Construction work on the new £72m Museum of Liverpool - one of the largest museums to be created in Britain for more than a century - has been completed.

Scheduled to open its doors to the public in spring 2011, the attraction has now been handed over to owner National Museums Liverpool for internal fit-out work to get underway.

The new museum, which has been part-funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Northwest Regional Development Agency, will examine the history of Liverpool and its people.

Four core themes - Port City, Global City, People's City and Creative City - comprise the museum, each housed within a large gallery area, while an interactive resource centre is also included.

National Museums Liverpool chair Phil Redmond said: "The current emptiness of the galleries reveals the enormous scale of the project to date and just how much we have achieved so far, but work doesn't stop here.

"We want to encourage everyone to be a part of the new museum and get involved in maintaining and developing museums for the future."

Designed by Danish architects 3xN, the Museum of Liverpool scheme has also received funding through the Merseyside Objective One programme (£5m) and the Garfield Weston Foundation (£2m).