Beatles Story to leave Royal Albert Dock and move into 100,000 sq ft of space at Liverpool’s former St Johns Market and St Johns Beacon in a project backed by the Beatles’ own company Apple Corps, boosting the city’s £120m-a-year Fab Four industry. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool’s former 100,000 sq ft St Johns Market is to be transformed into a spectacular 100,000 sq ft Beatles attraction.
Apple Corps, the company set up by the Fab Four in 1968 to handle their business interests, is to take over the running of existing attraction The Beatles Story, currently owned and operated by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
In 2028 The Beatles Story will leave its current home at the Royal Albert Dock and relocate into the former market hall within St Johns centre which is a space four times its current size.
In March 2024 Liverpool City Council closed down the 200-year-old St Johns Market with “immediate effect” due to £1.7m in unpaid rent and service charges. It meant the tenancies of the 43 traders ceased immediately.
Since then the city council has sought a new use for the space and now it will be utilised as a major attraction for Beatles fans from all over the world. In addition, the iconic St Johns Beacon will also house a Yellow Submarine themed viewing experience over the city of Liverpool.
Apple Corps, owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison, will use immersive technology, original artefacts and spectacular reconstructed sets to bring the Beatles’ extraordinary story to life.
Chief executive Tom Greene said: “Liverpool birthed the greatest band in history and today we are announcing a new experience in the city that does justice to that legacy.
“Just like Graceland or Dollywood, it’s fitting that The Beatles will have a world class destination for fans to visit in the centre of the city where the story started.
“It marks a new chapter in Apple Corp’s history and we can’t wait for people to see what we’ve been working on.”
LIverpool’s Beatles industry is worth an estimated £120m a year. In the last few weeks Cavern City Tours, which owns the world famous ‘birthplace of The Beatles, the Cavern Club’, was sold to a London-based investor after seeing its annual revenues soar to £12m.
During a multi-hour experience at the new attraction, visitors will journey through the world that created The Beatles, from the streets of post-war Liverpool, through their formative years in Hamburg and the explosion of Beatlemania, to the heights of their international fame.
Fans will be able to step inside some of the most iconic locations and moments in Beatles history, including The Cavern, Abbey Road, Shea Stadium, Savile Row and many more.
A number of these immersive locations will be created using sets and props from Sam Mendes’ upcoming The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event, which Sony will release in cinemas around the world in April of 2028.
The St Johns Beacon Yellow Submarine themed experience will also give fans the opportunity to enjoy a panoramic 360-degree view of Liverpool, taking in the landmarks and key locations where pop history was made.
Liverpool’s second tallest building, The Beacon will operate as a standalone attraction, although fans will be able to bundle both experiences for a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Speaking about the new venture Paul 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.
“The extraordinary plans the Apple Corps team have shown me for The Beatles Story take me right back to that journey, from Liverpool to the world and back home again. It couldn’t have happened without Liverpool and I can’t wait for people to be able to step into our story and share the experience.
Register at thebeatles.com/liverpool for further news and details.