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Words: Emily Ray. Photos: Thinkstock
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LIVERPOOL NAPLES
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on Great George Street once coated in a grim layer of industrial grime, now a contemporary arts and community centre. Standing wonderfully contrasted next to it is the oriental arch over Nelson Street, the gateway to Liverpool’s Chinatown where the oldest Chinese community in Europe lives.
Albert Dock. The whole area has been saved from the perils of deprivation by smart investment and superb longterm planning. So now there’s plenty on offer, not least Tate Liverpool, the International Slavery Museum, The Beatles Story and a great selection of bars and restaurants for lunch.
EVENING For an utterly unique night out, you have to head to the Baltic Triangle (liverpoolbaltictriangle.co.uk). It is rapidly emerging as a buzzing edgy artistic quarter and a magnet for Liverpool’s hipster community. An echo of Liverpool’s industrial past, the whole area has been reclaimed as an arty district where you’ll find musicians, designers, filmmakers and entrepreneurs at work and play. The best thing to do is head down early evening, just wander around and take it all in. Once you’re done rambling, have a nice sharpener in the Baltic Fleet, erstwhile boozer of sailors and dockers, before heading round to Camp & Furnace (campandfurnace.com). A cluster of abandoned warehouses reborn as art and social space, Camp & Furnace is a rich jumble brimming with quirky features – ask about the retro caravans – that attracts creatives of all stripes. With fantastic food on offer in officially the second coolest restaurant in Britain (The Times said so), a buzzing bar where you can party until 4am at the weekend, and even the chance to sing karaoke with a live band, the whole thing makes for an achingly cool venue and a totally one-off night.
AFTERNOON Take a nice stroll back into the city and head straight for Wood Street, a characterful part of town where you’ll find yet another buzzing arty spot. The Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT; fact.co.uk) is as cutting edge as arts organisations get, especially with the current exhibition, the beautifully curated Science Fiction: New Death, an ominous, trippy statement about a world being overrun by technology. There’s also a Picturehouse cinema in the building if you fancy a nice bit of downtime. Liverpool is a fashion-mad city, so if you like a bit of shopping you’re in the right place. Giant shopping centre Liverpool One is the city’s third cathedral, to a very different religion, and along with some smaller more boutique malls and a wonderful array of indie stores, you can happily spend the afternoon hunting down some new threads for the evening.
48HOURS Religious experience: Sacre Coeur
Camp & Furnace
A unique 55 minute amphibious sightseeing tour of Liverpool’s historic waterfront, ‘The Three Graces’, Pier Head city and docks
does have a certain charm to itQuote and it’s ‘TNT’ and certainly good to tick it off your list. get a But there are plenty of better FREE fleshpots in town. If you’re in the 4m2u mini mood for a bit of a knees up, Cava Bar rubber – where you can get a tequila duck* shot for a pound – Soho Bar in Concert Square and Alma de Cuba, set in an old church, are all worth the trip. One of the city’s quirkiest and most fun late-night spots, EVENING Aloha, is a must, especially if you like Book tickets at www.theyellowduckmarine.co.uk It might not be the original, but the your rum cocktails and table tennis. or 0151 708 7799 *One duck per booking subject to availability. For full t&cs visit www.theyellowduckmarine.co.uk Cavern Club is still worth a drink. It’s often packed with tourists though so you might want to get a couple DAY TWO of cocktails down MORNING you before you Yes, it’s a cliché, but you really can’t go. Hopskotch, visit the city that produced the most the bar attached successful band in history without at to HOAX, does a least giving a nod to the Fab Four, great selection, and if you’re staying at HOAX you’re as well as a nice already metres away from the place mixed menu for where it all began. The area’s become a dinner, and there’s little bit cheesy, but with the right kind often live music of eyes you can picture those streets in theprice bar (not in the ‘50s, buzzing with thebut sound of (it’s basically a vintage store, without a on weighty just playing Beatles four wild local lads a few years before tag). While you’re there, hit independent tea shop, Leaf Evendo though they went and changed music forever. (thisisleaf.co.uk) for a cuppa and a cheap covers). lunch (they it’s a recreation From there take a walk down a delicious Greek mezze that’s £10to and big enough for two).– the original was deephere wide Mersey, past theholds retro Ifthe you’re atRiver the right time, Leaf Sundays on knocked down striking Royal Liver Building towards the last Sunday of every month, with a vintage fair selling in 1973 – the Cavern the city’s iconicclothing, feature:accessories The men’s andmost women’s and homeware.
14:00 For some alternative modern art, head out of town to the coast. Get the number 53 bus, which leaves Queen Square in Liverpool city centre, to Crosby Beach, where you’ll find an in-water installation called Another Place by Antony Gormley. It’s made up of 100 cast-iron, life-sized
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