The Beatles Statues: Liverpool Travel Guide (4.7★)

Four men mid-stride on the waterfront

John, Paul, George and Ringo are walking. Andy Edwards cast them in bronze a little larger than life, heading along the Pier Head promenade in a loose line. They’re set right down at pavement level, so you can step in among them rather than look up at them on a plinth.

The Cavern Club gave the statues to the city. They were unveiled in December 2015, fifty years after the band’s last Liverpool concert. Behind them rise the Three Graces: the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building. Few other photo backdrops in the city tell a visitor so plainly where they are.

Reading the bronze up close

Get close enough to see the details. The sculptor worked small, personal references into the figures. The best known is John’s hand, which holds a pair of acorns, a nod to the acorns for peace he sent out with Yoko Ono.

Walk right round the group before you take any photos. Their clothes and poses carry other small touches that fans like to spot, and you’ll miss them if you only see the four from the front. Rain darkens the bronze, but on a dry day the hands and shoes are visibly shinier. That’s years of visitors touching them.

A proper look and a few photos take 15 to 20 minutes. Allow longer if you want the shot with nobody else in it.

Timing your photo

This spot is popular, and the crowd follows a clear pattern. On weekdays, the whole stretch from 7am to 11pm counts as the quiet window, so a Tuesday afternoon is usually easy. Weekends are different. Try not to arrive between 10am and 7pm on a Saturday or Sunday, because that’s when the queue for photos builds.

If a weekend is your only chance, go before 10am or after 7pm. Early morning also gives you the water behind you with fewer people walking through the frame. Most Liverpool days are overcast, and flat grey light is actually kind to bronze. You get fewer harsh shadows across the faces.

Taking your turn at Pier Head

Nobody runs the queue here. It’s informal, but people respect it, and this is how it usually works:

• Wait at the edge of the group until the people ahead have finished their shots, then step in.
• Offer to take a photo for the next group. Most people will do the same for you, and it keeps things moving.
• The classic pose is walking in step with the four, as if you’ve joined the band. A second favourite is squeezing between two of them with an arm round each.
• Keep it quick when there’s a line behind you. Take a few frames, check one, then move on.

The statues stand in open public space, with no gate and no ticket. That also means nobody is going to clear a space for you. Patience and an early start do more for your photo than anything else.

Getting to the river

Pier Head sits at the western end of the city centre, right on the Mersey. The closest rail stop is James Street on the Merseyrail network, a short walk downhill to the water. From Liverpool Lime Street, the main intercity station, it’s roughly a 20 to 25 minute walk through the centre. You can also take a Merseyrail connection to James Street.

The Mersey Ferries terminal is on the same promenade, so the statues make an easy stop before or after a river cruise. The waterfront is flat and paved, which makes it straightforward for pushchairs and wheelchairs.

A Beatles walk from here

The statues are a natural start to a longer Beatles day. These stops are all close by:

• The Beatles Story at Royal Albert Dock, a few minutes’ walk south along the water, covers the band’s history in detail.
• Museum of Liverpool is next to Pier Head and tells the wider story of the city and its music.
• Mathew Street and the Cavern Club are about 10 to 15 minutes inland on foot, where the band played hundreds of early gigs.
• The Three Graces are right behind you, so it’s worth walking along their frontages while you’re here.

A good order is statues first, while the waterfront is still quiet, then the Albert Dock, then up to Mathew Street as the day goes on. You’ll be walking from the river towards the busier streets rather than against the flow.