Surrender by Jenkin Van Zyl, a surreal installation at Fact Liverpool on November 16, 2023 featuring film and sculptural works inside a large inflatable silver rat. (Photo by James Glossop/The Times)

The Borealis in the second decade of December 2023 gets ready to leave Liverpool for the Classic Christmas Markets cruise. It will call at Zeebrugge, Amsterdam and Hamburg to take in some of Europe’s best festive markets. (Photo by Bav Media)

Party-loving Brits headed out to enjoy the first weekend of indoor drinking in months; many – like these lasses in Liverpool on May 22, 2021 – were keen to make up for lost time. (Photo by London News Pictures)

Swedish singer Cornelia Jakobs performs after winning the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, Britain on May 13, 2023. (Photo by Phil Noble/Reuters)

British prime minister Winston Churchill (1874–1965) stops to pet a cat at Liverpool Street Station, 24th May 1952. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Racegoers shelter from the rain as they attend on the second day of the Grand National Festival horse race meeting at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, north-west England, on April 14, 2023. (Photo by Oli Scarff/AFP Photo)

Mae Muller of the United Kingdom performs during dress rehearsals at the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, England, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. (Photo by Martin Meissner/AP Photo)

A woman already appears to be regretting her choice of heels for the day out during the Grand National Festival at Aintree Racecourse on April 8, 2017 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Alamy Stock Photos)