You’d expect Liverpool to be home to a first rate maritime museum – and you’d be right. Befitting the city’s mercantile history, the Merseyside Maritime Museum focuses on the Merchant Navy, and on the world’s great cruise liners: part of the reason Birkenhead’s excellent Warship collection was turned down by this Albert Dock museum (but a curious decision, nonetheless).
The Maritime features a rare surviving model of the Titanic, a fascinating audio-visual historical tour of the city and its waterfront, and regular, fascinating exhibitions, ranging from Shackleton’s Antarctic adventures to a history of drug smuggling. Excellent shop and restaurant.
The Maritime Museum’s displays take in Liverpool’s history as a port of global significance and the ramifications of the city’s mercantile past, the Battle of the Atlantic, a gallery of maritime art and models and displays on the Liverpool-built Titanic, Lusitania and Empress.
The range of the exhibits and the sheer size of the museum means that an entire afternoon can be spent browsing the many, varied displays. As if they weren’t enough there’s a permanent exhibition in the basement comprising an interactive customs and excise exhibit.
Free, restaurant (Maritime Dining Rooms, 4th floor), cafe (ground floor), shop, disabled access, dockside picnic area.
Merseyside Maritime Museum
Albert Dock,Liverpool,
L3 4AQ
