Beatles fans can follow in John Lennon’s footsteps

From tomorrow, visitors will have the chance to walk through the gardens of the Strawberry Field home in Woolton, Liverpool, where Lennon would play as a boy.

The musician used to climb over the wall to gain entry to the Beaconsfield Road home, which he later immortalised in song, but the Salvation Army is now opening the site’s famous red gates to the public as a tourist attraction and youth training centre.

Lennon’s sister, Julia Baird, 72, who is also honorary president of the Strawberry Field project, told the PA news agency the grounds of the home had been a “sanctuary” for the musician as a youngster.

She said: “I suppose as children we all have somewhere that’s a bit ours, a bit special.

“It might be a little hidey-hole under the stairs or it might be up an oak tree but it’s somewhere we take ourselves off and that’s a special place.

“It seems from the song that this was John’s special place.”

The Salvation Army ran a children’s home at the site from 1936 until 2005.

The home was made famous by The Beatles song in 1967 and around 60,000 tourists pose for photos outside its distinctive gates every year.