Liverpool`s Abbey Road

With the controvery raging over the future of the old Abbey Cinema in Wavertree, it seems that two undoubted facts need to be taken into consideration. Firstly, that the popularity wordwide of the Beatles is set to last for many more years, and secondly, that Liverpool as a city could be doing far more to attract even more Beatle fans from all over the world. The first point is incontrovertible, and if the record company currently in charge of their recordings had any sense and re-released all the Beatles` albums on vinyl, with the original sleeve designs and at cut-price rates, yet more fans would be added. The second some might dispute, but seeing (last year!) hundreds of foreign tourists waiting to have their photographs taken beside the Penny Lane roadsign, should be evidence enough! After travelling thousands of miles, there has to be some disappointment that the city celebrates one of the most famous songs ever written with a meagre road sign! Now might be the time to promote again the building in the centre of Penny Lane, once Sergeant Pepper`s bistro, into becoming a Beatles` visitor centre, focussing on the Pepper album and the 1967 period. As well as information and posters on the walls relating to the period, I`m sure people with Beatle connections would be willing to voice or write messages, and there could be plenty of opportunities to buy Beatle merchandise. Just up the road a few hundred yards is the old Abbey Cinema, about to become a Lidl supermarket. Is it beyond the realms of possibility to believe that the council could come to some arrangement with the German owners, so that the bottom floor would be the shopping area whilst on higher floors would be a council-controlled Beatle Centre? Lidl could possibly sponsor it and consequently be allowed to use it in advertising etc. whilst the council could develop its potential for attracting fans by concentrating on the last year of the Beatles, and, of course, the album, Abbey Road. There would be planty of scope for music, videos, Rooftop Concert clips, and such like, plus yet more merchandise selling. Last but not least, why not change the name of the road linking Penny Lane and the old cinema, with a designated and safe cycle lane between the two, with the council providing the bikes! 2022 sees the 60th anniversary of the release of Love Me Do. Can anyone think of a better way for the city to celebrate, and benefit, than from the opening of two new Beatle visitor centres, and of Liverpool`s own Abbey Road?