Liverpool might not have the same reputation as Bristol, but it has quietly built its own outdoor gallery over the years. My mum and I came for the Beatles and the docks, one December afternoon, and lost track of time until the light was nearly gone. Two hours later, we’d photographed towering wings, giant babies, and entire buildings turned into canvases.
The Baltic Triangle holds the biggest concentration, a short walk south of the city centre, mural after mural with barely a quiet stretch of brick between them.
Here’s everything you need to know to walk it yourself, mural by mural, street by street.
Table of Contents
Route Overview
This self-guided walk takes you from the Baltic Triangle into Ropewalks and Liverpool city centre.
You’ll start on Jamaica Street, then weave through the surrounding streets before finishing near Bold Street.
Expect around 2 hours on foot, mostly flat, entirely free!
How Liverpool Became a Street Art City
The Baltic Triangle wasn’t always covered in murals. It was Liverpool’s dock and warehouse district, shaped by brick, steel, and the shipping trade.
The art grew alongside the Baltic Triangle’s transformation, as empty warehouses became studios, cafés, bars, and creative spaces.
The Secret Society of Super Villain Artists, founded here in 2012, gave local writers a base and a name. Paul Curtis’s giant Liver Bird wings went up on Jamaica Street in 2017 and became the piece everyone photographs. The Contrast Mural Festival, launched the following year, brought in artists from further afield and filled the side streets around Greenland and Jordan Street in one concentrated push.
None of it stays still for long.
Buildings get sold, walls get recommissioned, and a mural that was the star of someone’s Instagram grid two years ago might be gone by the time you show up looking for it.
Before You Go
Best Time of Day to Visit
We went in the afternoon and walked straight into golden hour, the brick turning orange until the sun dropped and we finished in the dark. Mornings get you quieter streets. Afternoons give you the best light, with the cafés and bars opening up as you finish the walk.
How Long Does the Walk Take?
Allow around 2 hours if you want to stop for photos and notice the smaller details. You could walk it faster, but this is not a route worth rushing.
Places to Stop
The Baltic Triangle is full of independent cafés and bars, including one tucked inside an actual yellow submarine at Baltic Market. Cains Brewery Village and Baltic Market are both easy stops for food along the way.
Read More: The Best Scouse in Liverpool (Top 5 Pubs & Restaurants)
Is Liverpool Street Art Free?
Completely. Every mural sits on a public street, no ticket required. If you’d rather have the history and stories talked through, a guided Baltic Triangle tour is worth considering instead.
Street Art Changes Over Time
What you see today might not still be there next year. Walls get repainted and favourites disappear without warning. Keep looking around rather than following your map too closely. Some of the best pieces are the ones you find by accident!
The Liverpool Street Art Walking Route
Jamaica Street & The Baltic Triangle
Start on Jamaica Street, the heart of the Baltic Triangle’s street art scene.
Start your walk on Jamaica Street, the heart of the Baltic Triangle’s street art scene. Follow it through the middle of the district to find the piece most people come to see: Paul Curtis’s giant feathered wings, painted directly onto an unmarked brick wall in 2017.
They’re positioned at exactly the right height to stand against, and they read instantly as Liverpool’s own Liver Bird. My mum posed against them twice, once wasn’t enough.
Further along, look for the old skatepark, which doubles as one of the most layered graffiti spots on the whole route, and a cheeky chimpanzee mural from the founder of the Secret Society of Super Villain Artists.
Nothing is worse than landing somewhere new and searching for WiFi before you can even find your way. I recommend an eSIM so you can use maps and travel apps the moment you arrive.
Here is the eSIM I use →New Bird Street
Just off Jamaica Street, New Bird Street holds one of my favourite pieces in Liverpool: a 50-foot photorealistic mural on the side of the Wedding House, split between two artists working side by side. Liam Bononi painted one half, and John Culshaw painted the other, a bright blue take on the Liver Bird.
Deeper into the street, look for the pair of guardian cats by an artist known only as Bog Bean, painted, for reasons nobody fully explains, to watch over the city’s ice cream truck storage.
It’s the kind of detail you only find by actually walking, not by searching a map for ‘top murals’.
Jordan Street
Jordan Street mixes street art with football pride, which felt very Liverpool the moment we turned the corner.
