If there’s one thing an old docklands city can always be relied
upon to have, it’s a plethora of old warehouses ripe for
reinvention. Liverpool delivers. Its industrial quarter, “The
Baltic” – named for the Scandi seamen who once frequented its
streets – has been transformed into clubs, bars, cultural spaces
and co-working hubs. Escape L1’s commercial hype by strolling out
towards “The Triangle”. Grab a coffee from Ethiopian-inspired
Coffee & Fandisha, then take a spin around the streets to spot
larger-than-life street murals from local legend Paul Curtis (who runs his own walking tours).
For lunch, pick up souvlaki fries and dirty burgers from the
food-stall offering at the Baltic
Market. Come evening, it’s all to play for: you’ll find club
nights, food festivals and art installations under one, vast roof
at Camp and Furnace, and some of the city’s top music nights at the
now-legendary live-music venue and club 24 Kitchen Street. Our advice? Visit at the beginning
of June, when the area’s multi-venue music festival, the Baltic
Weekender, explodes onto the industrial streets.

We wouldn’t blame you for forgetting you’re exploring a city
when strolling the mansion-lined streets encircling south
Liverpool’s Sefton Park. The city’s green lung – or, more
appropriately, kidney, given its shape – was a Victorian endeavour,
its grottos, fairy pools and elegant Palm House still
adding a certain 19th-century formality to these 95 hectares. Start
a morning exploring the grass-fringed pathways, then head west in
search of the old stone gateposts that mark the start of Lark Lane.
A bustling street with a village-like atmosphere, it’s home to
coffee shops, neighbourhood restaurants and one of the city’s best
vintage warehouses, a 185sq m furnishing emporium called GASP. Stop
by Press
Bros for coffee if you’re visiting in the morning, try a
breakfast of turkish eggs at Minna, and grab pizza and craft beer at Love
& Rockets for lunch. Don’t miss Keith’s, a no-nonsense wine bar loved by locals and
with a raucous atmosphere to prove it.

Harbouring a reputation as the city’s student locale has – in
the past – left Smithdown Road off the visitor’s map. In the last
decade, though, this ancient road (there’s been a street here since
as far back as 1086) has been on the make, with the city’s
55,000-strong student population fostering something of a grass
roots renaissance of independent bookshops, cafés, bars and
restaurants in the terrace house-packed neighbourhood. You’ll need
a good afternoon to explore. Start with a stout at one of the
city’s oldest Irish pubs, Kelly’s Dispensary, which, after a recent makeover, is
looking as good inside as its iconic exterior, then fuel up with a
lunchtime burrito at casual Mexican restaurant Evil
Eye. Ready to roll? Take a 20-minute stroll towards Allerton to
find the famous Penny Lane, before doubling back for a walk around
Greenbank Park. Come evening, we’re heading to Belzan, an
acclaimed restaurant that’s had national critics hopping off the 86
bus outside “The Asda” (the definite article is a scouse thing) for
a taste of its small, seasonal plates and craft cocktails. End the
day at The Handyman, a brewery and bar housed behind
the colourfully preserved exterior of a former tool shop.

It’s a little known fact that Liverpool has more Georgian
architecture than the city of Bath, but if you stretch your legs
with a stroll between the northwestern city’s two cathedrals, the
city centre’s most elegant edge rapidly reveals itself. Between
finely dressed townhouses and leafy garden squares, you’ll find
old-school pubs (like Peter Kavanagh’s), boutique hotels such as
Hope
Street, and even an art deco-era concert hall. Drop by 92 Degrees for a
morning coffee with sleep-deprived PhD students, sip an apéritif
outside Papillon and scoff ragu and arancini under
hanging house plants at Buyers Club. Then, take your seat at the
Everyman & Playhouse, the city’s leading theatre,
for some evening entertainment.

A little out of town, on Liverpool’s still-industrial edges, and
30 minutes’ walk from the Three Graces-graced waterfront, extensive
development (so bold in design that it lost the city a Unesco World
Heritage site designation) is reinventing the remains of the city’s
docklands. A new Everton stadium and substantial high-rise building
are on the horizon in this northern Liverpool neighbourhood, but
winds of change skimming off the Mersey were first felt right back
in 2014 around here, when a transformed warehouse opened as the
Titanic Hotel – and went on to become one of
the city’s leading stays. Located in the striking skeleton of
Stanley Dock, this boutique spa hotel has an abundance of space:
all 153 bedrooms are opulently vast (the smallest having a 56sq m
footprint), and there’s a dramatically lit wellness centre
sequestered into the red-brick arches of the building’s basement.
Elsewhere in the area, you’ll find the Invisible
Wind Factory, an ever-inventive arts and music venue, the
city’s psychedelically lit Rollerdrome
and the casual Ten Streets Social restaurant.