Merseyside maritime museum

The Merseyside Maritime Museum, in Liverpool

The Merseyside Maritime Museum, at the Albert Dock, retraces the maritime history of Liverpool, a great gateway to the world, in a national museum with free entry. The Liverpool audio-guided tour stops here to evoke this museum and, with respect and gravity, the painful role of the city in the slave trade, to which a neighbouring museum, the International Slavery Museum, is entirely dedicated.

The maritime history and the memory of slavery

You have in front of you the Merseyside Maritime Museum. It is part of the national museums of Liverpool and was inaugurated in the 1980s. Its entry is free, so do not hesitate to take a tour there, even a quick one. Its collections will show you the international importance of the port of Liverpool, a true gateway to the world. You will understand there its role in the merchant navy, the emigration to America, the fate of the Titanic and the Lusitania, as well as the history of customs and borders. But it is necessary to evoke here, with respect and gravity, a dark page of the history of the city: Liverpool played a major role in the transatlantic slave trade, from which its port drew a great part of its prosperity. A neighbouring museum, the International Slavery Museum, opened at the beginning of the 2000s, is entirely devoted to this painful subject. It has the particularity of treating not only the history of slavery and its millions of victims, but also the before and the after, through the culture and the resilience of the populations of West Africa and their descendants. An essential place of memory, it invites to contemplation and reflection on one of the greatest tragedies of human history. A maritime museum and a place of memory, the Merseyside Maritime Museum is discovered with respect.

What to see

Here you discover, with respect, a free national museum retracing the maritime history of Liverpool, a gateway to the world, from the merchant navy to emigration and the Titanic; it is fitting to evoke with gravity the major role of the city in the slave trade, to which the neighbouring International Slavery Museum is entirely dedicated, a place of memory and contemplation. The Merseyside Maritime Museum is an essential museum of Liverpool. It is a stop to be discovered with respect.

Practical information

The Merseyside Maritime Museum lies at the Albert Dock, in Liverpool, reachable on foot. The entry is generally free; the International Slavery Museum, neighbouring, is visited with respect and contemplation. The hours follow those of the establishments, which vary. It is best to enquire before coming.

What role did Liverpool play in the slave trade?

Liverpool played, with gravity it must be recalled, a major role in the transatlantic slave trade, from which its port drew a great part of its prosperity; the International Slavery Museum, neighbouring the Merseyside Maritime Museum, is entirely devoted to this painful history, to its millions of victims, but also to the culture and the resilience of the peoples of West Africa, in a spirit of memory and respect.

Where is the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool?

At the Albert Dock, on the waterfront of Liverpool, in England.