Liverpool Museum World thingy (World Museum Liverpool)

Member Name: hillcrestsan

Product:	World Museum Liverpool
Date:	07/03/08 (106 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free and vaguely interesting

Disadvantages: Only vaguely interesting

Liverpool Museum has gone through a bit of a recent renaissance. It was an integral part of my youth, like the occasional trip on the ferry across the Mersey. Something slightly grotty but 'Liverpoolish' about it. I could include graffiti and head-butting in the same sentence but Liverpudlians start moaning and going on about its lack of accuracy on the grounds that there were once about 5 kids who didn't graffiti and headbutt.

To be fair, Liverpools changed a lot in the last 30 years but can't quite shake of its grimy port image. The Liverpool museum and the adjacent art gallery, along with St Georges Hall across the gardens were the few buildings in Liverpool that the Luftwaffe and development conspired to miss and were an oasis of architectural splendour in the midst of 60's grot.

They still shine out in the centre of Liverpool and a lot of work has been done recently to make the inside of the museum as impressive as the outside. Part of this has been to rename it World Museum Liverpool, as if rearranging the words and inserting 'World' adds to its reinvention. Can't fool me that easily, but the effort was there.

What's there?
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Inside the Museum now boasts a new lobby with slate floors and a dangling pterodactyl or some such fossil. Glass walls and see-through lifts give it a modern and airy feel and the effort has been worth it. It rivals bigger cousins in capitals around the world. Nearly.

You see, there isn't much there really. That's its problem. To emphasis it, I can summarise in a couple of lines

Space and Time on the top floor - mostly clocks, a rocket and CD-ROM based info screens. Oh and the planetarium - more in a mo.

Dinosaurs and the animal world - 2 skeletons (casts) and many stone relics. Loads of stuffed animals. For hilarity, see the stuffed lion about to pounce on a stuffed zebra in its life size display. On the day I went there was a cheesy quaver by the lions foot.

Ancient world including some good mummies amidst some dull roman statues with either dangly bits or fig leaf. Some Saxon jewellery and greek vases for highlights.

Bug World below had good, and genuinely good insect displays and models. Very interactive. Dozens of trays of every imaginable bug which you can pull out and explore - the 4 year old loved it. Across the way there were loads of examples of animal and mineral skeletons and shells and God knows what else which you could explore with microscopes attached to video cameras. Actually, the Jac (above mentioned 4 yr old) was mostly interested in looking at the minute scratch on his hand magnified 100 times and wouldn't stop going on about his impending death.

Aquarium. When will they realise that we couldn't give a toss about the rock pools of Anglesey. Aquariums are about sharks - not bleedin' starfish in murky water with a rusty can for the 'authentic' look. Ok, there were the obligatory 'Nemo' and 'Dory' tanks as well.

Facilities
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There is a good shop on the ground floor which caters for kids and adults. Usual stuff - 'Gemstones', dino models, papyrus pictures and World Museum pencil sharpeners. For a good price though I thought - not extortionate.

There are cafes on the ground and top floors, again not to badly priced - adult meals for a fiver and kids lunchboxes at £1.99. Coffee a quid (ish). I can cope with that.

Toilets are everywhere. Well not everywhere, or visitors would be saying 'Oh God not another bog exhibit' and its reputation would plummet.

Disabled visitors are also well catered for in terms of ramps and lifts.

Car parking is available outside the Museum but limited in number, but the train station (Lime Street) is very handy and just across the Gardens behind St Georges hall.

Cost
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Bugger all. Zip. Nada. Free. Entertains the kids for nothing. We all like a bit of that.


Worth it?
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Yep. It's free. It's a bit boring but not dreadful. We got an hour and a half out of it at the weekend for little outlay. The café's nice and so are the staff so give it a go and I don't think you'll be hugely disappointed.

All other info can be found on the rather good website at http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/

Thanks for reading. May also be on Ciao

Summary: Worth a punt for a cheap couple of hours