This guide follows four places from the city centre up to the hill above it: Radio City Tower, the tall concrete shaft above the shopping streets; the Cavern Club on Mathew Street, where the Beatles played almost 300 times; Chinatown, home to one of the oldest Chinese communities in Europe; and Liverpool Cathedral, the largest church in Britain. They are all stops on our scavenger hunt, and together they tell a story of music, migration and civic ambition in one walk.
Radio City Tower
The tower known as Radio City Tower, officially St John's Beacon, rises about 138 metres above the St Johns shopping centre, with an antenna on top. It was built in 1969 and opened by Queen Elizabeth II, and it is still one of the tallest structures in Liverpool. It stands on its own foundations in the sandstone, independent of the shopping centre around it.
At the top was a revolving restaurant, in which the floor and facade turned as one unit. It closed in 1979 over safety concerns, reopened with fewer seats and was refitted in 1983 as a space-themed restaurant, before closing again. From 2000 the tower housed the studios of the radio station that gave it its popular name, and from 2010 a viewing gallery gave a 360-degree view over the city. The station moved out at the end of 2024 and the viewing gallery closed in December 2024, so for now the tower is something to look up at rather than climb; check the current situation before you plan a visit.
- The drum of the old revolving restaurant near the top, visible from across the city centre.
- The point where the tower rises out of the St Johns shopping centre, even though it stands on its own foundations.
The Cavern Club
The Cavern Club opened on 16 January 1957 in a cellar on Mathew Street as a jazz club, founded by Alan Sytner, who sold it to Ray McFall in 1959. Rock and roll soon took over. The Beatles first played here on 9 February 1961, just back from Hamburg, and between 1961 and 1963 they appeared 292 times, the last on 3 August 1963. Brian Epstein first saw them perform here on 9 November 1961 and became their manager soon after. Future singer Cilla Black worked in the club's cloakroom.
The original Cavern closed on 28 May 1973, after British Rail bought the warehouses above it, and the cellar was filled with rubble when the buildings were demolished. The club you visit today reopened on 26 April 1984, rebuilt using around 15,000 bricks from the original site. It is a working club with live music, not just a museum.
- The Wall of Fame on Mathew Street, with bricks naming bands who have played the Cavern.
- The statue of Cilla Black outside the original entrance, unveiled in 2017.
- The low brick arches inside, which recreate the feel of the old cellar.
Chinatown
Liverpool's Chinatown is often described as home to the oldest Chinese community in Europe. The first Chinese people arrived in 1834, when the first ship to sail direct from China docked here, and many more came from the late 1860s, when Alfred Holt's Blue Funnel Line began linking Liverpool with Shanghai and Hong Kong and hired large numbers of Chinese seamen. Today the centre of the community is Nelson Street.
Its history has darker chapters too. In 1942 Chinese seamen went on strike for the same rights and pay as white sailors. After the war many were barred from shore jobs, had their pay cut and were offered only one-way passages back to China, and hundreds were forced to leave their Liverpool families behind. The great arch on Nelson Street was built in Shanghai, one of Liverpool's twin cities, assembled here by Chinese craftsmen and opened at Chinese New Year in 2000.
- The arch itself: about 13.5 metres tall, described as the largest multiple-span arch of its kind outside China.
- The Chinese restaurants and supermarkets along Nelson Street and the surrounding streets.
Liverpool Cathedral
Liverpool Cathedral on St James's Mount is the largest cathedral and religious building in Britain. In 1903 the competition to design it was won by Giles Gilbert Scott, who was just 22 and still a student, and King Edward VII laid the foundation stone in 1904. The Lady Chapel was consecrated in 1910, the first main section in 1924, and the building was only finished in 1978, after Scott's death in 1960.
Its central tower is about 101 metres high, one of the tallest church towers in the world without a spire, and its bells form the highest and heaviest ringing peal in the world. Inside, the scale is what strikes you first: the nave and central space are huge, and on a quiet day sound carries a long way. Under the great west window hangs a pink neon work by Tracey Emin from 2008, For You, which reads I felt you and I knew you loved me; it was meant to stay a month and is now permanent.
- The Lady Chapel, the first part of the cathedral to be completed, consecrated in 1910.
- Tracey Emin's neon text below the west window.
- The view from the tower over the city and the Mersey, if the tower is open on the day you visit.
How to see them in one walk
Start at Radio City Tower, close to Lime Street station and St George's Hall. Walk down through the shopping streets to Mathew Street and the Cavern Club, then head south through the city centre to Bold Street and on to Nelson Street and the Chinatown arch. From Chinatown it is a short walk up the hill to Liverpool Cathedral, which makes a good finish: allow time inside, and if you have energy left, follow Hope Street to the Metropolitan Cathedral at its other end.
See Liverpool with World City Trail
Our Liverpool scavenger hunt turns the city centre into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from the World Museum to Liverpool Cathedral, and all four places in this guide are stops: Radio City Tower, the Cavern Club, Chinatown and Liverpool Cathedral. Along the way you also pass St George's Hall, the Three Graces, Pier Head, Tate Liverpool and the Nordic Church, solving a puzzle at each stop at your own pace.
There is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Liverpool, for people who prefer a different format.
Play the Liverpool scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Liverpool →
Play the outdoor escape game in Liverpool →
Facts checked in October 2026.