Liverpool Weekend (Day Two) – Museum of Liverpool

No doubt to the delight of my two loyal readers, I’ve just posted separately about several exhibits at the Museum of Liverpool, but I’d better stop here as I’ll never finish writing up the weekend away. We spent just under two hours at the museum and there’s plenty to see across the numerous floors, as well as there being a variety of stuff that I haven’t seen on my previous visits.

There’s plenty of text and exhibits relating to the Liverpool Overhead Railway which operated between 1893 and 1956. This would have been a remarkable tourist attraction today, but it was decided to demolish the structure in 1957 despite considerable local opposition. The excuse for closure was that it was costing too much and it would be better to operate services using buses, which must have felt like a sub-optimal option for the regular users. There was a sad incident when in November 1957 one of these new buses collided with a lorry under where the overhead railway had operated, killing one person and injuring another seven. During the operation of the overhead railway, there were no major incidents.

There are some fine views across the docks from both directions, although there’s no external viewing platform which seems a little bit of a shame. The building that the museum is located in is an impressive structure, dominating this part of the former docks area.

The view from the other direction of the Liver Building. The museum opened in 2011 and replaced the much smaller Museum of Liverpool Life.

There’s plenty more that I could write about this museum and given that it’s free of admission charge it’s certainly worth popping in. For our group, it was time to go and visit Tate Liverpool to be surprised and delighted at their collections of modern art.