Liverpool gets by with a little help from The Beatles, as music and nostalgia attract tourists and their money to the UK city
- As Britain deals with inflation and cost-of-living problems, Liverpool’s coffers are being topped up by fans of the city’s most famous export: The Beatles
- With tours of landmarks from the band’s songs and personal lives, museums and music venues, Beatles tourist spending provides a much needed income stream
It was once a thriving maritime hub, including for the transatlantic slave trade, but after years of industrial decline, Liverpool’s economy is getting a boost from its most famous sons.
“This is the most important house of the most important band of contemporary music,” Magical Mystery Tour guide Dale Roberts tells tourists outside the terraced home where The Beatles’ Paul McCartney grew up.
McCartney lived at 20 Forthlin Road before he became one of the “Fab Four” – along with John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – and a worldwide superstar.
The red-brick property is now run by heritage body the National Trust, as is Lennon’s former home at 251 Menlove Avenue. Both sites are regularly visited by fans of the band.
Like other towns and cities across the UK, Liverpool, a port city in northwest England, is facing a cost-of-living crisis.
