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Located near Liverpool's airport, six miles southeast of the centre, Speke Hall (Easter-Oct Tues-Sun 1-5.30pm; Nov to mid-Dec Sat & Sun 1-4.30pm; gardens Easter-Oct same times as house; Nov-Easter Tues-Sun 1-4.30pm; GBP4.50; gardens only GBP2.50; NT; ) is one of the country's finest examples of Elizabethan timbered architecture. Sitting in an oasis of rhododendrons, the house encloses a beautifully proportioned courtyard overlooked by myriad diamond panes. Bus #80/180 to the airport from Paradise Street in the city centre runs within half a mile of the entrance. For a glimpse of one of the more benign aspects of Merseyside's industrial past, take the Merseyrail under the river to Port Sunlight , a garden village created in 1888 by industrialist William Hesketh Lever for the workers at his soap factory. The project is explained at the Port Sunlight Heritage Centre , 95 Greendale Rd (April-Oct daily 10am-4pm; Nov-March Sat & Sun 10am-4pm; 60p), set amid the open-planned housing estates. Off Greendale Road, a little further from Port Sunlight station, the Lady Lever Art Gallery (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; GBP3, free with NMGM Eight Pass) houses a small collection of English eighteenth-century furniture, Pre-Raphaelite paintings by artists such as Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown, Wedgwood china, porcelain and assorted Greek and Roman artefacts.
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