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Liverpool Top Facts

1. Liverpool Football Club is the most successful club in the history of British football, having won 18 league championships, 5 European Cups, 3 UEFA Cups, 7 FA Cups and 7 league cups.

2. Liverpool is the European Capital of Culture 2008.

3. The city celebrates its 800th birthday in 2007, after King John granted Liverpool city status in 1207.

4. Liverpool is the most filmed-in British city outside London, with cinema credits including: 51st State, The Hunt for Red October, My Kingdom, The Virgin Of Liverpool, In the Name of the Father, Letter to Brezhnev, Backbeat and Priest.

5. Liverpool holds the Guinness Book of Records for being the Capital of Pop - more Liverpool artists have had a number one hit than any other town or city. 56 no 1's to date!

6. The annual Mathew Street Music Festival held every August Bank Holiday is the largest city centre-based free music festival in Europe.

7. An estimated 600,000 visit Liverpool for The Beatles each year and they spend some £21million.

8. The Walker Art Gallery is the national gallery of the North and houses one of the most comprehensive collections of art outside of London.

9. Tate Liverpool hosted the Turner Prize in 2007, the first time in the prestigious prize's 24-year history it takes place outside London.

10. Liverpool boasts a wealth of poets, novelists, playwrights and screenwriters, including: Alan Bleasdale, Clive Barker, Beryl Bainbridge, Linda Grant, Adrian Henri, Roger McGough, Jimmy McGovern, Nicholas Monsarrat, Brian Patten, Willy Russell.

11. Liverpool is home to the Grand National, the most famous steeplechase in the world, annually watched by 600 million people worldwide.

12. Liverpool is a World Heritage City - designated by UNESCO in July 2004, placing the city's Pier Head alongside Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China as one of the world's most important places.

13. The city has 2,500 listed buildings and 250 public monuments.

14. Liverpool has the largest collection of Grade II listed buildings outside of London.

15. Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral is the largest cathedral in Britain and the fifth largest in the world.

16. Liverpool is home to the oldest Chinese and African communities in Europe, and the city's Chinatown boasts the biggest Chinese arch outside mainland China.

17. More than 60 languages are spoken in the city today.

18. The world's first public health officer Dr William Henry Duncan began work in Liverpool in 1841.

19. Liverpool carried out and financed the first ever Atlantic telegraph cable in 1886.

20. Football nets were invented by John Alexander Brodie, Liverpool's municipal engineer, in 1892.

21. Meccano model trains and the Dinky Toy were invented by Frank Hornby of Liverpool.

22. Both Littlewoods and Vernons football pools came from Liverpool.

23. The world's first School of Tropical Medicine was opened in 1898 and was successful in discovering that Malaria could be passed on by the bite of the Mosquito.

24. Merseyside is the Golfing Capital of England. There are over 40 courses, 7 of which are leading championship venues, with Royal Liverpool playing host to the Open Championship 2006 and Royal Birkdale in 2008.

25. The Calder Stones in South Liverpool are older than Stonehenge.

26. The clock faces on the Liver Building are the biggest in the country, 2'6" bigger than Big Ben.

27. Princes Park in Liverpool and Birkenhead Park in Wirral were used as the models for New York's Central Park.

28. Merseyside has 120km of picturesque coastline, 107km of which is internationally important for nature conservation, stretching from Southport to Wirral.

29. The magnificent Albert Dock, a former 19th century dock now converted to one of Britain's top heritage attractions, is the UK's largest group of Grade I listed buildings.

30. The value of tourism to the Merseyside economy currently stands at £1.1 billion. Figures estimate that Merseyside's tourism sector in 2013 will be worth £2billion supporting over 30,000 jobs.