If you are travelling to Liverpool by train, you can reach Lime Street Station in just over two hours from London, and 35 minutes from Manchester. It does not take long for this Merseyside city to reveal its architectural splendour. There are more heritage-listed buildings here than anywhere else in England outside the capital. If you are staying centrally at the Municipal Hotel and Spa, your eyes will be wandering on the 10-minute walk from the station. These landmarks are photogenic from the outside and worth returning to so you can explore inside once you have dropped your luggage.
St George's Hall
Impossible to miss as you exit the station is this grandiose neoclassical monument directly across Lime Street. Completed in 1854, when Liverpool was one of the richest ports on the planet, St George's Hall is just as jaw-dropping inside with its extravagant Minton mosaic floor, which has 30,000 hand-crafted tiles, and its wood-panelled former courtroom. A stage for civic events and concerts, this building has appeared in movies and TV dramas like The War of the Worlds and Peaky Blinders. Guided tours share the hall's history and tales of famous visitors, including Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, and Liverpool's musical and footballing heroes. You will also hear about those who were detained in the building's cells before facing tough justice from a judge. Many received harsh sentences for often relatively minor crimes, with scores shipped Down Under to the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land. More information is available at liverpoolcityhalls.co.uk.
William Brown Street
The leafy gardens by St George's Hall are a handy place to catch your breath, with trees and plants flowering at different points of the year. They are flanked by William Brown Street, a sloping cobbled stretch named after a 19th-century merchant and politician who was one of the main importers of slave-produced cotton into Liverpool and later donated land and helped fund what grew into the city's Cultural Quarter. Elegant Victorian buildings house a row of family-friendly, free-to-enter cultural gems. There is a superb collection of paintings and sculptures at the Walker Art Gallery, with Rubens, Turner, Monet, Moore and Hockney among the artists showcased. It is next door to the domed Liverpool Central Library and the World Museum, the oldest of the city's galleries, dating from 1853. Exploring topics as diverse as dinosaur fossils and astronomy, the museum also has fascinating ethnographic artefacts from Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. All three addresses on this strip host temporary exhibitions and events, so check the listings at liverpoolmuseums.org.uk.
The Ship and Mitre
From William Brown Street, it is a short hop down to Dale Street, one of the original seven streets laid out after King John established Liverpool in 1207. This thoroughfare to the River Mersey is lined with beautiful and imposing buildings. Sitting diagonally across from the Municipal Hotel and Spa, by a huge mural of Liverpool's Olympic silver medal-winning heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, The Ship and Mitre is smaller than most, but seizes the attention of passersby with its 1930s Art Deco exterior and blue lettering. Inside, it actually feels rather like you are on a vessel at sea, especially if you are treading the boards after a tipple or two. There is a fine choice of spirits, including gins and rums that bygone Scouse sailors would have sunk, but it is the variety of English and European craft ales, stouts and ciders that tends to pull punters back. Although there is stiff competition for great pubs in Liverpool, you may find yourself returning to The Ship and Mitre for a pint or two in its cosy, nautical-inspired nooks. More details at theshipandmitre.uk.
