The Museum of Liverpool (part 2 - the exhibits)

I mentioned in part 1 of my blog post on the Museum of Liverpool that the building was worth a visit just in itself, but the galleries themselves make it a double pleasure.

Welcome to the Museum of Liverpool

The majority of the galleries are open:

• Wondrous Place.
• People's Republic.
• Global City.
• Little Liverpool.
• Skylight Gallery.

With these galleries opening later in the year:

• The Great Port.
• Liverpool Overhead Railway.
• History Detectives.
• City Soldiers.

When we had a look around the galleries last Thursday (21 July) we didn't see everything, but the following photo's will give you an idea of what's there.

Part of the Liverpool Cityscape painted by Ben Johnson during 2008. It's better than a photograph. 

Quilt made by Liverpool expats in 2000.

Detail of Liverpool expats quilt (1)

Detail of Liverpool expats quilt (2)

Lutyen's model of the proposed catholic cathedral. Only the crypt was built.

Welsh community teapot.

Eddie Merxx's bike

A coal fired fryer from a Liverpool chippy. It's covered with ceramic tiles.

A Ford Anglia - these used to be made in Liverpool.

Paul McCartney's shirt with a poem by Roger McGough.

Paul McCartney's trousers with another poem by Roger McGough.

Railings from the Liverpool Sailor's Home. It opened in 1850.

These are just a tiny few of the exhibits that you can see at the Museum of Liverpool. There's enough to see to last you a dozen of visits.

TTFN
Louise

PS. There's more exhibit photos on Elsie May and Bertha's Facebook page.

The Museum of Liverpool (part 1 - the building and its surroundings)



Museum of Liverpool exterior (1)

Last Thursday night (21 July 2011), I was fortunate enough to be invited to a private view of the new Museum of Liverpool, the latest museum in the National Museums Liverpool stable.

Invitations to Museum of Liverpool private view

I'd watched the Museum being built, both from the Liverpool side and at a distance, 'over the water' from Egremont Promenade, so I was looking forward to seeing the building 'up close and personal' as it were.

The Museum of Liverpool exterior (2)

The building, in its self, is worth a visit. I think it sits perfectly with the three graces (the Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building), the canal extension and the new ferry terminal, as although the three graces are a lot older (it was the the Liver Buildings 100th birthday the same night) they've all been built from the same coloured stone. So though the Museum of Liverpool is a modern angled building on the outside (internally it's quite curvy) I think it fits in quite perfectly. After all, many people didn't like the Liver Building when it first went up a hundred years ago. So I think, in a few years, the new museum will be considered as the fourth grace.

The Museum of Liverpool on the left, with the Liver Building, Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool building on the right.

On the outside of the building, the stone has been cut to provide lots of angles and shadows to enhance the building's angular shape and to play with perspective.

Detail of Museum of Liverpool exterior.

Museum of Liverpool exterior (3)

Outside the building, there are three of the popular lambananas. These were created as part of the lambanana trail that was set up for the Capital of Culture in 2008. They were sold off at the end of 2008, but there are still a few dotted around the city.

On Thursday night, outside the building, a couple of Liver birds had popped down from the Liver Building to welcome us into the new building.

The 'Liver birds'.

The welcome to the museum.

On entering the building, with the cafe on the left and the shop on the right, you can see that the inside of the building is is curvey, with a large concrete staircase winding up out of the centre of the ground floor.

Looking into the well of the staircase.

The curving lines of the staircase, juxtaposed next to the walls, floors etc, creates lots of lovely angles.

The looking up at the skylight above the staircase.

A view of the centre of the staircase.

Museum interior.

As well as a couple of glasses of wine, and nibbles (these don't half make viewing in a museum 'civilised'!) we were welcomed by the National Museums Liverpool's chairman, Phil Redmond (of Brookside and Grange Hill fame) and their director, David Fleming.

Phil Redmond

My next post will be on some of the exhibits inside the Museum of Liverpool.

You can see more of the pictures I took of the building, and its surroundings, on the Elsie May and Bertha Facebook page.

TTFN
Louise

Our living room

I took these photos a couple of weeks ago when I was spending too much time watching the tennis at Wimbledon so spending a bit of time in our living room.

Our living room isn't really the kind of room that you'd see in the home interiors magazines, it's too eclectic (and often not very tidy!) with bits of furniture sited in places that wouldn't have been allowed if an interior designer or stylist had been involved. But you may be interested in having a peek.

The big change to the layout of the room was when we had the central heating put in last summer (we'd managed 20 years without it, but the opportunity we were given to have it installed was too good to miss). The radiator had to go on the wall between the living and front rooms (the front room radiator is on the other side of the wall) so the cabinet had to be moved. The room's a bit cramped now, but there's only the two of us and we don't mind.

Anyway, have a shufty at our living room (apologies in advance for the untidy bits!)

The aforementioned radiator. The plate above the shelf is of the folly on the top of Mow Cop in Staffordshire, a reminder of where I came from (not the folly you understand, Kidsgrove in Staffordshire). The two large pictures are of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth liners.

 

The cabinet had to be slotted between the chimney breast and the desk by the french windows. When we first had the cabinet it was in a dark oak colour, when we redecorated the room it didn't go, so we painted it with the same emulsion we'd used for the walls. The desk is the one I've had since I was little.

Our purple chimney breast. The rest of the walls are painted in a cream so I wanted to add a bit of zip. The fire is a living flame gas fire. The picture is of Plockton in Scotland.

Our lovely french windows. We had these ones put in in January 2010, the original windows were so bad we ended up having to screw the doors shut, and when it rained in a certain direction it came in. It took a while before we had the money to replace them, but it was the best money we ever spent. There's so much more light coming into the room (we're on the dark side of our pair of semis) and the glass goes right down to the floor now, so we have a better view of this bit of the garden.

These plates are another part of my heritage. They're all pictures of various types of canal boats. My family on my Dad's side were narrow boat people.

Book cases. These hold a small section of our (well mine really) book collection. I've also managed to migrate a bit of my fabric, lace, buttons etc etc from the Elsie May and Bertha workroom (see the shelves in the corner). The amount that's on here fluctuates, depending whether I had to tidy up or not!!

I hope you've enjoyed this little tour around our living room.

TTFN

Louise 

Laundry bags

As well as taking my lingerie bags on holiday, we also always take a laundry bag, or as it's know in our household, a 'dirty knicker bag!'

They are great to use on holiday for putting your dirty smalls in, plus all of your washing is in one place when you get home.

They're also useful in the home as well. Hang one in each bedroom and ask the occupants to place their dirty laundry inside them. Then whoever does the washing (in our house this is not me, I don't know how the washing machine works and I do realise how lucky I am not to have to learn to) just has to collect the bags.

I keep a lavender sachet in my laundry bags so that they keep smelling fresh, plus they're easy to wash.



If you'd like one of the laundry bags pictured in this post, visit the lingerie sachet and laundry bag section of the Elsie May and Bertha site.

TTFN
Louise