Day 2

Smashed it! Two days in Liverpool and I have ticked all five of the Liverpool buildings off of my list:

The Albert Dock

St Georges Hall

Tate and Lyle Sugar Silo

Liverpool Cathedral

Metropolitan Cathedral

It’s been a great day, very tiring, even my camera has gone to sleep.

The day began with a guided tour of St Georges Hall. This was the first building I saw on my way into Liverpool in the taxi from the station to hotel, it caught my eye immediately and I wanted to see it even before I realised that it was one of the buildings in the book.A guided tour of this building is a must and the best thing I did all day!

The tour was very cheap and the tour guide was amazing. Very friendly and extremely knowledgeable.

Beautiful inside and out St Georges hall is also vey unusual. In this building you will find what used to be Liverpool’s law courts and a concert hall housed in the same building. A lack of funding for the concert hall alone meant that both buildings were housed together in order not to have to compromise on the grandeur of the buildings exterior. The interior however is a stark contrast between the old courtroom with bleak jail holding cells and the magnificent concert rooms.Pictured above: the cell and the modest courtroom. A stark contrast to the photos below.

Annoyingly the main exhibition hall of this building was very hard to photograph today due to workers setting up for an event. Here are just some of the many stunning features in this room including the stained glass window in the first photo which depicts St. George slaying the dragon. Above you can also see some of the original tiled floor, the rest of the floor however has been covered up to protect it. The tour guide said that periodically the floor in uncovered so that people can see the room in all its glory. Our tour guide also said that this is something that they hope to do more frequently, every year as apposed to every few years. I think that will be happening this August, so that will definitely be something to come back for.Just when I thought that it could not get any better we reach the concert hall and believe me when I sat that photos could never do justice to the splendour of this room.Even the corridors in this building are lovely.

Well there we go I have started the day on a real high. I don’t think I will see anywhere as wonderful as this building for quite a while, and when I exited it had stopped raining so I was very happy.Caught sight of this building whilst waiting to meet my brother.

The next stop of the day involved a taxi ride out of the city to what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Fortunately we got there and back very easily.The Tate and Lyle sugar silo, a little different from the last building. We Couldn’t go inside or anywhere near this one, there were definite health and safety issues for a start.

Back in the city now heading to the Liverpool Cathedral. Wow, I spotted this bullding from a mile off and instantly knew it must be the place. I am stunned by the sheer size of this bullding and was not at all surprised when my brother informed me that this is the largest cathedral in Britain.This building is huge, with so many different spaces.It even includes this lighting instillation by Tracey Emin which reads “I felt you and I know you loved me”.

I really loved this flooring in one part of the cathedral.

After looking around the vast interior space my we took a 360 degree tour of the exterior.My brother had to go back to uni, which after lunch left to me own devices to explore further.

I was lured into the gardens by this intriguing pathway that was crying out to be explored.

The entire park was fascinating. From the gravestones that lined the pathway into the park to this memorial named the ‘Huskisson memorial’ pictured above and all the memorial stones that have been laid around it.

On exploring the exterior of the building I managed to get lost in its garden, although this did give me some good photo opportunities.I really liked the gates to this cathedral, another great building ticked off the list.

The only building left to see was the Metropolitan cathedral.Although not my particular favourite style of building it was very interesting walking around and I have bought a guide book so that I can learn more about it.

The crypt is supposed to be one of the highlights of this building. I did not see it today as it was closed by the time That I got there, but it’s on my list for my next visit to Liverpool, which I am already planning in my head.

I ended my day at the very place I started, St George’s Hall, but this time at the back to get some pictures of the equally stunning back of the building and its surrounding areas.

I loved some of the smaller details in this park as well.

Unsurprisingly (knowing me) I managed to find many buildings and details of interest on the short walk back to my hotel, it’s a good thing I was on my own, I’m sure I would have embarrassed my brother being such a tourist.

Here are some of the things I found.

Even my hotel was fabulous.

Needless to say I had a wonderful time in Liverpool. Even though I have seen all the buildings in my book there is so much more to see here and I hope that I will get the chance to come back here.