Games Workshop Liverpool

This article is about Liverpool in England, United Kingdom. As opposed to Liverpool in New South Wales, Australia. Just so that we are clear from the outset(!)

I get the chance to do a bit of travel in the course of performing my job. Whenever I visit a place that I've not been to before, or not been to in a very long time, I attempt to visit the local Games Workshop store and do a bit of a "Mystery Shopper" act. My long term readers will know all about this via my reviews of stores from around England and Australia over many years. Today, it is Liverpool's turn. 

Liverpool is a city that I know well from my younger days - I had relatives who hailed from that part of the world. In a number of ways, Liverpool can potentially be misunderstood by those from outside the region. Let me tell you: it really is a high quality, International city of great dimensions and immense promise. Indeed, its history is littered with important contributions to the Empire of yester-century, let alone the cultural importance of its outputs in entertainment and sport. Don't let certain Fleet Street tabloid publications (which are banned or simply not sold in certain parts of this great city, I might add) sway your ideas about Liverpool -- it really is an amazing place and I do highly recommend it should you ever get chance to visit. The regeneration that has happened in this city over the past decade or so is amazing. The dock lands have completely been regenerated and the "Liverpool One" area is as high quality as one could want. There are more historic (listed) buildings in this city than almost anywhere else outside of London in the UK and there's something for everyone here. 

The Games Workshop in the city is not called Games Workshop. Instead, it is entitled Warhammer. It is one of those stores that have been re-branded in recent years. I still do not know quite how I feel about it, but the look of the store from the outside is very slick and it fits in well with its surroundings.

The physical location of the store is amazing. It is a unit that is right next door to Central Station. Explicitly, it is in the same building as Central Station. For those that do not know, Liverpool has an extensive underground railway system with a number of different lines. In the centre of Liverpool, the underground Wirral line go in a circle around a number of key stations (Lime Street, Central, James Street, and Moorfields) whilst the City Line and Northern Line cross through both Central and Moorfields. I really do not know how much Games Workshop is forking out to rent a unit in a location like this, but I can only imagine it must be a lot. Seriously: its location inside Central Station building is amazing. The sheer amount of footfall that happens in this area is huge. It has almost unrivalled access for anyone coming here from greater Liverpool, the inner city, and from the Wirral. I cannot underscore enough what a great and accessible location this is -- it is one of the best that I have been to to find and locate to say the least. 

The store itself is modest to slightly larger than some I've been to. There are several displays, and obvious items displayed in the front window for shoppers to have a gander at. The interior of the store is well laid out. Although the tables are nicely sized, there is still room to go around the edges and look at the merchandise on offer whilst people are painting or playing at the main table. 

The guys at the store asked me if I was going to take part in the Konor campaign. I politely said that I probably would, but it would be back at my home Games Workshop and that I was just visiting. They asked me about my armies. I mentioned Death Guard and the Alpha Legion and how I was toying with the idea of making my 30k army fit the 40k mould. I'm not yet sold on re-starting a 40k Death Guard army just yet to be honest, but the guys at the store did seem very interested in the fact that I was rather the veteran gamer with a long knowledge of the history of the game and surrounding fluff. I bought a couple of things before leaving. Overall, the staff were very friendly and I don't have a bad word to say about the store. Top marks from me. But over the top marks from me for the location. I was blown away how accessible it is and how easy to find (its certainly not tucked away in some shopping mall like others are).