Liverpool meanderings

Our biannual Arbrix conference took us back to the city of Liverpool, one of the great northern centres of the Industrial Revolution. Stepping out of Lime Street Station, you are faced with huge, imposing buildings all around, built by those wonderful philanthropists of the Victorian age. Unsurprisingly, one of my favourites was Liverpool Central Library, originally completed in 1860 with an imaginative and beautiful refurbishment completed in 2013. It is one of the largest public libraries in the United Kingdom and it's position on William Brown Street means that it joins the UNESCO World Heritage Site Area alongside St George's Hall, The Walker Art Gallery and the World Museum, two of which I managed to visit as well as the library.

As many of you know, I love to find connections, but even I was astounded to discover a connection with my last blog from New England! Nathaniel Hawthorne, the American author of The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables (in Salem) was at the laying of the first foundation stone of the library in 1857 and is pictured in the Library's booklet published for the re-opening in 2013. Hawthorne was based in Liverpool at the time as the American Consul.

The original rotunda building was based on the British Library Reading Room in the British Museum. It has been beautifully restored and now houses the Picton Reading Room which was fully in use by those reading or studying quietly when I visited. The new entrance into the modern extension draws citizens of all ages into a wonderful atrium with four floors of resources and facilities. Every part of it was humming with activity. The Library manages to combine historic collections built up over 150 years (though sadly 200,000 volumes were destroyed when the library took a direct hit by an incendiary bomb in 1941) with the city's central records and every modern resource anyone could wish for.

I came across another interesting connection in the Oak library which houses an original set of John James Audubon's Birds of America, possibly 'the greatest natural history book every produced', bought by the Library in 1860. I first came across Audubon whilst reading Mr. Lear, A Life of Art and Nonsense by Jenny Uglow (a beautifully produced and fascinating biography of Edward Lear which I would recommend).

We all know Lear as the inventor of the limerick but may not know that he was, in fact, a talented artist and earnt a living in the 1820s and 30s by painting birds and animals. He was a frequent visitor to Regent's Park Zoo, hence one of his most joyful limericks:

There was a Young Lady whose bonnet,

Came untied when the birds sate upon it;

But she said, 'I don't care! all the birds in the air

Are welcome to sit on my bonnet!'

The appetite for books on birds and animals had grown since the voyages of Captain Cook (see my blog Voyages of May 21st). Audubon's huge 'elephant folio' plates for Birds of America begun publication in 1827 and he was lecturing in Britain and Europe when he met Lear at the Zoo. They became friends and Audubon bought a copy of Lear's Parrots in 1832.

It was but a short hop, literally and metaphorically, to the Walker Art Gallery with its fantastic sculpture room, including a copy of the Elgin marbles. We wandered through Burne-Jones, Rosseti and a few Impressionists but, surprisingly, spent a great deal of time in the modern exhibition for the John Moore's Art Prize. This exhibition of contemporary art certainly got us talking to say the least! As always with modern art there were some 'my granddaughter could have done that!', some which seemed completely pointless but quite a few that provoked emotion and a lot of discussion. That, I suppose, is what art is all about - the ability to get people thinking and talking. The winners had not been announced when we visited but have been now so here they are!

1st Prize winner

The King and Queen of Wands

Jacqui Hallam

Kos Town Paradise Hotel Front Terrace

Gary Lawrence

This is the Visitors' Choice winner and I am delighted it was our favourite too. We spent a long time looking at the way the artist has tried to show the light flickering on every object, as Renoir would do.

Our wanderings brought us to an unexpected place. The 'bombed-out church', the last bomb-site in Liverpool, St Luke’s is testament to the brave people who lived and died during the May Blitz of 1941; as such it carries with it the legacy of those who formed the congregation and community for over a century before the start of the Second World War. Left open to the skies, it is now both a living memorial and a site for the community. As well as its sound archive, it holds annual commemorative events for the Blitz, First and Second World Wars alongside regular historical exhibitions of documents and artefacts. It is a contemplative and quiet place, a small oasis of peace in a busy city.

And so, to the treat of the weekend (although all of the above were just as good). We were lucky enough to have booked tickets for the Terracotta Warriors exhibition, opening evenings in its last week at Liverpool's World Museum. For over 2,000 years, an underground army of life-sized terracotta warriors secretly guarded the tomb of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, until a chance discovery in 1974 unlocked the mysteries of a vanished empire. Despite the fact that there were only 7 full size ones on display the warriors were quite awe-inspiring and there were numerous exhibits of smaller warriors and animals that were made for the tombs of the great Chinese Emperors. I suspect it is the closest I will get to seeing these amazing warriors so I am very glad we were able to go.

Liverpool is a wonderful city and needs many visits to see all its glories.