' all day ticket, valid on buses and trains after 9.30am. A saveaway ticket gives you more options, especially if you want to travel to the suburbs and towns outside of Liverpool. There is also in the city centre a bike hire scheme called 'City Bike'. This is being extended to the outer areas and starts at £3 per day, including 2 hours of cycling free. Or £9 per week with the first few journeys included in the price. The cost is about £1 per hour after the initial credit.

Summary.

Parks and attractions in Liverpool.

In Vitaly's classes, among others, students asked me what parks and attractions there are to see in Liverpool. I started writing up some of my usual comments when I arrived back. Here is a whole set of notes on some of the main things you can see in the city and places you can go. I'll start with a summary, below, though, of what I write on the first page or two. On page three I mention (paid) sites outside of the centre, nearby seaside and towns, and advice on travel. But the city centre is small and you can walk around it easily (but have a map as it is easy to get lost).

Here are some of the free to enter or look at sites in Liverpool. I haven't included the shopping districts or theatres, cinemas or commercial attractions. Apart from the parks I only mention city centre sites for tourists to see.

The two Cathedrals.

The breathtaking Anglican Cathedral and the modern 1960s Catholic Cathedral.

And a walk along Hope Street between the two Cathedrals, past some famous buildings.

St. Georges Hall.

The Central Library.

The Central Library, on William Brown Street is in between the World Museum Liverpool (Liverpool Museum) and the Walker Art Gallery (the main classical art gallery).

Matthew Street is famous as the location of the Cavern Club (a modern version of the club is in a basement there), home of the Beatles.

The Town Hall.

The business district houses some of the finest commercial buildings in the UK.

The Pier Head: the Liver Building; the Port of Liverpool Building and the Cunard Building have become known as the Three Graces. The new Museum of Liverpool is nearby on the way to the Albert Dock. The Liver Building is topped by the Liver Birds, the mythical symbols of Liverpool. (Liver here for the buildings and birds is pronounced 'Lie-ver' rather than with a short 'i' as in the part of the body).

The Albert Dock is a restaurant and museum / tourist attraction complex.

The city's finest parks.

These include Sefton Park, Princes Park and Festival Gardens (the ones we live near) show a variety of historic and new styles.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04