Poppies exhibit opens at Liverpool's St George's Hall

A display of thousands of ceramic poppies from last year's Tower of London exhibit has officially opened in Liverpool.

The Weeping Window section was draped down St George's Hall ahead of Remembrance Sunday.

Thousands of visitors are expected to see the display, which ends in January.

Army reservist Sgt John Ryan said: "Every time I see one of the poppies, it just reminds me of one of my friends who are with us no more."

• Find out more about St George's Hall's link to WW1

Created by artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper, the Tower of London artwork marked 100 years since the start of World War One and drew more than five million visitors last year.

It was named Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red after a line written by a Derbyshire soldier who died in Belgium.

Workers added finishing touches to the installation at St George's Hall

The Weeping Window formed part of the original London display and was at Northumberland's Woodhorn Museum recently

The ceramic poppies will be at St George's Hall until 17 January

Each of the 888,246 poppies in the original display represented one of the deaths in the British and Colonial forces between 1914 and 1918.

Most of the poppies were sold to the public, raising about £9m for military charities, but two sections - the Wave and the Weeping Window - were bought for the nation by the charities Backstage Trust and Clore Duffield Foundation.

About 120,000 people saw the Weeping Window when it was displayed at Woodhorn Museum in Northumberland during the past two months, while Yorkshire Sculpture Park said its visitor numbers nearly trebled in September when the Wave was installed.

Both sections will be exhibited at other venues across the UK before they are permanently housed at the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester after 2018.

Poppies come to Liverpool

About 12,000 soldiers paraded outside St George's Hall in March 1915

• St George's Hall was built between 1842 and 1856

• A month after WW1 broke out, thousands of men packed on to St George's plateau volunteering to join Pals battalions

• By September 1914, more than 30,000 men had enlisted at St George's Hall

• More than 13,000 men from Merseyside died in the conflict

• The plateau also features the Liverpool cenotaph, established in 1927 as a memorial to those who fell in WW1