Popular Attractions in Liverpool
Free museums, Beatles history, a working waterfront
Liverpool's attractions cluster in three places: the Pier Head and Royal Albert Dock waterfront, William Brown Street in the St George's Quarter, and the Beatles sites scattered from Mathew Street out to Woolton. Most of the big museums charge nothing. Football tours and the two cathedrals fill the rest of a weekend.
Where it all clusters
The waterfront carries the most in the shortest walk, from the Three Graces at Pier Head round to the Royal Albert Dock. Ten minutes inland, William Brown Street lines up the World Museum, the Walker and Central Library in a single terrace. The Beatles trail is the outlier, spread from Mathew Street to Woolton.
What costs nothing
More than most cities. The national museums are free, as are the Bluecoat, Open Eye Gallery and the Victoria Gallery & Museum. Central Library, including the Picton Reading Room and the rooftop terrace, is open to anyone who walks in.
Check before you travel
The Merseyside Maritime Museum and the International Slavery Museum are both closed for redevelopment, with reopening reported for 2028. Tate Liverpool's Royal Albert Dock building is shut until 2027, and the gallery is showing at RIBA North on Mann Island in the meantime.
Popular Attractions in Liverpool
Aintree Racecourse
Racecourse
Home of the Grand National, run each April; also used as a large-scale event and concert site.
Ormskirk Road, Aintree, Liverpool, L9 5AS
Anfield Stadium and the LFC Story
Football stadium tour and museum
Liverpool FC's stadium; tours and the LFC Story museum run seven days a week on non-matchdays, taking in the dressing room, tunnel and pitchside.
Anfield Road, Anfield, Liverpool, L4 0TH
British Music Experience
Music museum
National museum of British popular music inside the Cunard Building, one of the waterfront Three Graces; open daily. Postcode not confirmed from an official source in this session.
Cunard Building, Pier Head, Liverpool, L3 1DS
Croxteth Hall and Country Park
Historic house and country park
Former Molyneux family seat with a walled kitchen garden, farm and around 500 acres of country park. Postcode not confirmed from an official source in this session.
Muirhead Avenue East, Liverpool, L12 0HB
Goodison Park
Football stadium
Everton's home from 1892 until 2025; retained and used from the 2025-26 season by Everton Women. Postcode not confirmed from an official source in this session.
Goodison Road, Walton, Liverpool, L4 4EL
International Slavery Museum
Free museum (temporarily closed)
TEMPORARILY CLOSED alongside the Maritime Museum for redevelopment that will take in the Dr Martin Luther King Jr building; reopening reported for 2028. Postcode not re-confirmed in this session.
Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool, L3 4AQ
Knowsley Safari
Safari park (Liverpool City Region)
Drive-through safari with a five-mile route, foot safari and sea lion shows. In Knowsley rather than the City of Liverpool.
Prescot, Knowsley, L34 4AN
Liverpool Cathedral
Cathedral
Giles Gilbert Scott's Anglican cathedral, the largest cathedral in Britain; tower experience gives panoramic views over the city and the Mersey.
St James' Mount, Liverpool, L1 7AZ
Liverpool Central Library
Free library and heritage building
Free entry; the restored Picton Reading Room and Hornby Library plus a rooftop terrace, reopened after redevelopment in 2013.
William Brown Street, Liverpool, L3 8EW
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
Cathedral
Frederick Gibberd's 1967 circular Roman Catholic cathedral, known locally as Paddy's Wigwam, with a Lutyens crypt beneath it.
Cathedral House, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5TQ
Mersey Ferries (Pier Head Terminal)
River cruise and ferry attraction
River Explorer cruises and commuter crossings between Pier Head and the Wirral terminals at Seacombe (CH44 6QY) and Woodside (CH41 6DU).
Georges Parade, Pier Head, Liverpool, L3 1DP
Merseyside Maritime Museum
Free museum (temporarily closed)
TEMPORARILY CLOSED. Shut at the start of 2025 for the Waterfront Transformation redevelopment, with reopening reported for 2028. Postcode not re-confirmed on the official site in this session.
Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool, L3 4AQ
Museum of Liverpool
Free museum
Free entry; the world's first national museum devoted to the history of a regional city and one of the most visited museums in England outside London.
Pier Head, Mann Island, Liverpool, L3 1DG
Royal Albert Dock Liverpool
Heritage dock complex
Grade I listed 1846 dock complex, the largest single collection of Grade I listed buildings in the UK; home to Tate Liverpool's permanent building, the Beatles Story and the Maritime and Slavery museums. Postcode not confirmed from an official source in this session.
Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool, L3 4AF
Sefton Park Palm House
Victorian glasshouse and events venue
Grade II* listed octagonal 1896 glasshouse in Sefton Park; free to enter on open days and hired for weddings, gigs and markets.
Sefton Park, Liverpool, L17 1AP
Speke Hall
National Trust Tudor manor house
Timber-framed Tudor manor with Victorian interiors, gardens and woodland, close to Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
The Walk, Speke, Liverpool, L24 1XD
St George's Hall
Grade I listed civic building
Neoclassical hall opposite Lime Street combining concert hall and assize courts in one building; Great Hall, Concert Room, Minton tiled floor and heritage centre.
St George's Place, Liverpool, L1 1JJ
Strawberry Field
Visitor attraction and gardens
Salvation Army site behind the John Lennon song; interactive exhibition, gardens, the Imagine Piano, café and shop, with free access to café and shop.
Beaconsfield Road, Liverpool, L25 6EJ
Sudley House
Free historic house and gallery
Free entry; a Victorian merchant's house in south Liverpool that still holds its original owner's art collection in situ.
Mossley Hill Road, Liverpool, L18 8BX
The Beatles Story
Paid visitor attraction
Immersive walk-through museum with recreations of Hamburg, the Cavern and Abbey Road, plus a Discovery Zone for children; open daily with last entry in the late afternoon.
Britannia Vaults, Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool, L3 4AD
The Beatles' Childhood Homes (Mendips and 20 Forthlin Road)
National Trust historic houses
John Lennon's and Paul McCartney's boyhood homes, visitable only on the National Trust's pre-booked minibus tour. Postcode not confirmed from an official source in this session.
Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue, Liverpool, L25 7SA
Western Approaches HQ
WWII bunker museum
Underground command centre for the Battle of the Atlantic; the Operations Room is preserved as it was left in August 1945.
1-3 Rumford Street, Exchange Flags, Liverpool, L2 8SZ
Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre
Underground heritage attraction
Guided tours of the 19th-century tunnel network dug under Edge Hill by Joseph Williamson. A separate section is opened by the Friends of Williamson's Tunnels on Mason Street.
The Old Stable Yard, Smithdown Lane, Liverpool, L7 3EE
World Museum
Free museum
Free entry; Egyptian mummies, natural history, a planetarium and an aquarium, in the St George's Quarter.
William Brown Street, Liverpool, L3 8EN
Liverpool, asked.
Which Liverpool museums and galleries are free to enter?
Most of the big ones. The Museum of Liverpool, World Museum, Walker Art Gallery and Sudley House all charge nothing, as do the Bluecoat, Open Eye Gallery and the Victoria Gallery & Museum. Liverpool Central Library is free too, the Picton Reading Room included.
Can you see the main Beatles sites in one day?
Yes, with planning. The Beatles Story at the Royal Albert Dock and the Cavern Club on Mathew Street sit close together in the centre. Strawberry Field is out in Woolton, and the childhood homes at Mendips and Forthlin Road are only visitable on the National Trust minibus tour, booked ahead.
How do people promote a show in Liverpool?
Word of mouth and listings, mostly. Printed what's on guides still do a lot of work here, picked up in venue foyers, hotels and visitor points around the waterfront and Hope Street. Leaflet racks and posters reach people who are already out and deciding.