Taylor Town: A Swiftie’s guide to Liverpool

Fried chicken in a bar setting with a big emphasis on music, beer and cocktails – Liverpool independent Pattersons has hit on a winning formula here. 

Vintage and antiques shop 69A looks like it fell out of the pages of a storybook. A black cat is asleep in the window, its head resting on a pile of secondhand books. A sign on the door warns you to ‘please take care’ and says nothing about who or what of. Once inside, the narrow room stretches further and further back until you lose sight of where you came in.

The Beatles are probably Liverpool’s most famous export and it stands to reason that the city has quite a few attractions paying tribute to John, Paul, George and Ringo.

The Beatles Story is the straight-up Beatles museum where you’ll find authentic memorabilia like handwritten lyrics, outfits, instruments and Lennon’s glasses.

However, there’s more to it than that. This is the largest permanent Beatles exhibition in the world and key locations in the band’s history have been recreated.

It’s a transplant from that-there London but at least Boxpark Liverpool is full of local food names. This food hall meets events space is home to eight or so vendors including, at the time of writing, Rose Street Falafel (from the founders of Maray), Madre Burrito, Pukht and Yoki Social Table and Yumcha. There’s also Shake, Crazy Pedros, Simply Salt and Pepper and Stateside Grill. Choosing between them is not easy.  

Head to The Cunard Building, one of the Three Graces that form Liverpool’s iconic waterfront to find The British Music Experience. This museum tells the story of pop and rock music and its many offshoots from 1945 up to the present day.

Serious Beatles fans will know all about The Jacaranda. This bar and gig venue was opened by their first manager Allan Williams in 1958, and was used as a rehearsal space by the band when John Lennon was a student at the Liverpool College of Art.

Housed in a former tea room over two floors of an art deco building, LEAF’s name and USP was meant to be, and indeed over 60 varieties of loose-leaf tea are served, alongside coffee and cake, cocktails, beers and wine, and an eclectic menu running from breakfast right through.

The Municipal Hotel – MGallery is one of Liverpool’s few 5* hotels and as such, it exudes luxury in every detail.

Papillon is a quaint-looking bistro-style restaurant, complete with baby pink paintwork and pinstripe canopy to match. In fact, it looks more like something on a French postcard than somewhere you’d find in the middle of Liverpool. 

If you love thrifting, vintage clothes, handmade jewellery, secondhand vinyl, charming curios, retro homeware, old comics, and the like, you will love Red Brick Market. It’s a huge warehouse carved up into 200+ intriguing little shops, all independently owned, and selling all manner of beguiling and beautiful items. 

Soho’s is one of the original vintage clothing stores in Liverpool, and one of the biggest. With a hairdressers, a tattoo artist, and a piercing studio all stacked within the same building, it’s a bonafide emporium of alternative, retro style.

Tate Liverpool on the Royal Albert Dock is the northern outpost of the Tate galleries. With an impressive free collection alongside major exhibitions from internationally-renowned artists, it’s a must-see for any art lover visiting Liverpool.