50 free Liverpool trivia questions with answers. Liverpool is two subjects in one: a great Atlantic port city and one of the most decorated football clubs in the world, and this quiz gives each about half the questions. The city half covers King John's 1207 charter, the Liver Birds and their legend, the fireproof Albert Dock, the first inter-city railway, the two cathedrals on Hope Street, the Cavern Club, the Grand National at Aintree and the loss of UNESCO status in 2021. The football half runs from John Houlding's founding of the club in 1892 through Shankly, Paisley and Dalglish to Istanbul, Madrid, Klopp's title and the Merseyside derby. Easy questions ask which river the city stands on or who sings the anthem played before every home game; harder ones want the sculptor of the Liver Birds, the horse that won the 1967 National at 100/1, and how many times the Beatles played the Cavern. It suits pub quiz nights, Reds and Blues alike, and anyone who has walked the Pier Head. Every answer has been checked against the relevant Wikipedia articles on the city, its buildings and the club, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Whose letters patent of 1207 founded the borough of Liverpool?
King John
The 1207 document spelt the place 'Liuerpul', and the settlement stayed a minor port for centuries before the Atlantic trade transformed it.
Q 02Liverpool sits on the eastern side of which river's estuary?
Mersey
The estuary separates the city from the Wirral Peninsula, and the Kingsway and Queensway tunnels run beneath it to Birkenhead and Wallasey.
Q 03The nickname 'Scouser' for a Liverpool native comes from what?
A stew eaten by sailors
Scouse is short for lobscouse, a Scandinavian-rooted stew that sailors brought through the port; the word became the dominant demonym only in the mid-20th century.
Q 04Who designed the two copper Liver Birds that top the Royal Liver Building?
Carl Bernard Bartels
Each bird is 18 feet tall and stands on one of the building's clock towers; they were built by the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts.
Q 05The Liver Bird on Liverpool's coat of arms is normally depicted as which real bird?
A cormorant
It carries a sprig of laver seaweed in its beak, a visual pun on the city's name; by the 17th century nobody remembered what the original bird was meant to be.
Q 06According to local legend, what happens if the two Liver Birds mate and fly away?
The city would cease to exist
The two birds face away from each other, which the legend explains as a deliberate precaution; another version says they are chained down.
Q 07In which year was the Royal Liver Building officially opened?
1911
Lord Sheffield opened it as the purpose-built home of Royal Liver Assurance; it is one of the Three Graces on the Pier Head with the Cunard and Port of Liverpool buildings.
Q 08What global distinction did the Albert Dock's brick, stone and cast-iron buildings claim on opening in 1846?
The world's first non-combustible warehouses
Jesse Hartley and Philip Hardwick built the whole complex from cast iron, brick and stone with no structural wood, and the five warehouses are now the UK's biggest group of Grade I listed buildings.
Q 09In which year was the Albert Dock granted a royal charter and renamed the Royal Albert Dock?
2018
The charter was handed over at Tate Liverpool, which shares the dock with the Merseyside Maritime Museum and The Beatles Story.
Q 10Which Liverpool MP was killed by a locomotive on the opening day of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway?
William Huskisson
He had stepped down to greet the Duke of Wellington and fell between the tracks; he became the world's first widely reported railway passenger fatality.
Q 11Which locomotive won the 1829 Rainhill Trials to haul trains on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway?
Rocket
Ten engines were entered but only five turned up, and the Stephensons' machine was the only one to complete the course, so their company won the contract.
Q 12How old was Giles Gilbert Scott when his design for Liverpool's Anglican cathedral was chosen in 1903?
22
He was still an articled pupil with no buildings to his name and told the assessors his only major work so far had been a pipe-rack; the cathedral took until 1978 to finish.
Q 13Which size record does Liverpool's Anglican place of worship hold?
Longest cathedral in the world
Q 21How many times did the Beatles play the Cavern Club between 1961 and 1963?
292
Their last show there was on 3 August 1963, a month after recording 'She Loves You'; Brian Epstein first saw them at the club in November 1961.
Q 22Liverpool is home to the oldest community in Europe of people from which country?
China
The first residents arrived as seamen in the 19th century, and the ceremonial gateway in Chinatown is the largest of its kind outside China.
Q 23Since 1952 Liverpool has been twinned with which German city?
Cologne
Both cities were heavily bombed in the Second World War, which prompted the link.
Its external length is 621 feet including the Lady Chapel, and it is also the largest cathedral and religious building in Britain.
Q 14What is the local nickname of Liverpool's Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral?
Paddy's Wigwam
The circular 1967 building is also called the Mersey Funnel; it sits on a crypt from Edwin Lutyens's abandoned 1930s design, which would have been the second-largest church in the world.
Q 15Which architect won the worldwide competition to design the present Metropolitan Cathedral?
Frederick Gibberd
Construction ran from 1962 to 1967 and the altar sits at the centre so the whole congregation faces it; the lantern glass is by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens.
Q 16In which year did UNESCO strip Liverpool of its World Heritage Site status?
2021
The Maritime Mercantile City had been inscribed in 2004; it became only the third site ever struck from the list, after developments at the docks including a new football stadium.
Q 17Which Liverpool-based shipping company operated the Titanic?
White Star Line
White Star and Cunard both had their offices in the city, and out of respect ships continued to be registered there until the early 1960s.
Q 18Which horse won the Grand National at Aintree in 1973, 1974 and 1977?
Red Rum
Trainer Ginger McCain, a Southport car dealer, worked him on the beach; he is buried at the Aintree winning post.
Q 19Which 100/1 outsider won the 1967 Grand National after a pile-up at the 23rd fence?
Foinavon
The horse was so far behind that jockey John Buckingham could steer around the chaos; his owner had such little faith he went to Worcester races instead.
Q 20When the Cavern Club opened on Mathew Street in 1957, what kind of music was it for?
Jazz
Founder Alan Sytner modelled it on the cellar clubs of Paris; the original was filled in during Merseyrail construction in 1973.
Q 24In which year was Liverpool the European Capital of Culture?
2008
The year reportedly generated more than £800 million for the local economy and is credited with reversing decades of decline.
Q 25Who ran the earliest ferry across the river from Birkenhead Priory to Liverpool?
Benedictine monks
The monks charged a small fare to row passengers over, and the service lasted until Henry VIII's troops destroyed the priory in 1536.
Q 26Liverpool's airport was the first in Britain named after an individual. Who?
John Lennon
A giant Yellow Submarine sculpture, previously displayed at the Albert Dock, now sits on a traffic island at the airport entrance.
Q 27Which brewer and Anfield landowner founded Liverpool FC in 1892 after Everton left the ground?
John Houlding
The FA refused to let him keep the Everton name, so the new club was recognised three months later as Liverpool; he was chairman until 1904.
Q 28Liverpool's first team, which beat Rotherham 7-1 in 1892, was made up entirely of players from where?
Scotland
Players who came south to play in England at the time were known as the Scotch Professors.
Q 29Anfield's Kop stand is named after a hill in which country?
South Africa
Spion Kop was the site of an 1900 Boer War battle in which a local regiment suffered heavy losses; the stand got the name in 1906.
Q 30Ernest Edwards, who coined 'Spion Kop' for the Anfield stand in 1906, was sports editor of which newspaper?
Liverpool Echo
Other British grounds copied the name, but Anfield's became the most famous; BBC Sport has called it one of the most famous ends in world football.