A city facing the sea, not London
Liverpool spent two centuries looking west across the Atlantic rather than east toward London, and it still feels that way. The money came through the docks, and so did the music, and so did a great deal the city has since had to reckon with honestly. It has a strong opinion of itself, and that is most of why we liked it.
It is also compact, which we had not expected. We did the waterfront, the museums and both cathedrals on foot, and the only hard part is the hill at the end.
The Royal Albert Dock
The dock is the obvious starting point and it earns it. It holds the largest group of Grade I listed buildings anywhere in the country, which is to say the warehouses themselves are the attraction, not just the things now inside them.
What is inside them is a lot: Tate Liverpool, the Maritime Museum, the International Slavery Museum and the Beatles Story all sit around the same water. Two of those are worth planning around.
The International Slavery Museum is the one to make time for, and the one we would send anyone to first. Liverpool grew rich on the transatlantic slave trade, the museum sits in the dock buildings that trade paid for, and the city chose to put it there rather than somewhere more comfortable. It does not flatter the place it is in, and it is better for it.
The Maritime Museum is free and explains why the city exists at all. Do it before the rest of the dock and everything else makes more sense.
Two cathedrals, one street apart
Liverpool has two cathedrals at either end of the same road, and they are about as different as two buildings serving the same purpose can be.
Liverpool Cathedral is the largest cathedral in England, Gothic revival, finished in 1978 after seventy-odd years of building, and entry is free. The scale inside is genuinely hard to take in.
The Metropolitan Cathedral is the other thing entirely: a circular concrete and glass crown from the 1960s, known locally as Paddy’s Wigwam, and one of the strangest and best pieces of twentieth century religious architecture in the country.
Walking from one to the other, along Hope Street, is the single best hour in the city.
The Walker
The Walker Art Gallery is about fifteen minutes up from the waterfront, it is free, and it holds one of the strongest collections in England outside London. Most visitors never make it off the dock, which is their loss.
The Beatles, as much or as little as you want
You can make this the entire trip or ignore it completely and the city works either way. There is the Beatles Story at the dock, the statue of the four of them at Pier Head, and the actual places, which are scattered around the suburbs and need more planning.
Tip
If you only want a nod to it rather than a full day, the statue at Pier Head takes five minutes and you are already there for the waterfront.