Liverpool itinerary for first-timers

Most visitors arrive at Lime Street Station, and the first thing they see is St George's Hall, a vast neoclassical hall of columns facing the station across a wide plateau. From here, Church Street, the main shopping street, leads down past the Bluecoat, an early 18th-century building that is now an arts centre, towards the river.

• Lime Street Station
• St George's Hall
• Church Street
• The Bluecoat

The narrow street where the Beatles played hundreds of early shows at the Cavern Club in the early 1960s. The club was rebuilt close to the original site and still has live music every day, and a statue of John Lennon leans against the wall outside. Nearby, the grand Town Hall stands at the top of Castle Street.

• Liverpool Town Hall
• Mathew Street
• John Lennon statue
• The Cavern Club

Mathew Street is quietest in the morning; it fills with music and crowds from the afternoon onwards.

Liverpool's front door on the River Mersey. The Three Graces, the Royal Liver Building with its two Liver Birds, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building, line the waterfront, and the life-size Beatles statue stands in front of them. The modern Museum of Liverpool sits at the water's edge next door.

• Royal Liver Building
• Cunard Building
• Port of Liverpool Building
• Beatles statue
• Museum of Liverpool

The Mersey Ferry leaves from Pier Head; a river cruise is the best way to see the whole waterfront skyline.

A short walk south along the river, the Royal Albert Dock is a complex of 19th-century brick and iron warehouses around calm dock basins. Once a busy working port, it is now home to museums, including the Merseyside Maritime Museum and the Beatles Story, along with shops and places to eat beside the water.

• Dock basins
• Merseyside Maritime Museum
• The Beatles Story
• River Mersey views

Bold Street climbs from the centre towards St Luke's, the church left as a roofless shell after the Blitz and now known as the bombed-out church. The street and the old warehouse lanes of Ropewalks around it are full of independent shops, international food and bars, and a few steps away the ornate Chinatown gate marks one of the oldest Chinese communities in Europe.

• Bold Street
• St Luke's bombed-out church
• Ropewalks
• Chinatown gate

South of the centre, an old district of warehouses and workshops has become Liverpool's creative quarter. Its streets are covered with large murals and graffiti, and former industrial buildings now hold studios, a street food market, music venues and small businesses.

• Street art and murals
• Converted warehouses
• Street food market

The street art changes often, so even repeat visitors find new murals.

The Anglican Liverpool Cathedral is the largest cathedral in Britain, a red sandstone giant designed by Giles Gilbert Scott that took most of the 20th century to build. Below it, the old St James Cemetery lies hidden in a former quarry, now a quiet green garden.

• Liverpool Cathedral
• Cathedral tower
• St James' Gardens

Climb the cathedral tower, reached by lift and stairs; it has one of the best views over the city and the river.

Hope Street runs between the city's two cathedrals through the Georgian Quarter, past theatres, a concert hall and handsome brick terraces. At its northern end stands the Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral, a circular modern building of the 1960s crowned by a lantern tower of coloured glass, nicknamed Paddy's Wigwam by locals.

• Hope Street
• Georgian terraces
• Metropolitan Cathedral
• Lantern tower

One of the great Victorian parks of Liverpool, with a boating lake, wooded dells and a domed glass Palm House full of tropical plants. The little Fairy Glen hides waterfalls and bridges, and on the park's edge, Lark Lane is a lively local street of bars and places to eat for the evening.

• Palm House
• Boating lake
• Fairy Glen
• Lark Lane