Popular Arts Venues in Liverpool
Free galleries, grand theatres, loud Baltic warehouses.
Liverpool's arts scene runs along three lines: the free national galleries on William Brown Street, the producing theatres and concert halls around Hope Street, and the warehouse music venues of the Ropewalks, Baltic Triangle and Ten Streets. The waterfront adds galleries at Mann Island and arena-scale shows at Kings Dock.
Where the scene clusters
Hope Street carries the Georgian Quarter's theatres and concert halls, walkable end to end between the two cathedrals. William Brown Street is the civic row of free galleries and museums, straight across from Lime Street. South and east of both, the Ropewalks and the Baltic Triangle take the late bills.
What costs nothing
More than visitors expect. The civic art galleries, the waterfront photography and digital art spaces and the university museum all open without a ticket. Tate Liverpool is showing at Mann Island while its Royal Albert Dock building is rebuilt.
When the season peaks
September to spring is the busy stretch, when the orchestral seasons, touring musicals and theatre programmes all restart. Summer moves outdoors, to the bombed church shell, the dock yards and the park glasshouse.
Popular Arts Venues in Liverpool
Arts Club Liverpool
Music venue
Academy Music Group venue in the Ropewalks with multiple rooms (Theatre, Loft, Loft 2) for touring bands and club nights.
90 Seel Street, Liverpool, L1 4BH
Camp and Furnace
Warehouse events and music venue
Baltic Triangle warehouse venue used for gigs, food halls, markets and large private events.
67 Greenland Street, Liverpool, L1 0BY
District
Independent music venue
Baltic Triangle grassroots venue for touring alternative bands and club nights. Address not re-confirmed on the official site in this session.
61 Jordan Street, Liverpool, L1 0BW
Epstein Theatre
Mid-scale receiving theatre
Grade II listed, about 388 seats. Closed June 2023 after council funding ended and reopened in 2025 under new operators, with a gala on 19 September 2025.
Hanover House, 85 Hanover Street, Liverpool, L1 3DZ
Eventim Olympia
Mid-size music venue
Grade II listed former circus and variety theatre near the city centre, capacity in the region of 1,900 for standing shows. Address not re-confirmed on the official site in this session.
West Derby Road, Liverpool, L6 3AF
FACT Liverpool
Independent cinema and media arts centre
Foundation for Art and Creative Technology: free galleries for digital and moving-image art plus a Picturehouse cinema in the Ropewalks.
88 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ
Invisible Wind Factory
Independent music and performance venue
Warehouse venue in the Ten Streets district run by the Kazimier collective; large-scale gigs, club nights and spectacle theatre.
3 Regent Road, Liverpool, L3 7DS
Liverpool Empire Theatre
Large receiving theatre
Largest two-tier auditorium in the UK, about 2,348 seats; run by ATG and the main touring house for West End musicals.
Lime Street, Liverpool, L1 1JE
Liverpool Everyman
Producing theatre
Rebuilt building won the 2014 RIBA Stirling Prize; home of new writing and the Everyman company.
5-11 Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BH
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA)
Performing arts school with public venues
Founded by Paul McCartney in the former Liverpool Institute for Boys; public performances in its own theatre and studio spaces.
Mount Street, Liverpool, L1 9HF
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Concert hall
Grade II* listed 1939 Herbert Rowse building, capacity about 1,700; home of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BP
Liverpool Playhouse
Producing theatre
Grade II* listed, roughly 677 seats over three levels; run jointly with the Everyman as Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse.
Williamson Square, Liverpool, L1 1EL
M&S Bank Arena Liverpool
Indoor arena
Waterfront arena with capacity around 11,000; part of the campus formerly branded ACC Liverpool, now Liverpool Experience Campus.
Monarchs Quay, Kings Dock, Liverpool, L3 4FP
Music Room at Liverpool Philharmonic
Small concert venue
Intimate second space inside the Philharmonic Hall building used for jazz, folk, chamber and spoken word.
Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BP
Open Eye Gallery
Photography gallery
Free-entry photography gallery on the waterfront, one of the UK's longest-running dedicated photography spaces.
19 Mann Island, Liverpool Waterfront, Liverpool, L3 1BP
Royal Court Theatre
Producing theatre
Art Deco house seating about 1,186 across stalls (cabaret tables), circle and balcony; known for Scouse comedy and locally written plays. Postcode not re-confirmed on the official site in this session.
1 Roe Street, Liverpool, L1 1HL
Shakespeare North Playhouse
Producing theatre (Liverpool City Region)
Opened 2022 with a timber-framed Jacobean-style cockpit theatre. In Prescot, Knowsley, not the City of Liverpool, but within the Liverpool City Region.
Templeton Grove, Prescot, Knowsley, L34 3AB
St Luke's Church (the Bombed Out Church)
Outdoor arts and events venue
WWII-bombed shell kept as a memorial and now used for outdoor cinema, gigs, markets and art installations. Postcode not confirmed from an official source in this session.
Leece Street, Liverpool, L1 2TR
Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
Modern art gallery (temporary home)
The Royal Albert Dock building closed in 2023 for a roughly £30m transformation and is now expected to reopen in 2027; Tate Liverpool has operated from RIBA North at Mann Island since October 2023.
Mann Island, Liverpool Waterfront, Liverpool, L3 1BP
The Bluecoat
Arts centre
Grade I listed early Georgian building, the UK's oldest surviving arts centre building; free galleries plus live art, music and literature.
School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX
The Cavern Club
Historic music venue
The Beatles played 292 times at the original club between 1961 and 1963; rebuilt on part of the original footprint using salvaged bricks and reopened in 1991, now staging around 40 bands a week.
10 Mathew Street, Liverpool, L2 6RE
The Tung Auditorium
Concert hall
University of Liverpool concert hall opened 2022, around 400 seats, in the Knowledge Quarter.
Yoko Ono Lennon Centre, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L7 3NY
Unity Theatre
Studio theatre
Converted 1850s synagogue with two studio performance spaces; focus on new and independent work.
1 Hope Place, Liverpool, L1 9BG
Victoria Gallery & Museum
University gallery and museum
Free entry; housed in Alfred Waterhouse's red-brick Victoria Building, the original "redbrick" university building.
Ashton Street, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3DR
Walker Art Gallery
Free art gallery
Free entry; major holdings of European painting from the 13th century onward including Rembrandt, Turner, Rubens and Pre-Raphaelite works.
William Brown Street, Liverpool, L3 8EL
Liverpool, asked.
Which arts venues in Liverpool are free to enter?
The Walker Art Gallery on William Brown Street, the Bluecoat on School Lane, Open Eye Gallery at Mann Island and the Victoria Gallery & Museum at the university all charge nothing for entry. FACT in the Ropewalks shows its digital art galleries free, with tickets only for the cinema.
Where do I find live music in Liverpool beyond the Beatles trail?
The Ropewalks and the Baltic Triangle carry most of the grassroots bills, at venues such as Arts Club, District and Camp and Furnace. Further north, Invisible Wind Factory in Ten Streets runs warehouse-scale gigs. For seated shows, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and Eventim Olympia sit either side of the centre.
How do people promote a show in Liverpool?
Audiences here still find shows in print. Organisers place listings in the what's on guides handed out around the city, leave leaflets in venue foyers at the Playhouse, the Everyman and the Philharmonic, and put posters up near the theatre districts. Social and listings sites do the rest closer to the date.