Liverpool

Liverpool is best know for being the home of the world renowned Beatles Rock & Roll Band, but has many other important attractions.

Liverpool is internationally known for music and is recognised by Guinness World Records as the World Capital City of Pop. Musicians from the city have produced 56 number one singles, more than any other city in the world. Both the most successful male band and girl group in global music history have contained Liverpudlian members. Liverpool is most famous as the birthplace of The Beatles and during the 1960s was at the forefront of the Beat Music movement, which would eventually lead to British Invasion. Many notable musicians of the time originated in the city including Billy J Kramer, Cilla Black, Gerry & the Pacemakers and The Searchers.

The influence of musicians from Liverpool, coupled with other cultural exploits of the time, such as the Liverpool poets, prompted American poet Allen Ginsburg to proclaim that the city was “the center of consciousness of the human universe”. Other musicians from Liverpool have included Billy Fury, A Flock of Seagulls, Echo and the Bunnymen, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Frankie Vaughan and more recently The Zutons, Atomic Kitten and Heidi Range.” Wikipedia

The preforming arts, art galleries, museums, literature, fantastic nightlife, pubs and bars make this a very exciting place to experience. Liverpudlians take their sports very seriously, football events are a monsterous attraction and a must see for visiting sport fans. There are a tremendous amount of cultural attractions, universities, colleges, city parks, festivals, the waterfront, historical attractions, good reataurants and nightclubs. What more can you ask?

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The commercial strength of Manchester grew with the development of transport links; but it was from the seaport of Liverpool that her goods reached the markets of the world. The M62 is the shortest route into the center of Liverpool, leading past the university and the great crown-shaped Roman Catholic cathedral, consecrated in 1967, a modernistic round building of glass and steel with a cylindrical lantern tower which John Lennon allegedly referred to as “Liverpool’s largest public conveniences.” The other cathedral, and in complete contrast, is the more traditional Neo-Gothic Anglican cathedral, begun in 1904.

The docks were the heart of Liverpool in its commercial heyday; today, however, they’re dominated by a sad series of derelict buildings and vacant lots. Close to the Pierhead, however, is the Albert Dock complex (underground: St. James Street), which has been completely renovated and restored as a center of interest for the visitor.

In recent years, attempts to break London’s monopoly on England’s cultural life have benefited many cities, and Liverpool in particular. This applies less to the Liverpool Museum close to Lime Street station, where there’s a planetarium on the top floor, but more to the nearby Walker Art Gallery with its collection of European and Pre-Raphaelite paintings. And definitely recommended is the extraordinary collection of modern art in Liverpool’s Tate Gallery, a branch of the London museum of the same name. Like the Maritime Museum, it is located at Albert Dock. However, most visitors to the dock who were born after 1950 come not for art but for the Beatles: the exhibition The Beatles Story here is dedicated to them and their music.

As a climax to your visit a cruise on the great river Mersey is hard to beat. Upstream, off the A561 near the airport, is one of England’s finest half-timbered houses, Speke Hall, a Tudor masterpiece with Victorian-era furnishings.

On Liverpool’s eastern outskirts, the M57 leads off northwest from the M62 past Knowsley Safari Park; the A565 continues on towards the nature reserve at Formby. This large area of sand dunes and pine forest between the town and the sea is home to birds, butterflies and the rare (in England) red squirrels. The beach is one of the finest in the area.

Further north, Southport is the “classiest” of the Lancashire coastal resorts, with its internationally famous Royal Birkdale golf course and elegant shopping mile of Lord Street. Inland, just north of Burscough, is the Martin Mere Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre where duck and geese abound and, in winter, wild swans from the Arctic come to breed.

Also north of Burscough is Rufford Old Hall, a late 15th-century half-timbered house with an ornate hammerbeam roof and arms, tapestries and furniture from the 16th and 17th centuries.

East from exit 27 on the M6, via Standish and the A49 to Charnock Richard, is Camelot Theme Park, which offers entertainment in a medieval key.

Blackpool: North of Southport, the coast is split by the estuary of the river Ribble, which penetrates 11 miles (18 km) inland to Preston. From here the road leads to Blackpool, the popular seaside playground of the industrial north.

Trams run along the oceanfront, past the honest vulgarity of Pleasure Beach with its rollercoasters (one the highest in the world) and other amusements, the piers, and the famous Tower, built in 1894 in emulation of Gustave Eiffel’s celebrated construction in Paris. In autumn, the whole coast is illuminated with thousands of lights. On the estuary shore are two more of Britain’s great golf courses, the Royal Lytham and the St. Anne’s.

Central Lancashire: East of Preston, the B6245 leads to a Roman fort at Ribchester. At Whalley the ruins of a Cistercian abbey stand above the river Calder; indeed, the remains of the medieval privies still overhang the water. Founded in 1172, the house was moved to the present site in 1296 where it endured until Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.

North of Whalley, at Clitheroe, the old castle is still standing, and to the southeast at Padiham is Gawthorpe Hall. Built in the early 17th century and restored 150 years ago, it is known for its textile collection. North of here, the Forest of Pendle was once said to be the haunt of witches.

From Newchurch in Pendle off the A6068, anyone with sufficient energy can climb Pendle Hill. Numerous women were found guilty of witchcraft here in the 17th century, and executed at Lancaster castle.

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