Light Night in Liverpool. . .

Toronto has its Nuit Blanche; Liverpool has Light Night, which took place yesterday.  Many of the museums, art galleries and public buildings were open late and music, food and art events were taking place all over the city, coinciding with the launch of Look /13, an international photography festival that will be taking place over the next few weeks. It was a lot of fun going from venue to venue.  We grabbed some food in the market behind the town hall . . .

 . . . before entering the hall itself which has a spectacular dome.

There was yarn bombing outside the Bluecoat.

And lots of photography within.  I particularly liked Identity Documents by Adam Lee, who photographed people's bookshelves.

There was five minute storytelling in the Anglican Cathedral in that white bubble in the middle of the pews that that zipped closed like a tent.

 Followed by a walk through the candlelit labyrinth.

But the grande finale of the evening was the opening of the new Central Library and it is truly spectacular. Located next to the Walker Gallery, here is the outside with the new cafe and patio.

You approach the entrance along a sidewalk with book titles engraved into the pavement.

And then straight into the newest part of the library.

Over to one side is the older section and where you'll find the fiction in the renovated Picton Room where you have to go up spiral staircases to access the books.  Isn't this lovely?

There are other display rooms with some of the library's rare collections including medieval manuscripts and a copy of William Morris's Kelmscott edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.  And up on the top floor is a roof top terrace with lovely views of the city.

The library was PACKED with lots of families and kids which was lovely to see. Nevertheless, I did manage to take out three great knitting books and I'll definitely be back to explore the stacks in more detail. I can see myself spending a lot of time here. A world class city always needs an amazing central library and I feel really proud and excited for Liverpool.