Victoria Gallery, Liverpool

The Victoria Gallery & Museum is housed in the Victoria Building, which stands at the top of Brownlow Hill in Liverpool’s city centre. A Gothic style building decorated with terracotta tiles and topped by a distinctive bell tower, the Victoria Building was designed by renowned Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse. Completed in 1892, it was created as a new headquarters for the fledgling University College of Liverpool, which had been established in a former asylum. The imposing, dark red exterior of the finished building is believed to have inspired the term ‘red brick’, a term given to universities founded in the 19th century which have gone on to achieve academic prestige.

Still managed by the University of Liverpool, the Victoria Art Gallery houses a collection of 6,500 works of art, spanning from the Renaissance to the present day. The collections include works by a number of well known artists, including Turner, Epstein and Lucien Freud. The neighbouring Tate Hall museum is a showcase for exhibits once housed in the university’s impressive individual museum collections, specialising in archaeology, zoology and engineering. There are a number of artefacts discovered by renowned local archaeologist John Garstang, and an unusual exhibition on the history of dentistry.

Both the Victoria Gallery and the Tate Hall museum are open from Tuesday until Saturday, from 10am to 5pm. Private and group tours may be arranged outside of usual working hours. The Victoria building which houses both attractions is fully wheelchair accessible, and admission is free.