Just off it, on Newhall Street, is a tribute to five Everton legends, Alan Ball, Dixie Dean, Howard Kendall, Neville Southall, and Leighton Baines, painted by the MurWalls collective.
Even if you couldn’t care less about football, the scale of the piece is worth a look.
Stanhope Street & Cains Brewery Village
Head south to Stanhope Street and into Cains Brewery Village, a converted brewery complex that’s now home to bars, food stalls, and its own set of courtyard murals, including a Paul Curtis tribute to Abbey Road’s 50th anniversary that doubles as a photo op if you fancy your own Beatles crossing shot.
It’s an easy place to stop for food before continuing towards the city centre.
Ropewalks & The City Centre
The final stretch takes you north into Ropewalks, the more established, central neighbour to the Baltic Triangle.
On Bold Street, find Zap Graffiti, a graffiti shop and gallery that’s been running since 1995 and organises the city’s Contrast Mural Festival. Round the corner on Oldham Place, their ever-rotating hall of fame wall is worth a proper look. The wall changes regularly, so there is often something new to discover.
Duke Street carries more of the route’s highlights: a hospitality-worker tribute mural by Shawn Sharpe, and a colourful Liver Bird piece by Bristol artist Inkie, painted for the 2018 Contrast Mural Festival.
The walk finishes at Smug’s Pool of Life mural tucked away in the Cavern Quarter, a nod to Carl Jung’s description of Liverpool as a place ‘into which many streets converged.’ It’s easy to walk straight past. Don’t.
One More Stop, If You’ve Got Time
Anfield has its own pocket of street art entirely, and it’s worth a mention even though it sits outside the main walking route.
Football murals cover the streets around the stadium, tributes to players like Trent Alexander-Arnold, Steven Gerrard, and Mohamed Salah, put up by local artists and fan groups over the years.
It’s a fair distance from the Baltic Triangle, so treat it as its own trip, maybe paired with a stadium tour, rather than trying to squeeze it onto this walk.
Artists to Look Out For
Paul Curtis
The Liver Bird Storyteller
If there’s one name you’ll see more than any other on this walk, it’s Paul Curtis.
Liverpool-based and instantly recognisable once you know his work, Curtis is behind the Jamaica Street wings, a tribute to comedian Ken Dodd outside the Royal Court Theatre, and the Abbey Road piece at Cains Brewery Village. His murals tend to be interactive, built for the photo you’ll take standing in front of them, and unapologetically proud of the city.
John Culshaw
The Liverpool Illustrator
John Culshaw is Liverpool through and through, a former painter and decorator turned muralist, working with one arm following a road accident earlier in his life.
He painted half of the Wedding House Liver Bird on New Bird Street, a Nelson Mandela tribute in Liverpool 8, and a run of Anfield football murals including Steven Gerrard and Mohamed Salah. His style favours light and colour over the darker backgrounds a lot of muralists default to.
Zap Graffiti
The Local Street Art Pioneers
Not a single artist, but the closest thing this scene has to an institution. Zap Graffiti has run out of Liverpool since 1995, first as a shop and now as a full studio, gallery, and workshop space on Bold Street.
They organise the Contrast Mural Festival, the event responsible for a good chunk of what you’ll see on this walk, and keep the Oldham Place wall changing constantly for anyone willing to detour a street over to see it.
My Take
Liverpool rewards the same slow walking that Manchester’s Northern Quarter does, perhaps even more, because so much is hidden down side streets you’d never have a reason to turn into otherwise.
The Wings are the piece everyone photographs, and fair enough. But it’s the smaller finds, hidden away from the main roads, that stay with you longer.
Go without a strict plan if you can. Let the streets pull you in different directions than the map suggests.
And once the Baltic Triangle has had its moment, Liverpool’s got plenty more worth exploring beyond it.
Finished exploring Liverpool’s street art? Continue discovering the city through its food. Scouse is Liverpool’s most famous dish, a traditional stew that has been loved by locals and tourists alike for generations.
Discover the best places to try Scouse in LiverpoolFrequently Asked Questions
Ask Ever!
Have you walked Liverpool’s street art scene, or found a mural I missed? Let me know in the comments below!
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