Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In the Footsteps of the Fab Four
In the new
Museum of Liverpool
(p. 585), you can learn much about
local heroes The Beatles, a band that,
hugely influenced by its place of birth,
changed popular music and wider cul-
ture on a global scale. The Wondrous
Place gallery displays unique band-
related objects, including the original
stage on which John Lennon's band
The Quarrymen played in 1957 when
he met Paul McCartney. But there are
plenty more Liverpool sights and
attractions for Beatles aficionados. Pier
Head and Albert Dock are each home
to a
Beatles Story “experience”
,
(
&
0151/709-1963;
www.beatlesstory.
com). The one at the Dock has band
memorabilia including George Harri-
son's first guitar, a kids' discovery zone,
a replica
Cavern Club
(where the band
played in the early '60s), and even a
Beatles-themed Starbucks; the smaller
Pier Head site has special exhibitions
and the Fab4D “multisensory” journey.
They're open daily April to October,
9am to 7pm, 10am to 6pm the rest of
the year; tickets (£13, £7 children 5-16)
give access to both locations.
Of the many Beatles tours on offer,
the best are
Cavern City Tours
(
&
0151/236-9091;
www.beatlestour.
org), which end at and include a look
around the legendary Cavern Club.
Tickets for the 2-hour bus-and-club
tour cost £15. For truly ardent fans,
Pool of Life
(
&
0151/283-4349;
www.pooloflifetours.com) offers both
full-day Beatles Extravaganza Tours
(£95 per person) or custom tours last-
ing from 2 hours to 2 days. Alterna-
tively, you can just drop into the
Cavern Club,
10 Mathew St. (
&
0151/
236-9091;
www.cavernclub.org), still
an active bar and club hosting new
and tribute bands, open daily
from 10:30am.
To tour both
Mendips
and
20
Forthlin Road,
Lennon and McCartney's
childhood homes, restored to how they
would have looked in the 1950s, you
need to book a place on a minibus from
the city center (
&
0151/427-7231;
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/beatles);
there's no independent access. Tickets
cost £20 (£3.40 children 5-16). Tours
run February to November and book
up well in advance.
Finally, diehard fans may want to
check into the
Hard Days Night Hotel,
North John Street (
&
0151/236-1964;
www.harddaysnighthotel.com), com-
bining Beatles themes with boutique
chic. Themed offers include an “All You
Need is Love” package at £384 for 2
people for 2 nights in a luxury room,
with breakfast, Beatles Story entry, a
Cavern City Tour, Cavern Club member-
ship cards, and hotel T-shirts.
15
Heading south from here brings you to
The Bluecoat
, School Lane
(
&
0151/702-5324;
www.thebluecoat.org.uk), providing workspace for many of
Liverpool's creative artists and showcasing visual art, live art, literature, music, and
dance. The oldest building in the center (it was originally a school), this is where Yoko
Oko gave her first paid performance, around the time she met Lennon. Family
activities at weekends and a pretty courtyard make it kid-friendly.
South and uphill of the center lie Liverpool's two cathedrals. On St. James's
Mount, the
Anglican Cathedral Church of Christ (Liverpool Cathedral)
(
&
0151/709-6271;
www.liverpoolcathedral.org.uk) was built between 1904 and
1978, making it the world's newest Gothic-style cathedral. It's also England's largest
