The English city of Liverpool is home to some of England’s finest museums and one of them is the Walker Art Gallery. It is located on William Brown Street and was established in 1877. Today the gallery has approximately 350.000 visitors on a yearly basis which makes it one of the Liverpool’s and North England’s most visited museums. The Walker Art Gallery houses one of the largest art collections in England, outside of London and it is because of this is often referred to as the “National Gallery of the North”.
The museum is named after Sir Andrew Barclay Walker a former mayor of Liverpool and wealthy brewer. The building that houses it was designed by prominent Liverpool architects H.H. Vale and Cornelius Sherlock and opened doors as mentioned above in 1877 by Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby.
In 1893 the Liverpool Royal Institution loaned its collection to the museum for a long-terms showcasing. In 1948 the collection of William Roscoe was added to the exhibits. However people couldn’t see it right away as the gallery was closed for a reconstruction as during the events of World War II the Walker Art Gallery was taken by the Ministry of Food. Furthermore all the museum’s artefacts were dispersed for safety reasons during the war. The museum was re-opened in 1951 and it quickly regained its popularity amongst the local and foreign art enthusiasts.
In 1884 and 1933 its galleries were subjects to extension projects. Both extension projects took approximately two years to be completed. In more recent time, the museum was the subject of a large scale refurbishment project in 2002. Since 1951 the Walker Art Gallery has lost some of its most popular exhibits such as the Bust of Alexander the Great, the Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by Nicholas Hillard, the Nymph of the Fountain by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Meleager and Atalanta by Peter Paul Rubers, King Charles II by Godfrey Kneller and many more.
Despite these valuable loses, the Walker Art Gallery still displays several world famous works of art in its numerous galleries. Amongst the most noted exhibits are, the Punishment of Lust by Giovanni Segantini, A Summer Night by Albert Joseph Moore, Leonora of Mantua by Valentine Cameron Prinsep, the porcelain jug of Frederick of Prussia, the self portrait of Anton Raphael Mengs, Perseus and Andromeda by Frederic Leighton and numerous more paintings, sculptures and other works of art.
The Walker Art Gallery can easily be described as a must visit Liverpool landmark. So as soon as you move to the city via man and van services make sure that you visit this amazing museum. Know that you can easily find companies that provide man and van removals to or from the city of Liverpool, so rest calm as you will certainly be able to find the services that you seek.
However don’t visit just Walker Art Gallery because as we said above the city has numerous top notch museums that are worth a seeing.