“The best pub in the world is just around the corner,” I was eagerly told by the receptionist when checking into my hotel.
A joke? No, he’s serious; an audacious claim indeed. But a fine first impression of Liverpool. I swiftly added drinks at the Red Lion to my plans while visiting the city gearing up to welcome this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
Ahead of this year’s Europe-wide music extravaganza, with north-west England standing in for last year’s winners Ukraine due to the invasion by Russia, I arrived – my first time here – hoping to get a sense of what this one-time second city has to offer potential visitors.
It’s not like I was the only one up from the south. While I was beginning one of many strolls along the River Mersey, King Charles III and Queen Camilla were unveiling the stage for Eurovision at the M&S Bank Arena, which is hosting the semi-finals on 9 and 11 May, as well as the grand final on 13 May.
There’s no escaping Eurovision when you’re walking around town
(Getty Images)
Alas, different itineraries meant I didn’t pass the soon-to-be crowned king tucking into schweinshaxe at a new German restaurant or hunting for knick-knacks in 69A Intandane like I did in the city’s Ropewalks area, Liverpool’s boho heart.
I began and ended my days here, staying at The Resident on Seel Street, which, like much in the district, is housed in a red-brick warehouse building dating back to the 19th century that was once used for making rope (hence the name); it’s this industry that also gives Ropewalks its distinctive layout of long, parallel streets.
Gone are the workers twisting fibres together. They’ve been replaced by gaggles of students, couples on dates, friends buying rounds. Shops are seriously outnumbered by restaurants and cafes, bars and pubs, from cocktails to craft beers, Japanese noodles to Lebanese mezze. Bold Street is the best-known thoroughfare here, leading from Liverpool Central railway station to the Church of St Luke, also known as the “bombed-out church” (it was hit during the Second World War and kept as a ruin).
Ropewalks is as pretty in the day as it is boisterous by night, especially spilling out of the Concert Square; fine for an al fresco cocktail or clubs if you’re desperate, but you’re better off at the many, many boozers nearby. There’s an…
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