Things to do | Postcards From Here and There

Secret Liverpool Part 1

I am a great fan of travel guides and usually have one for each trip we take. For me they are essential in planning a trip and making sure you get the best out of the time you have available and see all the major sights. What they don’t always do is let you explore deeper into a city and take you to the curiosities, the secret places and the downright strange. For that you need local knowledge and its here that the internet and travel blogs can sometimes be most useful.

Many visitors to Liverpool will do something Beatle related, may visit one or both cathedrals, spend time in one or more of the excellent museums and may even travel to see the two famous football grounds. In doing many of these things they may pass some of the equally interesting aspects of the city that are rarely in the guide books. This post looks at some of them. Try to take in some as part of your stay in the city.

Night and Day. The Georges Dock Building and ventilation system can be found behind The Port of Liverpool Building at Pier Head. It is often overlooked yet it is close to the Three Graces and is certainly well worth a few minutes of your time. Built in the Art Deco style in the early 1930s it also houses a ventilation shaft for the Birkenhead Tunnel which was opened in 1934 but its hidden gems are round the back of the building on Georges Dockway. A pair of black basalt statues by Edmund C Thompson entitled Night and Day.

Big Cats. A short walk from the two statues is the site of the former Bank of Liverpool building (7 Water Street) which dates from 1899 and is Grade II listed. What is remarkable here are the entrance doors, each has the bronze head of a big cat. Are they lions, tigers, panthers? There seems to be some debate but what is not in question is how good they are and yet easily missed.

Martins Bank. The old Martins Bank building is also on Water Street but the real interest is on the side of the building on Exchange Street West. Here you will find a small plaque on the wall. During the Second World War most of the countries gold reserves were moved out of London and put into the vaults of Martins Bank.

The Seven Streets. Liverpool can trace its origins back to 1207. It its beginnings it consisted of just seven streets which still remain today though names have changed in some cases. Castle St, Bank St (now Water St), Chapel St, Dale St, Juggler St (now High St), Moor St (now Tithebarn St), and Whiteacre St (now Old Hall St). The streets are marked with a plaque. The one for Castle Street is on the eastern side of the street nearest to Derby Square.

The Sanctuary Stone. A short walk from Water Street brings you to Castle Street. This was the location of the old medieval market and the boundary is marked by the Sanctuary Stone embedded in the pavement on the western side of the street. Medieval markets and fairs had their own rules and laws and were quite separate from those of the town. An individual being sought for breaking laws or owing money in the town could seek sanctuary in the market and so the boundaries of markets were marked with stones.

Queens Avenue. Queen Avenue on the eastern side of Castle Street looks, at first glance, like the entrance to a Victorian shopping arcade. However looks can be deceiving and you find yourself here looking down one of the most picturesque streets in the whole of the city and one so often missed by visitors. It is home to a small gallery and a rather fine wine shop.

Maltese Cross. Church Street is one of the major shopping streets in the city. On the pavement just outside Top Shop is a brass Maltese cross. It marks the location of the alter of St Peters Church which was built in 1700 and demolished in 1922. It gives the street its name.

Bluecoat Garden. Running from Church Street is Church Alley which leads to the magnificent Bluecoat Chambers. A Grade I listed building built in 1717 it was originally a school but is now an arts centre. The garden is to be found in the courtyard at the back of the building and it is an area of peace and tranquility in the heart of the city. It is a great stopping off point and if the weather is nice a good place to sit and enjoy a coffee.

A Stroll Down Castle Street

Castle Street may not be anywhere near the longest street in Liverpool but it certainly manages to pack a lot in. You could easily walk its length in just a couple of minutes but to do so would mean missing out on some real treasures. Today it is home to bars, restaurants and cafés but Castle Street was formerly the place for banking and commerce in the city. Its financial importance is reflected in the grand architecture of its buildings, seventeen of which are Grade II listed.

Castle street is one of the original seven streets of the city (along with Water St, Chapel St, Dale St, High St, Tithebarn St and Old Hall St) and can date its history back to the thirteenth century. It was the main route from the river to Liverpool Castle, which stood where Derby Square and the Law Courts are found to day. It would have originally been much narrower, it was widen to its current width around 200 years ago. Most of its buildings date from the middle of the nineteenth century.

