New visitor facilities to welcome 50,000 Beatles fans a year
RIBA North West Award winner 2021
Hoskins Architects for The Salvation Army
Contract value: undisclosed
GIA: 1,360m2
The site made famous by The Beatles’ song is in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton. Once a manor house in a park setting, it was a children’s home from 1936 to 2005; and still receives more than 50,000 visitors a year. The brief reflected a wish to provide world class visitor facilities while addressing local shortfalls in training and work experience for young people with learning disabilities. The visitor centre with shop, exhibition, and café, is placed to the north, providing access and visual connection from its famous red gates. The pavilion glazed café offers views and access to woodland gardens in the west; its larch mullions echoed in the cladding of the accessible WCs, exhibition and services adjacent to the parking. The training centre is located deeper into the site and has a separate entrance. The building makes use of the sloping topography; positioned within its mature landscape setting, it is visible from the gates and grows out of its site.