Sunlight

I am visiting Liverpool this weekend, and yesterday made a trip to one of my favourite places, Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight on the Wirral. 

 

The garden village of Port Sunlight was built by William Hesketh Lever in the late 19th-early 2oth centuries to house his workers at the Lever Brothers soap factory.  It's an amazing achievement, the whole village is now a conservation area and most of the buildings are Grade 2 listed. There is a peaceful atmosphere one might not expect to find so close to the bustling city of Liverpool. Along wide tree lined roads,  the houses are built in several different styles (as several different architects were employed). I like these mock Tudor ones

 

 

The quality of life the village must have given those factory workers was unprecedented at that time; it's a marvel of early urban planning, a piece of social history, and a must-see place  in the Liverpool area.

The Lady Lever Art Gallery was dedicated by William Lever  to his late wife and houses his amazing collection of paintings, sculpture, porcelain and furniture. It's an airy and light space

 

Particularly splendid are the collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings

 

 

It's a real treat if you like this kind of painting as there are some beautiful examples, along with 18th and 19th century portraits by, amongst others, Joshua Reynolds, and landscapes by Turner and Constable. There's a very good cafe too, always a necessity after multiple picture viewing. 

 

There are sculptures dotted around the village, this was right outside the gallery;

 

Just up the road from the gallery is a very good garden centre where I bought these lovely souvenirs of my visit; they are primulas(which look like rosebuds).They'll remind me of being here, in this special place, when I look at them.