After receiving the confirmation that I would be reviewing The Last Utopian, there was an added sense of anticipation for this event due to the fact that the location for the event was secret. A further email was received with details of the location and a request for me to send a picture of myself to Dr Wellington, a character from the production.

I’ve just had a wonderful afternoon, wearing a boiler suit and a hard hat, walking along dusty narrow corridors and climbing up and down many flights of stairs. It was because I had the privilege to be part of the first ‘Footman Tour’ of St. George’s Hall in Liverpool.

We were told that whilst refurbishment had been taking place they found a bricked up tunnel and when it was opened two footman stepped out saying they had been there since the 1800s! Smith and Jones knew parts of the building that had never been opened to the public before and so began our great adventure in time and space.

 

We walked down a corridor that contained part of the current walking tour of the hall but then we ushered through a side door, along a more functional corridor and then on to a balcony. It was then I realised that we were standing high above the ballroom, looking at the best Victorian England had to offer at a time when Liverpool was the second most important city after London. Beautiful chandeliers, exquisitely carved statues and the extremely grand pipe organ. When Queen Victoria visited, in 1851, she thought St. George’s Hall was ‘one of the finest modern buildings imaginable…The taste is so good and the style so pure…’