There has been a museum in Liverpool since 1853. Then it was just two rooms in a building on Duke Street in the city centre, shared with a public library. Then it was known as the Derby Museum, named after the main donor, the 13th Earl of Derby (resident of the nearby Knowsley Hall), whose bequeathed natural history collection (donated in a will) formed the collection.
The New Central Technical Schools and Museums Extension Buildings. [larger image]
Inevitably the museum was very popular. The public was waking up to the benefits of education and foreign travel, and there soon came a point when the building was too small to accommodate the crowds - 150,000 visitors in the first seven months. Liverpool Town Council needed to find larger, permanent space and was pleased when William Brown (1784-1864), a wealthy Liverpool merchant, banker and politician, offered to provide the land and finance to create a purpose-built museum, close to St George’s Hall. The design of this new building, on what would be called William Brown Street, would reflect that of the hall across the road – fashionably neo-classical.
Both the building and the collections grew with the turn of the century, with the botanical and zoological collections in particular expanding. The outbreak of the Second World War inevitably affected the museum, with many of the rarest and most valuable objects being moved away from the city centre for safety. This proved a wise precaution as the museum was hit by an incendiary (fire) bomb during the May Blitz of 1941. Fire raged through the building, leaving just a burnt out shell. It was 15 years before even part of the museum could be reopened.
The Natural History gallery in the Upper Horseshoe gallery following the bombing. [larger image]
The damage suffered by the Egyptian gallery during the May Blitz of 1941
The years since the war have seen the collections continue to grow and so our building had to grow as well. The expansion work, which doubled the amount of display space and created a beautiful new atrium, has been a resounding success. Since the museum's reopening in April 2005, visitors have been fascinated by beautiful galleries and the latest interactive and technological facilities which have really brought our collections to life for a whole new generation.
This new museum needed a new name, and because our collections come from across the globe the name 'World Museum Liverpool' seemed appropriate.
