Take in the views and history with RLB360

Tour guide Siana tells us all about her experience as a tour guide at RLB360!

For guide Siana Parton, taking guests on the RLB360 tour is about far more than just telling them the facts and figures behind the most famous of Liverpool’s Three Graces.

She loves sharing the unique history of the Royal Liver Building and the mythical tales surrounding its two iconic residents, as visitors go behind the scenes and get up close to the city’s best-loved landmark.

“I think that’s what makes our building so special, and gives it much more of a personality,” says Siana. “Royal Liver Building has such a lot of character to it, not only in the structure but also the stories of the people who worked here and all the ones surrounding Liver Birds.

“And it’s not just us telling visitors about Bella and Bertie, they share the things they know or they’ve grown-up believing too. I had a lady on one tour who thought that we kept a third Liver Bird in the basement in case one of them broke!”

Siana came to Liverpool to study history and became fascinated by the city’s past.

“Towards the end of my undergraduate degree I did a module that included Liverpool history and I found it so interesting, I started to do some of my own research as well. It’s something I’m really passionate about so when the opportunity to be a guide at RLB360 came up it was perfect.”

The 23-year-old joined the team almost two years ago and spent her first few weeks learning everything there is to know about the building plus a general knowledge of the city so she has an answer to the many questions she’s asked every day. She’s also added her own specialist interest – Liverpool’s WWII history – to her tours.

An average day for Siana starts around 9.30am, setting up for the first visitors to arrive. They could be from anywhere in the world, often arriving on a cruise, or from Liverpool itself.

Each standard tour takes 60-70 minutes, and on the last Thursday of every month there’s a longer boardroom tour, giving people exclusive access to the only original room in the building.

After a short presentation about why Royal Liver Building exists, who created it and the process of construction, it’s up to the 10^th floor where visitors get their first incredible views – out on the balcony, looking across the river to Wirral, and turning around to face the giant clock faces.

Then they head up the tower to the 14^th floor behind the clock faces to see their original mechanism and an immersive video timeline of 100 years of history from the building’s perspective.

Finally, Siana leads her tours on the last few steps to the 15^th floor where they get to walk around the 360 platform, take in the city from every incredible viewpoint – and stand at exact the same place where Batman stood when the latest movie was filmed here!

With an average five tours a day, rising in the run-up to Eurovision, Siana’s daily step count can reach well over 20,000 – there are 137 stairs in the tower, that’s her most-asked question – but she says she never tires of a job she loves.

“You’re meeting people from all over the world and we’ve just introduced audio tours so we’re now delivering them in six different languages. You couldn’t do this job if you weren’t passionate about it, and even though I wasn’t born in Liverpool but this building is like my second home now.”