Why does Liverpool have such an iconic status?

[TigerOnTour]

Why do people rave about Liverpool? I feel like it's seen as more 'individual' than other cities, but why is this? It shares lots of characteristics with other big cities like Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Birmingham and Bristol but they don't have the same status. Is it just the Beatles?

Ex pat scouse and I bloody love my city and don't get me started on Keith's, had my 18th in there back in the 80s!

I also think the iconic thing comes from how you picture it. If someone says Liverpool you might see the liver birds or the Mersey or the Liver building or the Albert Dock, but say Leeds (a great city) but no picture comes up in my head, same with Manchester. It's just a very photogenic place........and we have red squirrels and flipping seals, Birmingham just has a bull!

The Albert Dock redevelopment was 80'sas well - I went to the opening of The Tate on my birthday in 1988

For me Liverpool and Manchester really have their own identities, many other English cities just seem so generic. Not sure if I can put my finger on why I think that about Liverpool and Manchester, pride in their cities, architecture, thriving cultural scenes, histories, unique foods...

😂

Do you live in Liverpool? No one from Liverpool describes themselves as being "from Merseyside"! It really isn't "as bleak as fuck"!

Cos it's boss.

Lol the professional scousers have found the thread.

Not true. The recent shooting of Olivia Pratt Korbell proves this. Disgusting generalisation.

Aye. 🫡

My guess is St Helens 😂

I'm from t'other side of the Pennines so have no skin in the Manchester v Liverpool game but I also view Liverpool as the more iconic of the two, or at least the one with the most definable personality.

I've been to each city just once as an adult as I no longer live up North and I know a couple of days isn't a true insight but I felt more comfortable and safe in Liverpool than Manchester. Liverpool city centre felt friendly and familiar in the same way my Northern home city does to me, whereas Manchester felt like it had a mildly threatening edge (to be fair we witnessed 2 aggressive arguments just between the train station and our hotel, which contributed to that feeling).

@ScottishScouser That's the one that gets me..... you don't dare snitch on anyone. Also, god forbid anyone who has lost the rose tinted specs ever calling out the truth.

As @LetsPlayShadowlands has already mentioned the evidence that convicted Olivia Pratt Korbel's killer I'll mention the shooting of Rhys Jones which was brought to trial on the evidence of Boy X.

I actually came on the thread to mention Liverpool's strategic significance in the battle of the Atlantic. If you ever get the opportunity to visit Western Approaches do... it's a fascinating museum.

Yeah, I was getting proper Wool vibes! 😆

Liverpool seems to have cemented its reputation as a fun, vibrant, friendly city with Eurovision. Almost universal praise for its hosting last year, from what I’ve seen.

Three blokes sitting in the pub, a brummie, a manc and a scouser.
The conversation turns to which is England’s second city, the manc and the brummie are arguing fiercely in defence of Manchester and Birmingham.
Eventuallythe scouser can take no more. “Lads” he says, “I’m sorry. You’re both wrong. Obviously Englands second city is London”
😁

Never been to St Helens! Sorry to disappoint you but according to the local experts I am in fact a true scouser. Even though my bin is not purple.

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/scousers-plastic-scousers-woolybacks--3366630

Any geordies on here? I am curious to know if their river has the same polarising effect.

Correct 🤪

Manchester - the Dubai of the north.
Omg it really is ! My teens like to
go shopping there as it’s quite bling. Definitely got a threatening sort of undercurrent though. And I’m from near Bradford so I can tell 😂 Mind you, Bradford was also a rich city at one point with global influences.. one day it might rise again..with a bit of actual investment.

Well I'm originally from Bootle so not a wooly or from the other side. Technically not a scouser either in the same way as someone from solihull is not from Birmingham or croydon is not from London etc etc however you really couldn't tell the difference where Liverpool stops and bootle starts other than the wheelie bins not being purple!

When I said about rose tinted specs being pulled away, I meant in that once you've left you can actually see the negatives rather than just being "Liverpool is wonderful".

Most people who talk up their origina cities can normally see where there are negatives - when you get to the negatives about Liverpool they either don't exist or they are someone else's fault. A large number of those problems result from the fact that low level stuff is overlooked as there is nothing worse than being a snitch and well, its someone else's fault.

That's what they all say. 😑😂

@ScottishScouser

I left Liverpool in 1983 because there were no jobs. My family are still there. I visit a lot.
The area I grew up in has declined - a big Sainsburys destroyed a once vibrant local shopping road
I am not blind to Liverpool's problems, not that much different to many other cities.

But I am also not blind to the many great things about Liverpool.
I live in Coventry where the city was destroyed in the blitz. We have very little of the old city left. We have a magnificent cathedral, but I don't walk out of the railway station in Cov and see anything remotely like what I do when I walk out of Lime Street. It's a big vibrant city with attitude. Its home.
Why don't I move back? I've built my life in Coventry, my son is here, people who are important to me and Liverpool is close enough to visit in a day.
Also for the same reason that I wouldn't move to Newcastle, London or any other big city you could name - I just don't want to live in a large city any more.

I don't think you need to move away to see the negatives, they're there to see and/or read about. Just as they are in any city. But that doesn't make iconic cities any less iconic.

Funny that, you hate the city so much , yet you need to call yourself a scouser

Shame on you quoting Boris fucking Johnson, this city and its people are the furthest thing from self pitying

I don't think that's an unfair assessment tbh. It terms of atmosphere but whether it translates into more than that I'm not sure.

The edginess was Manchester's trendiness and attraction for square kids from the suburbs are beyond.

Overall I'd say Manchester has got darker in some ways in recent years whilst Liverpool seems to be having something of a revival at the minute. But 10 years ago I'd said differently. There were some bits in Central Liverpool I didn't like at all - just a bad atmosphere and I preferred the edginess of Manc.

The Spice Zombies around Piccadilly Gardens just a few years back were really unnerving though. It has improved and the investment around Ardwick and the Station Area has improved bits which really were not nice. Equally investment in Liverpool has made a big difference - it definitely got a massive spruce up ahead of Eurovision. I couldn't believe how nice it was! Central Manchester by contrast feels dirty and a bit run down in places which Liverpool doesn't have in the same way.

@Ted27 Im from New Brighton originally, lived in Toxteth in my 20s - left in 1996 for the same reason - have lived in the Midlands since.

3 years until my youngest is 18 and I’m planning my move back to the seaside 🏖️