Today I drove along the A56 to the Wirral for the purpose of taking a dusk photo of the Liverpool skyline.
I stopped off at Lady Lever Art Gallery, my favourite gallery in the north west. I never fail to discover something new and amazing on every visit. The most attention-grabbing this time was the pastel drawing ‘Pandora’ by Dante Gabriel Rosetti, part of a temporary exhibition of drawings.
After the gallery I explored the Tranmere / south Birkenhead area and walked through two parks – Victoria Park and Mersey Park. I’d never been to this area before. Though I know most of the Manchester area inside out, most of the Liverpool / Merseyside region is new to me. It’s great to be able explore an area and lose yourself. From the higher ground there are amazing views towards Liverpool and over the river Mersey. I can only wonder how this area was in times past – eg the 1960s – when local districts had a much stronger individual character and ‘aura’. This is the root of my appreciation of cities, and why I love to photograph them.
Birkenhead is around 38 miles west of Manchester and like my home town of Stockport, it’s in Cheshire and on the south bank of the Mersey.
Later I went to Seacombe and took the photograph but wasn’t satisfied with it, due to problems with equipment.
On the M56 on the way home I had a remarkable experience listening to Holst’s Planets Suite on Radio 3, played by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at the Proms.
Useless fact: What’s the Manchester connection with the Planets Suite? In 2000 a new movement Pluto written by Colin Matthews was performed by the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester.
Liverpool and Birkenhead, though not part of Manchester are still within easy striking distance of Manchester, and so are part of the Manchester experience. I also like to think there is a single ‘Mersey Region’ comprising both the Liverpool and Manchester and districts in between. It could be regarded as one continuous city with certain common traits.
Cick here to view my Liverpool skyline photos.
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