Discovering Liverpool's Street Art Scene: Part 1

With the arrival of Eurovision in the UK, Liverpool is getting a lot of attention. The city is well known for its strong musical heritage. However, as we discovered last October, it also has an incredible street art scene. We spent a week in the Merseyside city and found murals everywhere.

In the first of our three-part look at Liverpool’s street art, we’ll focus on the city centre and Ropewalks. In parts two and three we’ll look at the Baltic Triangle and Knowledge Quarter.

Liverpool City Centre

Painted back in 2015, Nomad Clan’s The Tempest is one of the North’s tallest murals. It stands at over 21m tall on the back of the Tempest building in Tithebarn Street. Nomad Clan are an all-female street art duo based in Manchester. They’re no strangers to big murals, their ‘Athena Rising’ mural in Leeds is the tallest mural in Yorkshire.

We found artwork by the Liverpool-based artist Paul Curtis everywhere. This was his tribute to Ken Dodd outside the Royal Court Theatre.

This tribute to Paddy Pimblett is by London-based street artist Nathan Bowen, who’s work has also previously been found on the streets of Sheffield.

Cavern Quarter

Glasgow based artist Smug created this huge mural in the Cavern Quarter as part of ‘Very Public Art’, a celebration of outdoor, public art in Liverpool last summer. It is inspired by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung’s famous description of Liverpool’s ‘Pool of Life’. Despite its large scale, the mural can easily be missed as it is hidden away on Harrington Street.

Ropewalks

Found close to the Imperial Arch marking Liverpool’s China Town was this dragon mural. It’s on the side of the pan-Asian restaurant and bar, Chamber Thirty Six.

London based Bristolian Inkie created the colourful Liver Bird mural on Duke Street as part of 2018’s Contrast Mural Fest.

We love this colourful graffiti piece by local artist Jac in the Seel Street car park.

Artist Shawn Sharpe painted this wide mural on Duke Street to highlight mental and physical issues faced by people working in the hospitality industry. The artwork was created in 2021 at a time when people working in hospitality faced a great deal of uncertainty due to the pandemic and the resulting closures and lockdowns.

Next up

In the second part of our look at Liverpool’s street art scene we will look south of the city centre to the Baltic Triangle. It’s Liverpool’s alternative quarter home to independent businesses housed in former warehouses, with murals and graffiti art everywhere.