Liverpool's Transformative Year of Culture

Critic Edwin Heathcote calls it "an extravagant finale for a year that has seen a vast range of events – some more compelling than others."

"Liverpool has much in common with Glasgow, the last UK city to be designated a Capital of Culture: its post-industrial decline, its mix of creative, bourgeois and proletarian culture, its history of radicalism and capitalism, and its harsh chippiness. But it is also, like Glasgow, a city of wonderful architecture, long neglected, often isolated and under-appreciated. The architecture of commerce, the docks, the warehouses, the offices and chambers, taken with the city's unique pair of cathedrals, the delicacy and harmony of the Georgian terraces and the brash confidence of postwar planning, make it one of Britain's most architecturally compelling and diverse cities."

"The built legacy is harder to judge than the cultural content; it will take longer to finish, to mature and to prove itself, but it is surely better than anyone expected. This sharpest, most critical and most cynical of cultural cities feels like a far more attractive, lively and connected place than it did 12 long months ago."