Step aside, Paris – this northern city of lights is drawing creatives like moths to a flame. From cutting-edge art to a grassroots music scene, Rhiannon Edwards locates Liverpool’s alternative beat, and has the inside track on what to see and do on your next visit
- Museum of Liverpool on the Waterfront. Lead image: outside Squash Cafe in Toxteth. All photographs: Laura McCluskey
Liverpool has always been on my list of cities to visit. It is compact, full of history and you’re never short of things to do. People might scoff, but I think it has parallels with Paris – for starters, it’s a great place for art, hosting a biennial and internationally recognised galleries.
- Records in the Airbnb apartment and Rhiannon in the kitchen
My Airbnb apartment while staying here, a converted warehouse in the Ropewalks conservation area, feels like it’s at the centre of everything. It’s just a short stroll from the creative warehouses of the Baltic Triangle, and a moment up the road from some of the city’s best independent galleries, plus close to the waterfront – the most obvious feature that makes Liverpool stand out as a great place for a weekend away.
- Rhiannon’s home from home in Liverpool, from Airbnb
The property has all the details that you would usually miss when you’re not at home: a blanket for the sofa, eggs in the fridge and coffee for the pot, a radio to put on in the morning, and a stack of books, artfully placed here in the exposed roof trusses, ready to keep me company in spare moments. In fact, when it came to checking out of the apartment – after meeting some of Liverpool’s creative community and exploring its music, clubs, bars, restaurants and galleries – I imagined a dreamy relocation to this friendly city, or at the very least, coming for another holiday.
My Airbnb home-from-home was the ideal base to find out more about Liverpool’s food, music and art scene. Here’s my guide to getting the best out of a trip to this incredible city ...
- Record store Jacaranda
Hear the new sounds of the city
You can’t mention Liverpool without thinking of music – in fact, my Airbnb host Miranda is a classically trained musician too. But in exploring the city, I discovered it isn’t all about its past glories and there’s a huge, eclectic scene here for everything from African electronic to minimal techno. Just around the corner from my Airbnb home, James Zaremba and Josh Aitman started radio station Melodic Distraction after their club night and blog of the same name took off. For them, Liverpool has a small, connected music community – where techno, jazz, drum‘n’bass, house, and all the genres between are supported by the scene. “A new space in Liverpool that we’re excited about is the Reeds. It’s an old Chinese restaurant that’s been made into a space that does so many things, you can get food there, they do events in the day like yoga and live music and DJs at night. It’s really early days for them, but it’s an exciting venue,” says Aitman.
Constellations, a vast industrial venue that neighbours Melodic Distraction in the Baltic Triangle, is one of Zaremba and Aitman’s favourite places for a dance, not least for its incredible outdoor space. Others worth checking out are Meraki, 24 Kitchen Street, and Kazimier Gardens.
- In a listening booth at Jacaranda
Liverpool’s supportive environment, large student crowd and general party vibe mean nightlife has flourished here. SisBis (at the Buyers Club), a new night run by an all-female crew is unmissable, say Zaremba and Aitman. Other nights worth looking out for come from Upitup Records (a Liverpool-born electronic music label) Less Effect at Kitchen Street, ENRG at the Invisible Wind Factory and drum‘n’bass night Ghost.
There’s also a well-established jazz scene in the city. Local institutions for jazz-heads include Parr Jazz on Tuesdays at Frederiks, and Jazz Con Fusions on Sundays at a “proper pub” called the Grapes. And for those who want some musical souvenirs, try Slater Street and Bold Street’s record stores. Highlights include 3B Records, Dig Vinyl and Jacaranda – a record store and coffee shop by day, club by night, with listening booths including speakers and decks. You’re as likely to find dancehall and disco playing at these venues as the indie and 60s pop that most people associate with Liverpool.
