Beatles Story prepares to reopen to Fab visitors
Liverpool’s Beatles Story is set to reopen its doors today.
The Royal Albert Dock attraction will welcome visitors again after four months of closure.
Beatles Story bosses have worked hard to make the museum – which runs through the basement of part of the original Jesse Hartley grade I listed dock site – safe for both visitors and staff.
Only 26 visitors will be allowed to enter on timed tickets each 15 minutes during the day, and people are being urged to pre-book online. Visitors will be able to bring their own headphones to use the audio guides, and hand sanitiser stations are being set up around the site.
Many areas of the exhibition space have been completely revamped during closure and there are a number of new exhibits being revealed for the first time by the award-winning Fab Four crowd-pleaser.
In the 2019/20 season The Beatles Story, which celebrated its 30th birthday in May, welcomed almost 320,000 people from across the world.
But like all other Liverpool tourist venues, it was forced to shut in March when the country went into lockdown because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Visitors to the world’s largest permanent Beatles attraction take an immersive journey through the lives, times and music of the world’s greatest band with recreations of key locations and moments from their career including The Casbah Club, Hamburg, The Cavern Club and Abbey Road Studios.
Only the India room and the Discovery Zone will off limits to the public when it reopens because of a lack of separate entrance and exit points. And the shop will only be able to be accessed via the tour.
Meanwhile as part of its 30th anniversary celebrations the venue is launching a number of new exhibits and immersive upgrades, including a new Ringo Starr section which features a personal message to The Beatles Story from the drummer and articles from his personal collection - including T-shirts he has designed and worn - to commemorate his 80th birthday earlier this month.
The new exhibits also include a monogrammed briefcase which belonged to manager Brian Epstein and was stolen from him while the Beatles were on tour in 1966 and a ransom was demanded for its safe return. The case was eventually retrieved in a daring sting operation - but many of its personal contents were never found.
There are also rare Yellow Submarine animation stills and the Ivor Novello award presented to the Beatles for the number one song which achieved the highest certified sales of any single issued in the UK in 1966 .
General manager Mary Chadwick said: "We’ve been carefully planning ahead to ensure the safety of our customers and staff, whilst continuing to meet the high standards we set ourselves.
"We're delighted to receive Visit Britain’s‘We’re Good To Go certification meaning we can confidently reopen our doors from July 20.
“There will of course be restrictions in place and we must all still do everything we can to limit the spread of the virus. This includes extra handwashing facilities, queue management systems, restricted admission numbers and signage clearly displayed throughout our attraction. "
For more information about the reopening and ticket details visit the website HERE.