Some Liverpool miscellany

Canada geese and the CBC?

Liverpool (sabbatical 2, week 3)

Here are some observations and pictures that didn't really fit elsewhere.

I mentioned some similarities between Halifax and Liverpool.  Here are some additional reminders of home.  Craig asked his collaborator here about the CBC pattern on the Backstage window - he's seen it but it's a new building, it is not some remnant CBC studio.  We guess the interior designer just liked the way it looked?

A few previously unmentioned sites bear mentioning.  The first is the Tate Museum (Liverpool branch).  It is a thoroughly modern collection, the oldest pieces that Craig could find were by old-time PACA resident Matisse.  There are some interesting pieces, although not a large collection; to see them all completely would take quite some time, however, as several pieces are performance-art films/recordings/etc. that take their time.

left: Lambanana! right: Craig with another set of Roger's drums

Second is yet more music: along the waterfront you'll find these Superlambananas (named after an original sculpture and sort of a symbol of Liverpool) with local musical acts drawn on them.  This particular one has Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, Echo and the Bunnymen, and, of course (at the front of the picture) A Flock of Seagulls.  Following these sculptures down the docks will bring you to the British Music Experience, a "pop" music museum tracing what would have been popular music in each era, starting with big-band/jazz.  It is not large - one big room - so there's not a lot of detail and several missing bands.  Craig was disappointed (if unsurprised) that Dire Straits did not make the cut, but even Led Zeppelin was reduced to one artifact (one of Jimmy Page's shirts), and Sting/Police are nowhere to be found.  The highlight is the end, where they have several instruments (electric drum sets and real guitars) with recorded lessons from modern pop acts that teach you how to play along with their songs.

Finally (at least for this visit): the World Museum of Liverpool, located in a grand old building.  It is the most vertical museum  in town, spanning 5 floors including a planetarium and an aquarium (but perhaps it's not big enough to rate a separate entry in the "Aquarium List").  And of course, being a British museum, it houses large numbers of Egyptian artifacts including some very well-preserved mummies.  Of course, there is no mention of culture theft, even beside the displayed letter from an English Egyptologist unironically telling the story of  how he and his crew "rescued a site from plunderers."

"I'd like to thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition"

 Liverpool (sabbatical 2, week 3)

Let us continue the Beatles theme, shall we?  Fans wishing their fix will find no shortage of places to celebrate their favourite band in Liverpool.  Here are three of the stops clustered in and around the docks.

On the Royal Albert Dock you will walk past multiple tour bus operators, including the "Beatles Magical Mystery Tour," which Craig did not take.  Instead, he continued on to the poorly-labelled "The Beatles Story" museum (it also refuses to show up on Googlemaps until you've zoomed in rediculously small).  However, it remains probably the most popular attraction, both on the day Craig visited and according to the reviews he read: "arrive early" indeed!  Even 20 minutes after opening time (albeit on a Sunday) it was 100 people deep and arranged in such a way that you hoped no one had COVID.  It is certainly the most accessible, directing the visitor chronologically through the group's career in a winding path taking you through recreations of a Hamburg street, the Cavern Club, Abbey Road studios, etc.  The audio guide is modern and easy to navigate, if overloaded with information (Craig listened to maybe half, being pressed on by the crowd more quickly than the audio guide kept up with).  Much (most?) of the "artifacts" are recreations, i.e. it was more important to try and show how the places were in the Beatles' time rather than restoring genuine Beatles artifacts.

Moving down to Pier Head, you'll find a bronze statue of the Beatles, in front of the Port of Liverpool building (on Canada Blvd!).  That building also holds the British Music Experience museum, which we'll come back to in a later post.

In contrast to the Beatles Story, genuine artifacts can be found aplenty at the Liverpool Beatles Museum, on Mathew St., another location that stubbornly refuses to show up on Googlemaps.  This is a true museum, the walls covered in historical photos, newspaper clippings, and posters, containing such gems as the piano from the Casbah underground club, a guitar George used in Hamburg, Pete Best's drum kit, etc.  It also contains some.... let's call them more esoteric artifacts such as Paul's lighter and a broken watch that John left behind (because it was broken!).

He played "Somebody to Love," "Mrs. Robinson," and "Piano Man," among others

On the same street is the "Cavern" suite of clubs.  Keep an eye open for "The Wall", containing bricks engraved with the names of (allegedly) all the 1800 acts that have performed at the Cavern since its inception in 1957.  Across from that is the recreation of the Cavern Club where the Beatles played 200+ sets (and John's band The Quarrymen played as well).  These clubs were all literally underground - no windows, hot, too small to hold everyone.  The warehouse above was bulldozed in 1973, years after the Club had gone bankrupt, to make way for railway infrastructure that was never built.  In 1984 the site was re-excavated and the original characteristic arches were found to be intact and the club rebuilt (apparently using mostly original bricks excavated from the site).  It remains narrow and claustrophobic and full of revellers all day, listening to live acts (also all day, according to the website), mostly tribute bands/singers.  It also feels the most "authentic" of all the Beatles sites Craig visited..... probably because it (mostly) is!  The Club contains a number of artifact cases, up to and including modern acts like Adele, who played there to promote her "21" album, as well as a surprising amount of space devoted to the Arctic Monkeys.

