PLANS FOR A VISITOR CENTRE AT THE FAMOUS STRAWBERRY FIELD HAVE BEEN REVEALED

Strawberry Field visitor centre plans revealed- 50 years TO THE DAY since The Beatles song

Salvation Army's big plans for site that inspired John's legendary 1967 Beatles song Strawberry Fields Forever

Plans for a visitor centre at the famous Strawberry Field have been revealed - 50 years to the day since the Beatles started recording their legendary song inspired by it.

The charity has submitted new plans to Liverpool council build a visitor centre and training centre at the site in Beaconsfield Road, Woolton.

Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army children’s home near John Lennon ’s childhood home at Menlove Avenue.

In 1966 he wrote Strawberry Fields Forever while reminiscing about his childhood, when he used to jump over the wall to play in the grounds with his friends.

The Beatles started recording the psychedelic masterpiece song on November 24, 1966, at Abbey Road studios.

The song was released as a double A-side with Penny Lane in February 1967. They soon became two of The Beatles best-loved songs – but the single was kept off the number one spot in the UK by Engelbert Humperdinck’s Release Me.

The gate at Strawberry Field is now one of Liverpool’s most popular Beatles tourist destinations.

The gates there now are replicas, but the originals could be brought back from storage and made accessible to the public under these new plans.

The original house at Strawberry Field was pulled down in the 1970s and replaced with a purpose-built children’s home that in turn closed in 2005.

Those existing buildings would be demolished as part of the latest plan.

The proposed new buildings would include a training centre for young adults with learning disabilities and a visitor centre with exhibition area, “community cafe” and gift shop.

The Salvation Army first won planning permission for a training centre and visitor centre at Strawberry Field in 2014 but has since revised the plans. leading to this new application.

In 1980, in one of his last interviews, John Lennon told Playboy magazine: “

Near that home (Menlove Avenue) was Strawberry Fields, a house near a boys’ reformatory where I used to go to garden parties as a kid with my friends Nigel and Pete.

“We would go there and hang out and sell lemonade bottles for a penny. We always had fun at Strawberry Fields. So that’s where I got the name. But I used it as an image. Strawberry Fields forever.”