Liverpool (AFP)

Beatles fans can now roam John Lennon's playground with the public opening of the "Strawberry Fields" in Liverpool (North England) that inspired their cult-favorite psychedelic song.

It is actually a garden surrounding an orphanage held by the Salvation Army in the Woolton neighborhood. "He became famous because of the connection with John Lennon, he was passing over the fence from behind his aunt's garden and he was coming to play with the children," AFP Allister Versfeld told AFP. 'Salvation Army.

"It was a sort of sanctuary for him, he found there peace and calm," he adds.

Feelings found in the song with its flowing accents and mysterious lyrics: "Let me take you away / because I'm going to Strawberry Fields / nothing is real / and there's no problem to be done / Strawberry Fields for always...".

For Allister Versfeld, the song describes "a space he had found and a place that was dear to him".

"All the children have a secret garden, maybe a hiding place under the stairs, or the branches of a big oak," says Lennon's sister, Julia Baird, 72, interviewed by the British agency Press Association. "It seems from the song that for John, it was that place."

- Red grills -

The site has been open since September 14 to the public. So far, the many fans were content to photograph the famous red grids giving access to the park, at the rate of some 60,000 visitors per year.

The building, an old Victorian house, was an orphanage run by the Salvation Army since 1936.

In the 1970s, it was demolished to make room for a modern building. But it was closed in 2005. It has just reopened as a training center for young adults and place of memory for the murdered Beatle in 1980 in New York at the age of 40 years.

The original red grills were reinstalled for fans on Beaconsfield Road. In addition to the gardens, visitors can browse an exhibition of the site's history and its connection to John Lennon.

The Graceland Museum in Memphis has lent souvenirs to recall Lennon's passion for Elvis Presley. The manuscript of an unfinished song and a virtual mellotron are among the exhibits.

Lennon was raised by her aunt even though her half-sister Julia lived in the neighborhood until she died in a car accident when he was 18 years old.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" was released first in 1967 in single with "Penny Lane" on the B side, the song rising to the second place of the hit parade behind "Release Me" of the crooner Englebert Humperdink.

Lennon wrote it on a shoot in Spain. It was recorded during the sessions of "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" but it does not appear on the album, considered the quartet's masterpiece.

It marked the shift of the classical pop group to more complex sounds including unusual instruments like the mellotron and the Indian zither.

© 2019 AFP