A new way to explore Liverpool’s past is being unveiled this April as The Modernist Society expands its free-to-use app. Four bespoke tours will guide users through an often unappreciated and overlooked aspect of the city’s recent, revealing the stories and history behind some of Liverpool’s most famous modernist landmarks.
This April, Liverpool will be the sixth city to receive its own set of curated tours exploring 20th-century landmarks, following the Modernist app’s successful Manchester launch in 2024. The Liverpool tours span across the University campus, Metropolitan Cathedral, and Business district, allowing users to experience the city’s best modernist architecture, from hidden gems to back-street surprises.
The app tours will officially launch on the Apple App Store and Google Play in April 2026, accompanied by a series of associated events. These include a walking tour on 11 April, culminating at the exhibition Building in Focus: Beneath the River Mersey at RIBA North, Mann Island, and a talk on the post-war redevelopment of the city by Dr Richard Brook of Lancaster University and Dominic Wilkinson of the Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) School of Architecture, to be held at the Utility Design Store.
The four tours feature handily written explainers and interactive maps that have been researched and devised by Wilkinson, promises to be packed with expertise and insight for new and avid fans of modernism alike.
Since launching in 2024, Liverpool is the sixth city to be added to the app, and its expansion won’t end here. The plan is to keep adding tours in more cities in the UK and overseas, so it becomes an invaluable and handy resource for fans of modernist and brutalist architecture wherever they may be in the world. The aim is to encourage people to download the app, to go out and walk in their city, and to encounter the buildings in real life.
Liverpool’s rich commercial history has produced some of the region’s most iconic modernist landmarks, with the tours aiming to champion this to a whole new range of fans. The tours’ prominent stops range from the RC Metropolitan Cathedral, the Lewis’s
Building, the Philharmonic Hall, alongside lesser-known treasures like the Piazza Waterfall and the former HSBC Bank on Dale Street.
Whether you’ve developed a newfound love for Modernism or are an avid fan, the ease and accessibility of the Modernist app opens the world of architects like Frederick Gibberd and Basil Spence into the palm of your hand.
The expansion marks a major milestone for The Modernist Society, founded by Jack Hale and Eddy Rhead, as interest in modernist architecture enjoys a newfound cultural buoy. From their Manchester base, the modernists now have branches in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Huddersfield, Sheffield, Swansea, Glasgow and Bristol.
Eddy Rhead, co-founder of the Modernist Society, says: “We were used to running a lot of walking tours in and around Manchester and they always proved to be really popular, but due to constraints like man-hours, resources, and simply time, we wanted to be able to reach more people quickly.”
With our Manchester base, it’s why expanding the app to Liverpool felt like a natural next step. If you’re from Liverpool or live here, you will recognise a lot of the buildings on the tour, but you won’t necessarily know the stories behind them. We want to encourage people to walk around the city and look at things a little differently. You never know – maybe we can even help a few people to like modernist architecture a bit more than they did before?”
Devised by the Modernist Society, the app has been designed and built in collaboration with Manchester and Leeds-based digital marketing agency Fablr.
The addition of the Liverpool tours has been made possible with support from the Arts & Culture FUND from the Liverpool Business Improvement District. The Modernist Society’s co-founders, Jack Hale and Eddy Rhead, express their thanks to the Liverpool BID for its support in helping to open up their love for all things modernist to a whole new generation of fans.
Katie Bentley is Director of Strategic Partnerships and Communications at Liverpool Business Improvement District:
“We are delighted to be able to support creative projects like this through our Arts & Culture Fund. Liverpool’s architecture is famous the world over, however there are stories behind our 20th century buildings that might not be as well known. We have a very walkable city here, and what we spotted in this project was that it is a way of encouraging discovery on foot, of exploring Liverpool’s modern architecture as a daytripper, or on your lunch break. Art in our public realm is a hugely important tool to engage people in the culture and character our city, so we’re excited for people to be able to dive into that history and culture through the app”.
For more information about the app, please see The Modernist Society, Google Play, and Apple App Store.