Occupying a striking purpose-built building on the Mann Island site at the Pier Head, the Museum of Liverpool tells the story of the city and its people from Neolithic settlement through to the present day. Designed by architects 3XN with engineers Buro Happold and built by Galliford Try at a cost of £72 million, it opened on 19 June 2011 as the newest addition to the National Museums Liverpool group, replacing the earlier Museum of Liverpool Life.
Galleries and Themes
The museum’s 8,000 square metres of exhibition space holds more than 6,000 objects arranged across four large gallery themes: The Great Port, Global City, People’s Republic and Wondrous Place. Ground-floor displays cover Liverpool’s urban and technological evolution, including its relationship with the Industrial Revolution and the British Empire. The upper floor focuses on the city’s social history – migration, community life and the cultures that have shaped Liverpool over centuries. Additional spaces include Little Liverpool, a dedicated gallery for children under six, and History Detectives, an interactive archaeology and history resource centre. A 180-seat theatre handles community events, audio-visual performances and meetings. The City Soldiers gallery traces the history of the King’s Regiment. Flexible exhibition spaces rotate regularly, allowing National Museums Liverpool to display a wider portion of its wider holdings over time.
Notable Objects and Events
Among the more unusual arrivals was steam locomotive Lion – famous as the star of the film The Titfield Thunderbolt – which was transported by road from Manchester in February 2007 while the building was still under construction, and eventually installed in the museum. Exhibition collections draw on costume and decorative art, entomological and botanical material, archaeological finds, oral testimonies and photographic archives. In the autumn of 2012 the museum staged the Liverpool Love exhibition, in which figures including Yoko Ono, Sir Peter Blake and Noel Fielding paid tribute to the city. On a rather different scale, from 10 to 12 December 2021 the museum hosted the G7 summit of foreign ministers.