Lady Lever Art Gallery

On the morning of the day I went to Liverpool Cathedral, I made my way across the Mersey river to an idyllic place called Port Sunlight.Here is an excerpt from an article about Port Sunlight and William Lever, the man responsible for both the village and the collection housed in the Lever Art Gallery." Port Sunlight is where William Lever built his soap manufacturing works and a model village to house his employees. William Lever personally supervised planning the village, and employed nearly thirty different architects. Between 1899 and 1914, 800 houses were built to house a population of 3,500. The garden village had allotments and public buildings including the Lady Lever Art Gallery, a cottage hospital, schools, a concert hall, open air swimming pool, church, and a temperance hotel. Lever introduced welfare schemes, and provided for the education and entertainment of his workforce, encouraging recreation and organisations which promoted art, literature, science or music.Lever's aims were "to socialise and Christianise business relations and get back to that close family brotherhood that existed in the good old days of hand labour." He claimed that Port Sunlight was an exercise in profit sharing, but rather than share profits directly, he invested them in the village. He said, "It would not do you much good if you send it down your throats in the form of bottles of whisky, bags of sweets or fat geese at Christmas. On the other hand, if you leave the money with me, I shall use it to provide for you everything that makes life pleasant – nice houses, comfortable homes, and healthy recreation."The historical significance of Port Sunlight lies in its combination of model industrial housing, providing materially decent conditions for working people, with the architectural and landscape values of the garden suburb, influenced by the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Each block of houses was designed by a different architect. The backs of any of the houses cannot be seen, and each house is unique.The Lady Lever Art Gallery is housed in small and beautiful building that sits comfortably in the surrounding houses of Port Sunlight.Lord Lever was a passionate collector and the museum is filled with only a very small part of his vast collection. I had come to see the embroidery that was on display and, although there aren't many displayed currently, the ones that are were inspiring! Rather than me explain them I'll let you read the  placards displayed in the museum and see the photos I took. I apologise for the darkness and the glare on the photos. The lighting was very dim to preserve the textiles and the glass over them caught the glare of the overhead lights in the museum. Nonetheless they are close up and you can see the detail of the amazing works!             If you're ever in Liverpool - or even nearby - it is definitely worth visiting the Lady Lever Art Gallery!