Liverpool is to unveil a new ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ sq ft visitor attraction about the Beatles, in plans hailed as “extraordinary” by Paul McCartney, and by Andy Burnham as having “the kind of ambition I want to see more of across Britain”.
Opening in ۲۰۲۸, the project is a huge upgrade for the Beatles Story, a museum which opened in Liverpool’s Royal Albert Dock in ۱۹۹۰. Ownership will now pass to the Beatles company Apple Corps, making the Beatles Story the band’s first official fan experience in their home city.
It will also move across the city to the former shopping centre St John’s Market, close to Liverpool’s Lime Street railway station, which has lain unused since closing in ۲۰۲۴. The new site will allow the museum to become four times bigger than its current home.
Apple Corps has also announced it will take over and renovate Liverpool’s second-tallest building: St Johns Beacon, a ۴۵۰ft tower that has also remained unused since ۲۰۲۴, when its viewing gallery closed and its radio station tenants vacated. Neighbouring the redeveloped museum, the tower will become a separate attraction themed around the Beatles’ whimsical and psychedelic animated film Yellow Submarine.
The new iteration of the Beatles Story is being billed as a “multi-hour experience” which will recreate settings from the group’s history, from their childhood homes in Liverpool to the city’s Cavern venue and the nightclubs where they cut their teeth in Hamburg, and on to Abbey Road, New York’s Shea Stadium – where Beatlemania provoked such fevered screaming that the band couldn’t hear themselves play – and the building on London’s Savile Row where they played their final rooftop concert in ۱۹۶۹.
McCartney said: “I find it incredible and humbling that people are still interested in our story and it’s very exciting to me that the Beatles Story and the Beacon are being transformed in such an exciting way in the heart of Liverpool city. I love Liverpool. It’s part of who I am, it’s part of who the Beatles are. If you’d told us this was going to happen when we were hanging out and getting started, we’d never have believed it.”
Ringo Starr also celebrated the plans, saying: “It is great to be part of this – deep down I am still a scouser.
“Liverpool was, and still is, a music city. And now we are expanding the Beatles Story … how far out. The beat goes on.”
A new charity, the Apple Corps Liverpool Trust, has also been founded. It will receive a portion of every ticket sold, and use that revenue to fund initiatives for local musicians.
Andy Burnham praised the Liverpool plans as having “the kind of ambition I want to see more of across Britain: backing the things our great cities do best and turning that global reputation into jobs, opportunity and growth”. He hailed the charitable arm as helping “the next generation of young artists, wherever they grow up, to believe there is a route from their bedroom, rehearsal room or local venue to the very top of the world.”
Liverpool’s mayor Steve Rotheram said: “People already travel halfway around the globe to visit the birthplace of four lads that shook the earth. These plans take that extraordinary pull to another level – creating a world-class destination that will give millions more fans a reason to make the pilgrimage to their spiritual home and experience the city, its music and its culture for themselves.”
The project is being helmed by Apple Corps in tandem with Liverpool city council and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, with UK government support. Financial details of the project and its partnerships have not been disclosed.
Apple Corps’ chief executive Tom Greene compared the plans with Elvis Presley’s Graceland in Memphis or Dolly Parton’s Dollywood in Tennessee: “A world-class destination for fans to visit in the centre of the city where the story started.”
Greene is already overseeing the development of another official Beatles attraction: a renovation of ۳ Savile Row where that final rooftop concert took place. The seven-floor museum, due to open in ۲۰۲۷, will allow visitors to access the rooftop and will also recreate the building’s in-house studio where they recorded the Let It Be album, alongside showcases of Apple Corps’ archive and temporary exhibitions.
The plans come amid sustained and varied efforts to carry the Beatles’ legacy forward, not least with an ambitious four-film biopic project helmed by director Sam Mendes, telling the stories of each band member. Currently in production, those films will also arrive in ۲۰۲۸, and sets and props will be reused for the recreated environments in the new iteration of the Beatles Story.
The band’s Hamburg era is being separately told in Hamburg Days, a forthcoming BBC drama scripted by Succession writer Jamie Carragher, and a reissue programme of the Beatles’ catalogue continues: an expanded version of ۱۹۶۵’s Rubber Soul reached No ۲ in the UK charts earlier this month.
The Beatles are a big tourism draw in Liverpool, with a ۲۰۱۶ study suggesting the band added £۸۲m to the local economy each year.
The current iteration of the Beatles Story has helped to drive that success, with exhibits such as George Harrison’s first guitar and John Lennon’s glasses. The museum has won VisitEngland awards for excellence in each of the last two years.
