Arts & Culture

It’s impossible to turn a corner in RopeWalks without encountering a major part of Liverpool’s cultural heritage. At the top of Bold Street, St Luke’s Church, known locally as the ‘Bombed Out Church’, is much more than a building wrecked in The Blitz – it’s a unique venue for music, exhibitions and special lunch events held in its eerie open air atrium. 

Behind Bold Street, the impressive façade of FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) stands in stark modern contrast to RopeWalks’ cobbled streets.  The new media arts centre and independent cinema was Liverpool’s first purpose-built arts venue for 40 years, hosting cutting edge new media exhibitions and showing both blockbuster and independent art-house films.

Housed in one of Liverpool’s most historic and beautiful buildings, the Bluecoat offers yet more art on show.  With its café and restaurant, beautiful gardens and quaint craft shops, the Bluecoat is perfect for a relaxing day of art and refreshments.

There’s a hub of creative businesses that reside in the RopeWalks area.  The Vanilla Factory and Tea Factory are old tea warehouses that have been developed and are now home to cutting edge design agencies, architects and local film production company River Media.

The famous recording studios on Parr Street provide the soundtrack to the RopeWalks district, where acts like Coldplay, The Spice Girls, Take That, Elbow, Pulp, Diana Ross and local heroes Echo and the Bunnymen have recorded.

Heading down toward Wolstenhome Square beside the colourful sculpture ‘Penelope’ commissioned for the Liverpool Biennial Festival of Contemporary Art, there’s the elusive Kazimier club; a mysterious underworld where those in the know can dress up in costumes of another time, and immerse themselves in a carnival of music, art and performance.  Just across the road, Wolstenholme Creative Space provides a hub for artists with studio spaces, exhibitions and events including film screenings and DIY music nights.

Wolstenhome Square also plays host to one of the seminal clubs in the UK dance music scene, Cream. While its Liverpool-based nights are few and far between now, its heir apparent, Chibuku Shake Shake, is just a few hundred yards up the road and is now regarded as one of the best clubnights in the country.

There’s culture on every corner in RopeWalks and you’ll be sure to find something to suit you.