The smart red-and-white cafe and landscaped gardens are free to enter, the latter designed to encourage meditation and spiritual reflection. Kept in storage ever since, they will now sit in a quiet corner of the garden, while the heavily-graffitied replicas – the site of a million selfies – will remain in place on the road at the former entrance. The originals were stolen in 2000 but when the crime made the news the thieves realised what they had on their hands and dumped the gates at a local scrap metal merchant, who returned them the following day. Photograph: Gavin TraffordĪnother star attraction is the set of iconic wrought-iron red gates – or rather, both sets. The stone bench in the foreground was part of the original Strawberry Field mansion. The most fun feature is the virtual Mellotron that teaches visitors to play the song’s unmistakable opening notes. The interactive exhibition (adults £12.95, concessions £8, family of 3+2 £35) explores the history of both the Salvation Army and Lennon’s life, focusing on his childhood and the writing and recording of Strawberry Fields through archival footage, multimedia and interviews with Paul McCartney, George Martin and Julia Baird, his younger half-sister and president of the project. Income generated from the exhibition will fund the charity’s Steps to Work programme, which helps young people with learning disabilities find employment through training, mentoring and work experience. Owned and run by the Salvation Army, the attraction gives fans access to the last major missing piece in the Beatles jigsaw: the band has been so forensically analysed – with books chronicling every day of their existence and every note of music. The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever promotional film, shot in Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent. But the locked gates didn’t deter Beatles fans turning up to peek through at the overgrown Strawberry Field – the Liverpool tourist board estimated that about 60,000 visitors did so last year.
The old house was demolished six years after the song’s release, and replaced by a smaller children’s home, which closed for good in 2005. The Beatles spent a then unheard-of 55 hours of studio time on the record, creating what Time magazine called a song of “astonishing inventiveness”, adding, the band “have bridged the heretofore impassable gap between rock and classical, mixing elements of Bach, Oriental and electronic music with vintage twang to achieve the most compellingly original sounds ever heard in pop music.” Years later, Lennon took this nostalgic post-war memory of summer tea parties and brass bands and, through the prism of psychedelia and LSD, used it as the inspiration for one of the most groundbreaking songs of the 1960s. By subway, take the B or C train to 72nd Street station and enter the park.The interactive exhibition, including a projection of the original Strawberry Field mansion. Strawberry Fields is located on the west side of Central Park between 71st and 74th streets. With its reference to the 1971 hit Beatles song "Imagine," an idealistic song about a better world, and its beautiful starburst pattern, the mosaic provides comfort and inspiration for casual passerby and eager visitor alike. This contemplative space, fashioned in harmony with the original vision of Central Park creators Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, abounds with shrubs, trees, flowers, and rocks donated by 150 nations around the world.Īs part of the Garden of Peace constructed during the 1984 repairs and developments, Neopolitan artisans crafted a circular black and white marble mosaic impressed with the word "Imagine" at its center and donated it to the park. Using Yoko Ono's 1984 funding for the improvement of Strawberry Fields, Bruce Kelly designed the Garden of Peace. Two highlights of the landscape, the Garden of Peace and the Imagine monument, were created during this period of improvement (1984-1985). Thanks in part to a donation by Lennon's widow Yoko Ono in 1984, landscape architect Bruce Kelly was able to oversee the area's renovation. Strawberry Fields is located just yards away from John Lennon and Yoko Ono's home, the Dakota Apartments, where Lennon was shot. While Strawberry Fields is a popular spot for Beatles fans to gather year–round and for City residents to find solace, it is especially cherished and meaningful on the anniversary of John Lennon's death, December 8.įour months after his tragic murder on December 8, 1980, the City Council designated a 2.5 acre landscape in Central Park "Strawberry Fields," named such after the popular 1967 Beatles song "Strawberry Fields Forever." Bringing to Life "Strawberry Fields Forever"Īn essential pilgrimage for Beatles fans since John Lennon's death in 1980, Strawberry Fields, located in Central Park, is a living tribute to the man who inspired myriad of people through his music and social activism.
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