A new mural of John Lennon and Paul McCartney stands out beneath Penny Lane's rather grey suburban skies.
It is a damp and overcast October day and the Mossley Hill street is quiet, with a few people going about their daily business. It is 55 years since the release of The Beatles song which catapulted Penny Lane to world fame. Bar references to the band dotted down the road, you could be forgiven for thinking that it hasn't really changed.
The 1967 song is an ode to normal life on and around Penny Lane. The lyrics mention the barber, the former fire station on Mather Avenue and the "shelter in the middle of the roundabout" - the now uninhabited Sgt. Pepper's Bistro, which was once a tram stop.
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Though businesses have come and gone in the intervening years, Penny Lane still resembles the road described in McCartney's lyrics - world fame has not dramatically altered it. One of the area's councillors Richard Kemp summed it up by saying: "It's still our high street, it's where we go to do things."
It could be argued that Penny Lane's fame, courtesy of the song, created a contradiction for the road - it became famous for being normal. Tourists do flock to the road in their thousands, but people working there told the ECHO that more could be made of it.
There are different views from people in the area on how it should work with that. On one side, some people who spoke to the ECHO wanted more to be done to accentuate its Beatles association.
Julie Gornell, senior charity officer at Penny Lane Development Trust, said that, for Beatles fans heading to Penny Lane from every corner of the globe, there is a risk of them saying: "is that it?" once they arrive on what is still a suburban street.
However, as it was celebrated by The Beatles for representing the everyday normality of their South Liverpool upbringing, there is an alternate view that turning Penny Lane into a commercialised tourist hotspot could cost the road the authenticity and character that McCartney wrote about.
'Is it a missed opportunity? Definitely'
A statue of John Lennon now stands where Penny Lane meets Allerton Road. Having been installed at the junction by St Barnabas Church in August, it will remain for at least six months.
The statue was previously set up outside St George's Hall in 2019 and has since been around the world. Funding has been secured to keep it in Liverpool for the next six months, but more would be required to keep it here indefinitely.
For Colin Rimmer, the statue represents the first meaningful step towards embracing Penny Lane's Beatles fame and attracting people onto the road. Colin's parents bought newsagent Rimmers of Penny Lane in 1962 and he grew up around the shop, working there before going to university. He took it over in 1990 and has remained since, with the shop now a Londis.
Colin said he has noticed plenty of change on the road in that time, with a number of businesses closing as shopping habits change. He thinks the shops and bars on Penny Lane would benefit from increased exposure.
He told the ECHO : "My shop has had to evolve because newsagents were dying off - and still are. So you become a convenience store, I still sell papers, but I sell everything - including craft beer.
"Penny Lane is bohemian, rustic, just down to earth. Businesses have got to survive by providing facilities, goods and produce to people in the local area - especially the people in the area who don’t have cars and don’t want to go into Tesco."
However, Colin believes things could be different if more was done to attract tourists and encourage them to spend their money on Penny Lane. He said: " Is it a missed opportunity? Definitely", before adding: "M ore businesses would have stayed there if there was more customer flow."
Though Penny Lane remains a big attraction and countless tour buses head there, coaches drive through, showing passengers Penny Lane without stopping, while pedestrians tend to take a photo of the road sign and move on. Colin believes the plot of land on Millennium Green - formerly the site of Liverpool Schoolboys' football ground - could be used as a coach park and aid this problem.
He said: "We still get as many tourists - if not more. The Beatles tour buses go up the road, but they don’t stop.
"If they had a half hour stop in that plot of land, they could self-fund it. The council could put their own feature in on Penny Lane, the coaches could pull in, they’d have a tourist centre.
"The Beatles aren’t going away. I think Penny Lane has missed an opportunity, maybe because it's been left as it was and doesn’t have any funding."
Carmelo Giallombardo, who runs Bonjourno Deli on Penny Lane, shares Colin's belief. Carmelo moved to Liverpool four years ago and set up his business during lockdown.
He is surprised that more is not made of Penny Lane. He told the ECHO : "There are some tourists who just walk around, but not many stop or come in.
"I personally think they should make the street more attractive, the council could do something with the Millennium Green. I think that’s got huge potential. You still have businesses like here.
"I think any place in the world, if they had an attraction like The Beatles, they would invest. Definitely more should be done."