A walking tour of Beatles sites

 Liverpool (sabbatical 2, week 3)

The Beatles are, of course, ubiquitous in Liverpool, from the name of the airport (Liverpool John Lennon Airport) to buildings named after John and Yoko at the universities and colleges in the city, to the weed-like spread of museums detailing their lives and music.  The museums will have to wait for another post; for this one Craig is going to walk around some real Liverpool Beatles sites.  So, he humbly submits to you this itinerary for a Beatles Walking Tour.  Transit times are from Googlemaps, he didn't actually time himself.

Transit (10 minutes) - the closest train station to the important sites is West Allerton.  You'll probably have to go from Lime Street, not Central Station.  Lime Street to West Allington is ~10 minutes.

Transit (15 minutes)  - exit the station, turn right. Take that road to the divided 4-lane motorway (B5180).  You'll pass a police academy.  Forthlin Road is on the right.

1. Paul McCartney's Childhood Home (20 Forthlin Road).  Both Paul and John's childhood homes are owned by the National Trust and do not have drop-in visiting hours.  You need to contact the National Trust and navigate their truly horrendous website to purchase tickets for a guided tour.<--use this page only; scroll down under the heading "Book Your Visit"; you'll have to choose your pick-up location first, and it cannot be changed (even though there's a button to change it, it did not work).  I did not do the tour, because the pickup locations are far from anything (including the houses you'll be touring) and sell out quickly.  There is a plaque and it's a nice pleasant neighborhood.

Transit (25 minutes) - back out to B5180, cross the road and turn left, take any of the next three rights.  These streets all end in a T-intersection, turn left and then right into the Allerton Manor Golf Club.  There is a walking path that runs along the edge of the course that is a pleasant walk through the woods.  Upon exiting the path, cross the 4-lane divided motorway (A562) and turn left to very shortly arrive at:

2. John Lennon's Childhood Home (251 Menlove Avenue).  Craig arrived at John's house in the middle of 3 tour groups (two from the National Trust - one arriving and one finishing - and a private tour operator).  In the process of waiting to take this picture, two more tours arrived, along with the hop-on-hop-off Liverpool Sites tour bus.  This was Sunday morning at 11 am!  The house is located on the A562; I imagine the locals hate it because there's nowhere to park, you just stop at the side of the road and block a lane of traffic.

Transit (15 minutes) - continue up (NW) the A562 turning right onto Vale Rd, which takes a big curve.  Left on Linkstor to the end, right on Church Road until you reach:

3. St. Peter's Church. The local Anglican Church, according to legend the location where Paul and John met.  In the graveyard is one Eleanor Rigby (if you are facing the front of the church the graveyard is on the left.  She is three rows back from Church Road  Paul has claimed the song name is a coincidence (perhaps - there are several other Rigby tombstones).

Transit (20 minutes) - backtrack (NW) up Church Street to Beaconsfield Rd.  Turn left.  Walk along to:

4. Strawberry Field.  The actual Salvation Army property is a singular field (presumably John pluralized it because it sounded better as a lyric).  The orphanage no longer exists, it is now a job-training facility.  The public is welcome to use the cafeteria and visit the small museum, however there is an entrance fee.

Transit (30 minutes) - from the Strawberry Field gates go to the end of Beaconsfield and turn right.  Follow the A562 northwest. It's still a 4-lane motorway but lined by nice houses and tall shade trees if it's hot.  There's a weird little jog 20-25 minutes in, so watch out for that (there's an HSBC bank, follow where the shops are, don't go down into the residential areas).  Stay on the motorway until you see:

5. Penny Lane.  If you take this suggested route, you will meet Penny Lane at the site of "...the shelter in the middle of a roundabout" (and also St. Barnabas Penny Lane Church).  Turn left to walk down Penny Lane.  Unfortunately, it's been 60 years since the song was written and the bus shelter is really the only thing left (there are barbershops, and the fire station building is still around but is not actually on Penny Lane).  There is no road sign at the bus shelter end, you'll have to walk to the western end to get a picture.  There is now little on the street to hint at why Penny Lane particularly would generate such nostalgia in a songwriter.  (P.S. for you chemists: here's the song as played by an NMR spectrometer)

And that's it!  From the end of Penny Lane it's an hour walk back to Liverpool Central or Lime Street, but there is a nice little park if you have kids who are bored; if you're hungry there's a little cafe (turn right off Penny Lane, it's only 100m or so).  Or you can turn left to get to Mossley Hill train station (10-minute walk).

