World Museum

World Museum stands in Liverpool on William Brown Street, opposite St George’s Hall. The present building opened in 1860 after Sir William Brown donated the land and most of the funds. It began as the Derby Museum with the 13th Earl of Derby’s natural history collection and grew quickly. A competition in the late 19th century produced an extension designed by Edward William Mountford, completed in 1901. Bombing in the 1940s damaged the museum, and rebuilding took fifteen years. A £35 million refurbishment in 2005 doubled the display space and added a six-storey atrium. The museum is worth the journey for its planetarium, opened in 1970 as the first outside London. It seats sixty-two and draws about ninety thousand visitors each year for shows on space science and children’s programmes. The Egyptology collection, started by goldsmith Joseph Mayer in 1867, numbers around fifteen thousand objects from Egypt and Sudan. The department also holds Anglo-Saxon finds such as the Kingston brooch and Liudhard medalet. Liverpool University’s archaeologists, including John Garstang, helped build the collection through excavations at sites like Abydos and Meroe. Visitors find a central entrance hall leading to galleries such as World Cultures, the Bug House and the Weston Discovery Centre. The Egypt gallery reopened in 2017 after expansion and now displays material from Abydos, Amarna and Meroe. The Natural History Centre lets visitors handle specimens, while the planetarium offers regular shows beneath its dome. The building’s architecture and the range of collections make it a key Liverpool institution.