The Beatles Story, Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool

The Beatles Story is a ticketed museum about the Beatles in the Britannia Pavilion at Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool (L3 4AD). Mike and Bernadette Byrne devised it, and it opened on 1 May 1990. Inside are rebuilt versions of the Casbah Coffee Club, the Cavern Club and Abbey Road Studios. Merseytravel has run it since 2008.

From a 1987 idea to a dockside museum

Mike and Bernadette Byrne came up with the idea in 1987, after visiting a Beatles attraction in America, according to the museum's own history. They spent about two years on research and design. They picked the Albert Dock because the old waterfront was being redeveloped at the time. The museum officially opened on 1 May 1990.

It wasn't Liverpool's first attempt at a Beatles exhibition. Cavern Mecca ran from 1981 to 1984, and Beatles City from 1984 to 1986. Neither lasted. The Beatles Story has now been open for more than 36 years.

Ownership changed in 2008, when Merseytravel took over. Merseytravel is the public transport authority for the Liverpool City Region, and Wikipedia lists the museum under its Mersey Ferries business. The museum says it had welcomed more than 4 million visitors by its 25th anniversary in 2015. It also says it had generated about £300 million for the city's economy by then, and that it received more than 315,000 international visitors in 2019. Those are its own figures.

What is inside

You walk through the band's story in a series of rebuilt rooms, including versions of the Casbah Coffee Club, the Cavern Club and Abbey Road Studios. The objects on display have included John Lennon's glasses and George Harrison's first guitar, and later sections cover the solo careers of all four.

Unlike the outdoor memorials on this site, it charges for entry. OpenStreetMap lists it as wheelchair accessible and notes that booking is required. At the time we checked, the official site gave hours of 9am to 6:30pm, with last entry at 5pm. Hours can change, so check the museum's own page before you go.

Not the Mathew Street museum

Liverpool has two Beatles museums with similar names. The Beatles Story is the one at Albert Dock. The Liverpool Beatles Museum is a separate attraction at 23 Mathew Street in the Cavern Quarter, about 0.8 km away. If a ticket or review mentions Mathew Street, it's for the other one.

Free memorials within a short walk

The Beatles Story backed the John Lennon Peace Monument and lobbied to host it before it was unveiled in 2010. The monument now stands at Kings Dock, about 300 m away. The Beatles Statue at Pier Head is about 650 m to the north, and David Webster's John Lennon statue on Mathew Street is about 830 m away in a straight line.