You'll never walk alone

Tapping the sign

 Anfield, Liverpool (sabbatical 2, week 2)

Liverpool has two top-tier soccer teams whose stadia are literally a mile apart.  The older team is Everton FC, which is named for a suburb (neighborhood? not sure how municipal government works here), founded in 1888 and winning 9 league titles, although none since 1987 (coming from a Leafs fan, this is not really that long ago....).  The other team was founded a mere 4 years later but has become one of the most beloved teams in the world: Liverpool FC, which plays at Anfield.  It is (apparently) a common question in Merseyside to ask "Are you red or blue?" referring to the main jersey colours of the two teams.  Obviously no one who isn't suicidal would answer "Actually, my favourite team is Man United."

So Craig visited LFC's home ground, Anfield Stadium, for the stadium tour.  It hits the same highlights as the tour at Camp Nou (Barcelona).  The tour guides are, of course, incredibly knowledgeable, and currently very engaged as LFC is in the midst of 3 title chases - FA Cup (in the final), Champion's League (made the final yesterday), and one point off the top spot in the English Premier League with 4 games remaining.  The highlights include touring both dressing rooms and being able to tap the Anfield sign (which the players do for good luck) as you come out the players' tunnel to the pitch.  Craig got an in-depth explanation on how the pitch grass is kept eternally green and prevented from getting torn out (not an easy explanation for to type out in a blog) and one tour guide gleefully pointed out a dent in the visitor's refrigerator courtesy of "that sore loser Lionel Messi."

"You fell out of the tall tower, you creep!"

Conwy, Wales (sabbatical 2, week 2)

Liverpool is very close to the Welsh border, so Craig took the opportunity to test his navigation skills (navigating public transit, that is) and took a jaunt along the Welsh coast as far as Conwy.  Although less famous than Caernarfon, the castle at Conwy was built as sturdily and was actually finished.  In fact, King Edward I fortified the entire town, and you can still walk most of the perimeter of the town on the medieval walls.

Panaorama view from the top of the highest tower

On the walls

The Welsh did manage to take over the castle for a short time at one point, by posing as delivery men during a banquet.  You really can't make this stuff up!  The short-lived occupation in 1201 ended with a negotiated return to the English in exchange for a few scapegoats who were hanged.

There are numerous towers you can climb up and down, offering stunning views and vertigo.  The latter is (for me, at least) caused by the steep spiral staircases and the lack of guard rails around the highest tower tops (and the walls are short!). 

The town itself is mostly modern except the castle, walls, and parish church, which was originally part of a convent that Edward shipped out when he took over.  Overall, I think they have done a very impressive job on repairing and maintaining the fortifications, and Craig had great fun climbing up and down the towers for the different views of the town, the River Conwy, and the Welsh countryside.

Contractually obligated cathedral post

 Liverpool (sabbatical 2, Week 2)

Anglican Cathedral

Andrew and David will be happy that Craig's getting his cathedral fix in now, perhaps he'll be sated by the time they get over here!  Liverpool has two cathedrals (one Anglican, one Catholic), but perhaps as famous as these two is the Church of St. Luke, known colloquially as "The Bombed-Out Church".  In May 1941, it was hit with an incendiary bomb and mostly burned, except of course for the stone walls, facade, and bell tower.  Left as a war memorial, the city converted it into an event space.

Moving not too far south, we come to Liverpool (Anglican) Cathedral.  Although started in 1904, it has a much older feel to it.  It survived the war virtually unscathed (just a few broken windows, according to the tour guide).  It is, in fact, the largest church in the British Isles, and #5 in the world (depending how you measure it of course, but "fifth" is what the tour guides tout).  It is quite sparse except for some beautiful stained-glass windows.  The outside is distinctive, being built from locally-quarried red sandstone blocks.

Finally there's Paddy's Wigwam..... or rather, the Liverpool Metropolitan (Catholic) Cathedral.  Not to be outdone by the then-under-construction largest church in Britain, in 1930 the local Catholic bishop commissioned plans to build a church with the largest dome in the world.  Unfortunately, costs ballooned and the funding model - local fundraising - was insufficient.  This led to a new design in 1962, and the result is the very modern church pictured.  Of course, most of the Catholics in Liverpool have Irish roots ("Paddies"), and the design does resemble a pre-colonial indigenous plains tent, hence "Paddy's Wigwam".

Paddy's Wigwam (l) and Bombed-Out Church (r); note how sky shows through windows (red arrow)