Liverpool will open a 100,000 sq ft Beatles visitor attraction in 2028, with Apple Corps taking ownership of the Beatles Story and moving it across the city. The museum, which first opened at the Royal Albert Dock in 1990, will grow to around four times its current size in part of the former St John's Market shopping centre near Lime Street station, unused since closing in 2024.
It will become the Beatles' first official fan experience in their home city. McCartney said he found it 'incredible and humbling that people are still interested in our story', adding: 'I love Liverpool. It's part of who I am, it's part of who the Beatles are.' Ringo Starr said: 'It is great to be part of this, deep down I am still a scouser.'
Apple Corps will also take over and renovate St Johns Beacon, a 450ft tower that has been unused since 2024, as a separate attraction themed on the animated film Yellow Submarine. The new museum is being billed as a 'multi-hour experience' recreating settings from the band's history: their Liverpool childhood homes, the Cavern club, Hamburg's nightclubs, Abbey Road, Shea Stadium and the Savile Row rooftop where they played their final concert in 1969.
A new charity, the Apple Corps Liverpool Trust, will receive a portion of every ticket sold and use it to fund initiatives for local musicians. The project is being developed by Apple Corps with Liverpool city council, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and UK government support. Financial details have not been disclosed.
Apple Corps chief executive Tom Greene compared the plans to Graceland in Memphis and Dollywood in Tennessee, describing 'a world-class destination for fans to visit in the centre of the city where the story started'. Liverpool's mayor, Steve Rotheram, said the plans would give 'millions more fans a reason to make the pilgrimage to their spiritual home', while Greater Manchester's Andy Burnham praised 'the kind of ambition I want to see more of across Britain'.
The Beatles are already a major draw for Liverpool: a 2016 study suggested the band added £82m a year to the local economy. The museum forms part of a wider wave of Beatles projects, including a renovation of 3 Savile Row due in 2027 that will recreate the rooftop and in-house studio used for Let It Be, and a four-film biopic project directed by Sam Mendes that is due in 2028, with its sets and props to be reused in the new museum. An expanded reissue of Rubber Soul reached No 2 in the UK charts earlier this month.