The Entrance

After a fantastic main weekend of Liverpool’s Heritage Open Days, we visited a long awaited, and what in my own opinion the Zenith of the weekends attractions, for this visit was to be at the ‘Athenaeum‘ .

The Athenaeum, although in existence in Liverpool from 1797, was not constructed on the site we now find it in (Church Alley), as the original site was in fact the site of a great Liverpool Church, named St. Peters, which was demolished in 1921, and from which the main shopping street of Liverpool, gets is name… that being Church Street. Although we have passed by the Athenaeum, for many years, we have never entered the doors… for this is the worlds oldest Private Members Club… It is this historical institution, which we had come today…

The largest freestanding staircase in Liverpool

After a brief welcome, from one of the members, we made our way, up a large staircase, and into the reading room of the Athenaeum, to see a large selection of Liverpool’s history, in the form of documents and exhibits… it was truly amazing to be viewing documents and maps of such historical importance…

The Reading Room

The Reading Room

After another warm welcome from the officers of the Athenaeum, we were shown around the reading room, and all questions and enquiries were answered, before moving on to another of the rooms, which I had been so wanting to see, as this room was the renowned Athenaeum Library, which has appeared in such iconic TV series, such as ‘Peaky Blinders’ and BBCs ‘A House Through Time’ in which many of the scenes showed this fantastic Library…

The Library

An explanation and tour of the Library

After marvelling at more history of Liverpool, and the paintings on offer, including past and present librarians, we made our way, back out of the library, and up another flight of stairs and into a committee room, where 2 great books were laid out upon the table… these 2 books, have been valued at over 1M pounds… The head librarian, gave us all a potted history of the books, and how they came into the property of the Institution… as well as a brief history of other books in the collection…

The Committee Room

After this we once again left the room, to walk up another flight of stairs, making our way to the dining room of the Athenaeum, where we were to have refreshments, and a chance to purchase some memorabilia of our visit, in the form of reproduction maps, books and photos…

The Staircase

The Athenaeum Dining Rooms on the top floor

This visit to one of Liverpool’s most secret places, was absolutely fantastic !!!