- Rhiannon outside Mother Espresso
Eat your way around town
“Liverpool has such a broad range of foods to offer and one of the great things about the city is just how affordable it is to eat out,” says Cat Smith, one half of art, food and discussion duo Food Sketz (along with partner Alison Clare). The pair run art and food workshops in art galleries and spaces around the city, and have an eye on new places to eat. Squash is a great example. An airy cafe that doubles as a food social enterprise and community garden, it only opened in May this year, and serves homemade delicious vegan and vegetarian food (and everything is under a fiver). Closer to town, and a short walk from my Airbnb home, Clare and Smith recommend Mother Espresso. It might look minimalist, but don’t be put off – its coffee and all-day brunch menu have all the flavour (especially the French toast). Bon Bon Bakery offers Chinese treats such as egg custard tarts, spring onion rolls and char sui bao (barbecue-pork-filled buns). Head to Oktopus, for an incredible dinner menu that changes according to the seasons.
- Exploring the city on the way to Mother Espresso; dinner at Oktopus restaurant
Away from the centre, Smithdown Road is an area that Food Sketz’s Smith highlights as a must-visit destination. Little Furnace for pizza, Belzan for seasonal sharing plates, and Tiger Rock for south-east Asian street food in whopping portions, are all good places for extraordinarily affordable and delicious eats.
Liverpool is not short of good bars either. Bunch is a notable natural wine bar, while my Airbnb host Miranda recommends the Buyers Club, a bustling spot with a garden and great cocktail menu.
Away from the centre, Smithdown Road is an area that Food Sketz’s Smith highlights as a must-visit destination. Little Furnace for pizza, Belzan for seasonal sharing plates, and Tiger Rock for south-east Asian street food in whopping portions, are all good places for extraordinarily affordable and delicious eats.
Liverpool is not short of good bars either. Bunch is a notable natural wine bar, while my Airbnb host Miranda recommends the Buyers Club, a bustling spot with a garden and great cocktail menu.
Embrace Liverpool’s open creative culture
This year, Liverpool celebrates 10th anniversary of being named European Capital of Culture. As part of the festivities, Liverpool Biennial hosts another city-wide exhibition of international and home-grown artists (14 July to 28 October 2018). Previous biennials have seen rotating building facades, a web and spider canopy from Ai Wei Wei and a Yoko Ono poster takeover. This year, artists will make their mark all over the city, led by the theme “Beautiful world, where are you?”
The city is a magnet for artists, being relatively affordable, experimental and a great place to build a community. The Royal Standard – known locally as TRS, and based at the Cains Brewery Village in the Baltic Triangle – is an artist-led studio space and gallery for contemporary art. Connecting the city’s DIY culture and grassroots artists with bigger cultural organisations and platforms, TRS is the place to see something totally new. Within TRS studios, the Trophy Room is a gallery and performance space modelled on American-style wooden lodges, with exhibitions by artists from around Europe.
- Rhiannon in the Airbnb apartment
Other artists’ studios in the Baltic Triangle often open up their doors for one-off screenings, viewings and events. Two of the TRS directors, Becky Peach and Kate Hodgson, who are also artists, suggest checking out Crown Building Studios. It’s a good example of Liverpool’s open creative culture, which welcomes anyone and everyone to visit openings and preview screening events.
Larger-scale galleries still on the alternative end of the cultural spectrum include the Bluecoat, which, although much longer-established, still presents something different and challenging. Fact is a space dedicated to art and technology, where exhibitions explore our relationship with everything from phones to video games, and the in-house cinema shows experimental and arthouse films.
Look out for one-off events from Metal, an arts organisation housed at Edge Hill train station (the oldest working railway station in the world). Past projects have included an outdoor showing of Steve Reich’s three-movement piece Different Trains in collaboration with the Barbican and Boiler Room.
- Bluecoat gallery
For a perfect souvenir of Liverpool’s new creative scene, head online to buy ceramics from the Granby Workshop. Assemble, the art collective that founded the workshop, won the Turner Prize in 2015 for the Granby Four Streets regeneration project, near Sefton Park. While the small community-run space in Toxteth is not open to the public, the money raised from these gorgeous locally produced works goes directly back into the community – ideal for a conversation-starting piece to impress your friends with, and inspire future trips to this unique and spirited city.
Find your own haven in the creative quarter by searching for Airbnb homes in Liverpool
