Victoria Gallery and Museum

The Grade II*-listed building was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, the prominent Victorian architect also responsible for Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum in London.

What to see at the Victoria Gallery and Museum

The museum has an eclectic array of exhibits that encompass everything from art and archaeology to Victorian-era dentistry and the development of the x-ray.

The museum is set on three floors with most of the ground floor taken up by the gift shop and cafe, the art gallery and temporary exhibition space on the first floor and museum exhibits on the second floor.

The art gallery is noted for its excellent display of work by 19th-century American wildlife artist, John James Audubon and it is the largest collection of the artist’s work outside North America.

The Tate Hall Museum on the second floor has a very different feel to the exhibition spaces on the first floor. The museum exhibits include a large range of eclectic displays that feature dental and medical instruments, fossils and taxidermy.

Some of the exhibits on the second floor include:

• an exhibition about clay tobacco pipes and smoking paraphernalia
• an exhibition about Victorian-era dentistry including an internationally significant display of false teeth
• zoological specimens consisting of skeletons, taxidermy and wet specimens

Temporary exhibitions at the Victoria Gallery and Museum

In addition to its permanent exhibits, the museum also has a programme of temporary exhibitions. Current and planned exhibitions include:

JMW Turner & his Contemporaries
This exhibition (until 31 May 2025) marks the 250th anniversary of JMW Turner’s birth on Wednesday 23 April 2025. It brings together watercolours by Turner and other artists from the University of Liverpool Collection. Turner worked during the so-called ‘golden age’ of British watercolour painting. The display explores connections between Turner, Thomas Girtin, John Sell Cotman, David Cox Snr, Samuel Prout and others.

All That Remains
All That Remains (17 May–20 September 2025) showcases selected works from the University’s collection including some works by well-known artists, others by lesser-known figures deserving greater attention. The exhibition includes paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby, Anne Nasmyth, David Young Cameron, Mary Adshead and several Liverpool artists.

These exhibitions are on the first floor and, like the rest of the museum, admission is free of charge.

Visiting the Victoria Gallery and Museum

The Victoria Gallery and Museum is on Brownlow Hill on the University of Liverpool campus. It is around a 10-minute walk east of the city centre and both Liverpool Central and Liverpool Lime Street railway stations are around a 15-minute walk away.

It is very close to the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (only a two-minute walk) and the Garstang Museum of Archaeology and the Williamson Tunnels are both within a 10-minute walk from the museum.

The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday and entry is free of charge. Free guided tours of the museum run every Tuesday and Thursday at 12.30pm.

The museum is fully wheelchair accessible.

The museum has its own gift shop and cafe. Considering that not a lot of people visit the museum and art gallery, the Waterhouse Cafe can get particularly busy.

Allow between one and two hours for a visit to the museum.

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