May 3: Two Museums

The docks area of Liverpool has an amazing number of museums and historic buildings.

Along the dockside are three buildings associated with shipping called the Three Graces: the Liver Building, Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building.

The Liver Building is topped with the bird known as the Liver Bird, believed to be related to cormorants or phoenix and adopted as the city mascot. “Liver” rhymes with “diver”, not “shiver”.

Part of the Cunard Building houses a museum about British music and outside is the Fab 4 statue:

Old warehouse buildings have been transformed into a number of museums including Tate Liverpool.

The area is full of art, shops, restaurants and offices.

Tate Liverpool had a fun Op Art exhibition:

Some Rothkos:

An early Kandinsky:

View from the window:

Lunch at Gusto in the Albert Docks area:

We then went to the Museum of Liverpool, which is about the history of the city. The building is new.

Sadly, the exhibitions were aimed more towards children with interactive displays and not a lot of history explained. There was a poster for canned scouse.

Dinner was at the Art School Restaurant, housed in a former art school with former students’ works on the walls and where we had the tasting menu with wine pairings.