How tall is a Liver Bird?

Well, I suspect that is a question you weren’t expecting, and I’m not sure it was the first thing on my mind when we visited the Royal Liver Bird 360 attraction on our visit to Liverpool a few years back. But it is a really good question, and one that crosses your mind the closer you get to them. And if you’re curious, it’s 18 foot - with a wingspan of 24 foot. To put that into perspective a double decker bus is 14 ft 4” - so quite big, is a good answer.

But before we get to that, the building is pretty spectacular, and architecturally important. It’s perfectly symmetrical with entrances on all four sides, and its pioneering use of reinforced concrete earns it its place in architectural studies, but it’s also pretty special to look at. It cost £621,000 to build which is estimated to be the equivalent of around 58 million today.

And know you know how tall a Liver Bird is, do you know their names?

These questions, all perfectly reasonable when you stop and think, are coming thick and fast now aren’t they? I suspect more of you might know the answer to this one, but they’re called Bella and Bertie. The legend is that they face away from each other as if they were to ever to mate and fly away the city would cease to exist. There’s another story though, and that’s that Bella looks out to sea watching for returning seamen, while Bertie looks inward into the city making sure the pubs are open.

We started in the basement, and up we went. Firstly by a lift, then some stairs - stopping part way up to take in the views and see where we were heading next, and walking through an industrial part of the building which had a ship-like feel - not altogether surprising for a port city.

We were taken outside for a look at how far we’d got, and to look at the clocks. There’s four on the towers, pointing in the four cardinal directions. The clocks were started on 22 June 1911 at 1.40pm - the precise time George V was crowned, and became known as the Great George Liver Clocks.

Each of the clock faces are all 25ft in diameter, which is larger than that of Big Ben so they’re also the largest electronically driven clocks in the UK.

Back inside, there was time for some arty-farty shots - but it also shows how the building decor changed now that we’re in more public areas.

And still we went up, and boy was it worth it.

The views - all round - are amazing, and when you reach the top you realise why this is named the 360 experience, it really is. And despite the glorious weather for our visit on a sunny July day - it’s a windy experience too, but totally worth it.

Mowgli, Indian street food in Liverpool

We had some great food in Liverpool and discovered some great restaurants. After a Moroccan feast for lunch, sumptuous steak Saturday night, on the Sunday were were up for something different. After some internet searching I kept coming back to one restaurant, or actually restaurants, and that was Mowgli, which promised Indian Street Food, and didn’t disappoint, we struggled to finish everything we’d ordered - but clearly tried our best.

What I wasn’t expecting was to be so wowed by the decor. The photos are darker than I’d usually post here, and it was quite a dark and moody space, but one lit with plenty of fairy lights, which gave it an almost magical feel. The birdcage lamp shades threw shadows across the walls and ceiling, adding to the overall atmosphere.

Even on the staircase, there was ropes and more fairy lights. We started with cocktails - a Mowgli G&T for me, complete with ginger and a Smokey Cardamom Old Fashioned for him. When it comes to cocktails, we’re pretty straight forward and can often guess which one each will order. For the food there was so many options we could have chosen, and the menu definitely encourages an ‘eyes bigger than your belly’ approach if you’re not careful. We just about finished ours, though I’m not sure which of them we’d have left out.

The bar caught my eye, look at the end of it below, it’s made from stacked sleepers on their end, and is a really effective and natural looking addition. It was of course, finished off with more fairy lights. Ropes hung from the ceiling and pulled taut were used to divide spaces between tables, in open kind of booths.

And walking around the rooms, was Mowgli himself, painted onto walls, and featured on the menus. He’s walking (in a stationary way) with purpose isn’t he?

So a great space, and great food. If you’re in Liverpool, or visiting, then one of their restaurants is definitely worth a visit.

The Extra Loos Loo Series

When we arrived in Liverpool I was keen to find a loo, so keen that I was happy to contemplate a station loo. That was until I saw the queue, clearly we hadn’t timed our arrival so well. In fact I’d had a bit of a funny turn on the train, it was hot but I was struggling to cool down throughout much of the two and a bit hour journey, so I’d send MOH off to find some water.

I was putting it down to the coffee we’d had at Euston, although MOH thought it might have been some travel sickness from the Pendolino train. Whatever it was I was glad to get off and see the concourse at Lime Street. I felt so rough that while MOH went off in search of water, I moved into the window seat and despite it not having the cool air blowing onto it, I did start to improve. It really was quite odd, and either, or both of us could be right about the cause.

But anyway, back to the queue for the loo, which was out the door and onto the concourse. I thought there must be somewhere else close by and so was pleased to hear a lady tell another of the loos in the Wetherspoons just next door. Not needing to be told twice, when MOH returned we set off in search of a queue-less loo.

I wasn’t quite ready for what I was to find, but as you can see it all started out fairly normally. Classic tiles, a row of basins and ornate mirrors. There was still a small queue, or rather I was the start of the queue, but that was way better than the previous option.

And then I spotted this sign.

Heading down here.

So off I went, and found a whole other level of facilities. And a huge mirror.

So there you go, an unexpected find - but a welcome one - and the first double level loo for this series.

Who’d have thought?