Sneak preview as new Museum of Liverpool gets set to open its doors
Source: Liverpool Daily Post
For visitors awaiting their first glimpse of Britain’s largest newly- built museum, today is like the night before Christmas – except that those in charge are busy taking the wrapping off, rather than putting it on.
Inside the atrium, contractors dressed in yellow safety hats are pulling protective fabric from a magenta sign that reads “Museum of Liverpool”, while others are sticking transfers on to the gift shop or sorting out the information desk.
Upstairs, two men are adding the finishing touches to a replica of the Sandon Pub, where Liverpool FC was formed after a split in Everton FC’s management, and the wooden model of a cathedral that was never built is in position ready to be unwrapped from its shroud.
They have been working 24 hours a day to ensure the £72m attraction is completed on time.
Whether you’re tempted here by the chance to sing Merseybeat karaoke, to search for an ancestor’s name on the list of the Great War fallen, or to learn more about the suffragette movement, all visits will begin on the ground floor.
On the canal side, large glass doors lead past the cafe and gift shop to an elliptical staircase at the atrium’s centre.
While not all of the museum will open tomorrow – the History Detectives, Great Port, Kings Regiment and Overhead Railway galleries will follow in November – it will still take at least several hours to see everything.
Ground floor
Global City: “Liverpool – a place which, of all the cities and towns in the British Empire is surpassed only by the metropolis in magnitude, wealth and importance,” states an extract from the Illustrated London News of 1854, printed alongside other quotations about the city’s global significance.
As well as permanent displays demonstrating Liverpool’s links to far-flung places – such as a Bayko model of the Empire State Building – there is a temporary exhibition, East Meets West, about the city’s relationship with Shanghai and its identity as home to Europe’s oldest Chinese community.
Artefacts such as a wooden model of a Shantung Trader sailing ship, presented to Liverpool Museum by the inspector general of Chinese maritime customs in 1938, and a newly-acquired 10m ceremonial dragon feature alongside the heartbreaking stories of now grown- up children who lost their fathers during the enforced repatriation of Chinese sailors in the late-1940s and audio memories of local people including actor David Yip (Brookside, The Chinese Detective).
Little Liverpool: Children under the age of six are encouraged to begin their visit with a timed 30-minute playtime in this gallery, which features a dock wall containing an A-Z of objects from the National Museum Liverpool’s vast collections. They can sail boats on a miniature River Mersey, surrounded by popular landmarks, run Dinky cars through the tunnels beneath and fish for pretend marine creatures. Meanwhile, a Liver Bird’s Nest provides a soft play area for babies.
At the end of the session, a goodbye song is played by a group of Beetles – yes, that’s spelt right – and the children can continue their museum experience by following Winnie the spider on a trail throughout the building.
Second floor
The People’s Republic: A video of Liverpudlians’ opinions on the city, its people and the Scouse accent welcome visitors into this gallery – “We get lots of Mancs and that copying off us,” says one man about Liverpool’s fashion sense. Then the path passes through a further series of video screens showing talking heads.
“They’re talking about everything from family history to their connections with the city and their life experiences so there’s quite a range of emotions in there,” says Museum of Liverpool deputy director Jen McCarthy.
“For instance, Lord Derby talks about how he became connected with the city and he feels like a Scouser. We have someone else who had their DNA tested and discovered they have Viking DNA.”
A row of glass cases are packed with objects showing how people have left their mark on Liverpool – a gravestone which has been used on both sides, the 1905 ledger for a Basque boarding house, a set of street seller dolls made by a woman called Mary Morgan who based them on real people she saw on the streets – and visitors place their feet inside a 3-D model of real footprints left behind on Formby Beach 4,000 years ago.
Permanent displays look at the experience of living in the city – covering subjects including housing, employment and unemployment, trade unions and health care – and feature a reconstruction of 26 Court, Burlington Street, in 1870, an overcrowded tenement block.
Sir Edwin Lutyens’s design for the Metropolitan Cathedral, the part Liverpool soldiers played in the First World War and explorations of the neighbourhoods of Smithdown Road and Everton are the focus of three temporary exhibitions.
Wondrous Place: A celebration of Liverpool’s creative and sporting personalities, this gallery has a party atmosphere as Beatles paraphernalia jostles with Liverpool poet Adrian Henri’s giant gold Y-fronts for attention and visitors are invited to sing karaoke.
Displays on the city’s writers include recreations of scenes from Helen Forrester’s best-seller Twopence to Cross the Mersey and a focus on Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine.
A row of lockers open to reveal objects owned by sports personalities, such as gymnast Beth Tweddle’s leotard; talking portraits on the wall of a replica Sandon Pub tell the story of the founding of Liverpool FC after a disagreement between members of Everton’s management; and a model of a racing horse leaps over a hedge above the real skeleton of Ambush II, the last Royal horse to win the Grand National, in 1900.
Highlights include two video shows – watched from within a pair of cubicles. Liverpool’s passion for football and the unique rivalry and success of Everton and Liverpool are told in Kicking and Screaming, which the audience watches from seats taken from both clubs’ stadia.
The real stage upon which John Lennon’s high school band, The Quarrymen, played during the 1957 St Peter’s Church Fete, in Woolton, is placed inside the Beatles-themed video installation, In The Town Where I Was Born.
Skylight gallery: Ben Johnson’s specially-commissioned art work The Liverpool Cityscape, faces the People’s Portrait display on the walls at the very top of the elliptical staircase. A changing series of exhibitions, it begins with a series of images by photographer Mike McCartney.
For more information visit www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol
For more Liverpool News visit www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk
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