Castle Street was the location of the old medieval market and the boundary is marked by the Sanctuary Stone embedded in the pavement on the western side of the street. Medieval markets and fairs had their own rules and laws and were quite separate from those of the town. An individual being sought for breaking laws in the town could seek sanctuary in the market and so the boundaries of markets were marked with stones.

On the corner of Castle Street and James Street is the grand building of the old Alliance Bank, built in 1868. It later became home to the North and South Wales Bank followed by the Midland Bank. It is now a hotel going by the name of 62 Castle Street.

On the corner with Cook Street stands the Bank of England building built between 1845 and 1848 as one of three branches of the bank. It now sadly stands empty and is awaiting redevelopment.

27 Castle Street 1848
44 Castle Street 1890s

Two fine buildings frame the junction with Brunswick Street. On the south side is the old Adelphi Bank, built in 1892, which has some superb decorative features. The doors are well worth investigating, designed by Stirling Lee, they are made from bronze and show pairs of famous friends along with the name of the bank. The Adelphi Bank incorporated with Martins Bank which in turn became part of Barclays in the late 1960s. The building later became a branch of the Co-operative Bank and is now home on the ground floor to Café Nero.

31 Castle Street
31 Castle Street

To the north, at 36 Castle Street, is the former home of the Leyland and Bullins Bank. Designed by Grayson and Ould and opened in 1895 the ground floor now houses a Brazilian restaurant but the buildings is an important part of the city banking history. Thomas Leyland, a merchant of the city, won a considerable sum of money in a lottery at the end of the eighteenth century and went on to open the bank with his nephew in the early part of the nineteenth. The bank prospered and became part of the North and South Wales Bank in 1901 which in turn was absorbed by the Midland Bank, later to become part of HSBC.

The old offices of the Leyland and Bullin Bank.

Across the street is another building designed by Grayson and Ould. Built between 1888 and 1890 to house the offices of the British & Foreign Marine Insurance Company it is a fine Victorian piece of architecture and looks very imposing with its red sandstone and terracotta facade. The building incorporates some fine mosaic work by Frank Murray.

Queen Avenue on the eastern side of the street looks, at first glance, like the entrance to a Victorian shopping arcade. However looks can be deceiving and you find yourself here looking down one of the most picturesque streets in the whole of the city and one so often missed by visitors. It is home to a small gallery and a rather fine wine shop.

As you look up Castle Street from Derby Square the centrepiece of the street appears to be the rather grand Town Hall. If you think it looks slightly left of centre you would be correct as it was never designed for what today is a rather iconic view, being initially obscured by other developments. Built between 1749 and 1754 it actually is on Dale Street but no stroll down Castle Street would be complete without it.

Porta de Piedade Lagos.

The town of Lagos in the western Algarve is 60Km from Faro with a drive of a little over an hour. It is also possible to reach Lagos by train from Faro with a journey time of 90 minutes. Lagos is a pleasant town with an active, modern marina. The highlight of any visit to Lagos has got to be the Porta de Piedade, a headland of limestone cliffs just to the west of the town.

It is possible to access the headland on foot and there are several sets of steps to reach the beaches of Praia de Camilo and Praia Dona Ana. However by far the best way to view the cliffs and rock formations is by boat. There are plenty of tour options from Lagos marina costing around 20 Euros for a 75 minute cruise. Generally the boats used are small, carrying around 8 passengers, enabling them to get close up, through arches and into some of the caves.

The colours of the limestone are incredible, yellow to gold to red to browns. The layers erode at different rates creating shadows and crazy shapes, some of which have been given names by the local guides.

The constant battering of the ocean has created pillars, arches and caves. it is a coastline in constant change. It can be stunning and dramatic especially on a clear, sunny day which can make the colours almost glow. It can also be bleak, especially on a cloudy and windy day and as you round the headland conditions can change as you move from shelter into the breeze.

You can get so close you can almost reach out and touch the rocks such is the skill of the guide and the manoeuvrability of the boat. It is well worth doing as part of visit to Lagos and out of the main holiday season its relatively quiet and you can almost have the boat to yourselves.