Liverpool’s most exclusive spot wants to be a little less…exclusive

Step inside The Athenaeum

Dear members — where in Liverpool can you find an original copy of Florence Nightingale’s Notes on Hospitals, a Virginia Woolf-amended copy of TS Eliot’s The Wasteland and a second copy of the Declaration of Independence, all a few feet from Primark? The Athenaeum, Liverpool’s most storied private member’s club, has pursued a life of grandeur since it opened in 1797 as a place for the great and good to get away from the chaos of coffee shops and set their vision for the city. Roscoe and Gladstone might be distant memories now, but the current clan at The Athenaeum have big plans for the future, and they’re looking to modernise.

But first, complaints from parents that Liverpool’s school admissions policies discriminate against non-church going families and the latest from the Olivia Pratt-Korbel case in our news round-up.