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Cathedral is one of Britain’s Best; Museum of Slavery

Liverpool Landscapes was a blog charting new discoveries, news and developments affecting Liverpool's historic environment. It was regularly updated between 2007 and 2016.

Liverpool Landscape has now been retired, and most of the less time-dependent articles moved to Historic Liverpool.

Continuing this series of catch-up stories, I thought I’d mention the recent UKTV History channel’s competition to find Britain’s favourite historic site. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Briton’s were most proud of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. In second place, however, was HMS Victory, which I think surprised a lot of people. In third place, however, was our very own Anglican Cathedral! A triumph of the 22 year old Giles Gilbert Scott, it took from 1902 until 1978 for the Cathedral to go from inception to completion. The architect is buried under the bell tower.

The August edition of the Museums Journal contains an interview with Richard Benjamin, the head of the recently opened International Slavery Museum. Although having no curatorial experience when he took on the role, Benjamin
has a bachelor’s degree in urban policy, community and race relations, and studied for a PhD on the archaeology of the African diaspora. Having spent his entire career giving access to education to ‘non-traditional’ groups, he is well qualified to “challenge the bigots, and to give people of African descent a sense of empowerment, by giving them information on African achievement and historical knowledge.”