'Part of the charm is that it’s so similar to the road that Paul wrote about'
Next to the Millennium Green is the Penny Lane Development Trust. A community centre and Beatles visitor centre, it opened its doors in 2010, having been established in 2003 to save the nearby fields from a housing development.
The building is now home to the aforementioned mural of Lennon and McCartney, which looks out onto the road. The mural, which was painted by Paul Curtis, was completed a matter of weeks ago.
In its centre's garden is decked out with The Beatles theme. A yellow submarine, donated by the Cavern Club stands in the grounds, alongside the former gates from the Mather Avenue fire station, while a wall is specially decorated to celebrate the fab four.
The trust's building is often visited by guides who come out to the city's suburbs to show tourists Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields. A map in the trust's gift shop shows that people have come from all over the world, including far-flung locations like Angola and Bermuda.
The trust's senior charity officer Julie Gornell told the ECHO : " I used to live on Penny Lane with my husband. When you live here, you don’t always feel the significance of The Beatles song and what it means to so many people.
"I always explain to people that come here that Penny Lane is a community. It’s not just some unassuming little walkthrough. Behind the houses is the local primary school that John and George attended. Next door is the local pub - The Quarrymen played there. This site itself was a football ground."
"You’ve got the local church where Paul was a choir boy and you’ve got the local shops over the road. To local people it’s just Penny Lane, but to people thousands of miles away it is the Penny Lane."
She added: "Part of the charm is that it’s so similar to the road that Paul wrote about 60 years ago." Despite that, Julie believes more could be done to attract people and live up to being the Penny Lane.
She said: "I think so much more could be made of Penny Lane. I’ve always campaigned for that - for years. When you get to Penny Lane, it’s almost like ‘is that it?’
"I’ve worked with The Beatles legacy group for some time now and we’ve said that there should be something at both ends of the road to signpost what there is. John is down at the bottom of the road now, but they need something to come down here.
"We got Paul Curtis to do the mural. I’ve sensed a big difference since that - it doesn’t take a lot.
"We’re here for 99 years. So as long as we don’t go under, there will be somewhere for people who love The Beatles can come. The more we have to offer, the more they’ll want to come."
'I want to see what Paul captured'
Richard Kemp is one of the Church Ward's councillors, which Penny Lane currently falls under. However, the road will soon lend its name to its ward in 2023 when a boundary change will create a council ward named Penny Lane.
Cllr Kemp believes this will be a plus and allow the entire area to benefit from the iconic name. He told the ECHO: " I am very keen to take Penny Lane as a whole, where we’ve got some good traders and a great sense of space. I’d like to get a business association going, working alongside the community and work out how to get people to stop on Penny Lane and use the businesses.
He added: "When I’ve spoken to people who have been on the Liverpool bus tours and what have you, they say that there wasn’t much on Penny Lane. I say that there’s my Londis and my pub - it’s our high street, it’s where we go to do things.
"For me, it’s about going down the Londis and buying some very good craft beers. It involves chatting to people and all that sense of community. The Beatles song captures the point of it."
He shares the frustrations with traders on the road, though, saying that not enough tourists stop or spend money there. In terms of changing this, Cllr Kemp said that the issue of Sgt. Pepper Bistro - the aforementioned empty building in the middle of the roundabout - is what he has been asked most about over the past 20 years.
The building has been empty since 2003 and its owner spoke to the ECHO last week about his hopes to find a suitable tenant soon. Heritage and tourism campaigner Jonathan Brown said to the ECHO: "The Beatles made Penny Lane the most famous street on earth" and added: "it’s ‘very strange’ that Penny Lane’s centrepiece has been empty for decades, when it could be used to celebrate the city’s songs in all sorts of colourful and creative ways."
Cllr Kemp said he just wants something done about the site, to ensure it is "neat and tidy".
Taking empty units and providing further reasons for people to stop on Penny Lane can be no bad thing. However, one Beatles fan believes that drastic change should be avoided.
Daniel, 25, from Haworth, West Yorkshire, is in favour of keeping Penny Lane the way it is. He has made a number of trips to Liverpool in the past to view The Beatles sights and for him, the charm is that the road offers a view into the world that the band grew up in.
He told the ECHO: "I think the fans making a pilgrimage want it to be authentic. I don't need a Beatles cafe, I want to see what Paul captured."
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