Why go

National Museums Liverpool calls the Walker the national gallery of the North of England, and it earns the title. Its painting collection runs from the 13th century to the present, with Renaissance works, Rubens, Rembrandt, Turner and Stubbs, Impressionists including Monet and Degas, and a Pre-Raphaelite collection counted among the best in the world. It is free, it is a five-minute walk from Lime Street, and you can see the highlights in a couple of hours.

What to see

  • The Pre-Raphaelites (Room 6). Rossetti, Millais and Holman Hunt, the young painters who set out in 1848 to challenge the art establishment. Millais’s Isabella is one of the gallery’s best-known pictures.
  • Rembrandt’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Painted when he was about 24, and probably one of the first Rembrandts to reach England: it was most likely bought by Charles I in 1633.
  • Peter Getting Out of Nick’s Pool. David Hockney’s 1966 swimming pool painting won the John Moores Painting Prize in 1967, which is how it entered the collection.
  • The Renaissance and Baroque rooms. Rooms 1 to 3, with work by Simone Martini, Titian, Lavinia Fontana and Rubens.
  • The John Moores rooms (13 to 15). Winners of the painting prize founded in Liverpool, a good cross-section of modern British painting.
  • Craft and Design. A ground-floor gallery of fashion, furniture, ceramics, glass and metalwork from 1700 to now, next to the sculpture gallery.

Plan your visit

From 2 November 2026 the gallery opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm. It is closed on Mondays except in school holidays and on bank holidays, and hours can change, so check the website before you go. The main paintings are upstairs in Rooms 1 to 15, roughly in date order; the ground floor has the sculpture gallery, Craft and Design, the children’s gallery Big Art for Little Artists, the café and the shop.

The Walker stands on William Brown Street, the line of Victorian civic buildings opposite St George’s Hall, with World Museum and the Central Library next door. Lime Street station is a few minutes’ walk away, and there is pay and display parking on William Brown Street.

Tickets and saving money

Entry is free and donations are welcome. Some special exhibitions charge, though they are free for National Museums Liverpool members. The gallery runs free Collections in Focus tours of the Pre-Raphaelite and Renaissance rooms on set days; check the What’s On page for the next dates.

Christmas

National Museums Liverpool had not published its 2026 Christmas opening times when we checked. Its museums closed from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day in 2025, so check before visiting in late December.

Accessibility

The gallery publishes a visual story and welcome guide on its website. Blue Badge parking is on William Brown Street outside World Museum.

Nearby

World Museum is next door, and St George’s Hall is across the road. Skate St George’s, the Christmas ice rink and market on St George’s Plateau, runs from 21 November 2026 to 3 January 2027.