Strawberry Field, Liverpool

Strawberry Field is the site of a former Salvation Army children's home on Beaconsfield Road in Woolton, south Liverpool, a few minutes from John Lennon's childhood home. Lennon played in its grounds and named "Strawberry Fields Forever" after it. The Salvation Army opened the site to the public on 14 September 2019.

From shipping magnate's house to children's home

The first building here was a Victorian Gothic Revival mansion. The earliest record of it dates from 1870, and one early owner was the shipping magnate George Warren. The Salvation Army acquired the property in 1934 and opened it as a children's home on 7 July 1936. At first it took up to 40 girls; young boys were admitted from the 1950s.

Dry rot and structural problems brought the mansion down in 1973. A purpose-built home replaced it, split into three family units of 12 children each. That home closed in January 2005.

The garden parties Lennon went to

John Lennon lived a short walk away at Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue, about 400 m from Strawberry Field in a straight line. As a boy he went to the home's summer garden parties and played in the grounds with friends. His aunt Mimi later said the place had always fascinated him.

He began writing "Strawberry Fields Forever" in Almería, Spain, in autumn 1966, while he was there filming How I Won the War. The Beatles spent November and December 1966 recording it at EMI Studios in London. It was released in February 1967 as a double A-side with "Penny Lane" and reached number 2 in the UK, the band's first single since 1963 that did not top the chart there.

Which red gates are the real ones

The gates at the Beaconsfield Road entrance are not the ones Lennon would have known. The originals are wrought iron, painted red and about 8 ft high. On 11 May 2000 two men cut them down, loaded them into a Transit van and drove off. A dealer who had bought them handed them back to The Salvation Army. Accounts differ on whether he was an antiques dealer who acted when police asked, or a scrap dealer who realised what he had.

In 2011 the originals went into storage, and replicas made by Jim Bennett of Liverpool Architectural Metal Fabrication took their place at the entrance. After the site opened, the original gates were shown around the city and at The Beatles Story before returning to Strawberry Field. They now stand inside the gardens, so you only see them after going in. The replicas are what you photograph from the road.

What opened in 2019

For decades fans could only stand outside. The Salvation Army opened the grounds on 14 September 2019, with Lennon's sister Julia Baird as honorary president. Hoskins Architects designed the new 1,360 m² building, which holds the exhibition, a café, a shop and a training centre.

The training centre runs the Steps to Work programme for young people with learning disabilities and special educational needs. The exhibition, "Strawberry Fields Nothing is Real", covers the children's home, Lennon, the recording of the song and The Salvation Army. There is also a reflection garden built with stones from the Victorian house.

The site has kept adding things. Lennon's upright Steinway, the piano used for "Imagine", went on display on 9 October 2020, his 80th birthday, on loan from George Michael's estate. In May 2023 a bandstand given by Orange Amps founder Cliff Cooper opened, and a Ukrainian Peace Monument was unveiled the same month. Cooper also donated a rose garden honouring Beatles producer Sir George Martin and Lady Judy Martin.

Visiting

Strawberry Field is open every day from 10:00 to 17:00. The grounds, gates, café and shop are free; the exhibition and garden tour need a ticket, and children 16 and under go free with a paying adult. Parking on site is free and includes accessible spaces. Only guide dogs are allowed.

Mendips is close enough to walk between the two, but the inside of Lennon's house can only be seen on the National Trust's booked minibus tour.

Not the Central Park memorial

Strawberry Field in Liverpool is sometimes mixed up with Strawberry Fields in Central Park, New York. The New York site is a separate memorial to Lennon in Manhattan, dated 1985. Both take their name from the song. Liverpool's is the real place behind it.