The Three Graces on the Mersey – and other bits – Liverpool, UK

“Ferry Cross the Mersey”
The buildings of Pier Head retreat into the distance as we cross the Mersey with the flag flying and Gerry & The Pacemakers ringing in our ears: this is Liverpool.

Billy Fury on Albert Dock
Billy Fury, Liverpool-born singer and actor from the late 1950s to the mid 1960s, and songwriter into the 1980s, was England’s answer to Elvis. He equalled The Beatles’ record of 24 hits in the 1960s, but died young as a consequence of rheumatic fever contracted in childhood.

Edmund Gardner Pilot Ship
Sitting where the River Mersey meets the Irish Sea, Liverpool has a long and proud history as a sea port. After almost 30 years service as a pilot cutter, the cheerfully painted Edmund Gardner has retired to dry dock opposite the Maritime Museum.

Waiting: The Monument to the Liverpool Working Horse
This wonderful sculpture by British sculptor Judy Boyt is a fitting tribute to the 250 years that horses were used to move goods to and from Liverpool docks and businesses.

Superlambanana
Liverpudlians have a quirky sense of humour! The original four-inch Superlambanana, designed by New York City-based Japanese artist Taro Chiezo, was intended to be a cross between a banana and a lamb: a warning against genetic engineering and a nod to two of the common goods that moved through the docks. Today, multiple large, colourfully painted, replicas are scattered around the city.

Western Approaches Headquarters
Liverpool played a huge part in the Second World War and was the most heavily bombed British city outside of London. We payed a visit to the secret underground WWII bunker on Rumford Street, instrumental in managing the Battle of the Atlantic.

Ceramic Fuses

The Map Room
Location accuracy in reporting enemy movements to the RAF was essential. In these pre-computer days, the personal of the Women’s Royal Naval Service and Women’s Auxiliary Air Force worked on a giant map to relay German U-Boat positions.

Bunk House

Secret Hotline
The red phone had its own cone of silence.

Bicycle
It’s the little touches that bring museums to life.

The Human Faces
No one is sure how many children were evacuated from Liverpool – public records are incomplete, and many evacuations were privately organised. My father was among them: sent to the countryside to a family he didn’t know. He hated every minute! He much preferred running through the bombed-out Liverpool streets, looking for bits of shrapnel, like the child in the 1987 film Hope and Glory.

Rooftops

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
Liverpool has a strongly Irish heritage, and is home to proportionally three-times as many Catholics as England overall. The Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King is the seat of the Archbishop of Liverpool and the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool.

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
Affectionately knows as Paddy’s Wigwam because of its circular shape, the cathedral was designed by British architect Sir Frederick Gibberd (1908–84). No photos are allowed in the contemporary interior, which features magnificent modern stained glass in yellow, blue, and red to represent the Trinity.

Church of St Luke
Another casualty of WWII is the bombed-out Anglican parish Church of St Luke, originally built between 1811 and 1832.

The Blackie and Chinatown Gate
The Neoclassical Great George Street Congregational Church – ‘The Blackie’ – was opened in in 1841 and now operates as a community arts centre.

The Great Escape
Liverpool was a major port supporting ships suppling the American slave trade. In this sculpture by English sculptor Edward Cronshaw, the horse, which is constructed of spaghetti-like rope, is unraveling in its quest for freedom.

The Port of Liverpool
King Edward VII, a sculpture by Welsh sculptor Sir William Goscombe John, (1860-1952) sits in front of the Edwardian-Baroque style Port of Liverpool Building, which opened in 1907.

Mersey Ferry
As a tourist in Liverpool, you have to take a ferry across the Mersey! It was late enough in the day that many of the passengers were workers going home.

The Royal Liver Building

Passengers
Many passengers on the ferry were like us: just on for the return ride.

Flag over Liverpool
The 50 minute ride is a great way to appreciate the foreshore. The 1964 song ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’ plays on endless loop inside the cabin.