The address may not sound familiar, and the street name is best known as the heart of British tailoring. But 3 Savile Row is one of the most iconic buildings in British pop and rock: the former home of the Beatles\u2019 record label Apple Corps, and the location of the band\u2019s final public performance when they took to its rooftop in 1969.<\/p>\n
Apple Corps has now re-acquired the building in Mayfair, central London<\/a>, and plans to open it to the public as a new tourist attraction in 2027.<\/p>\n Across seven floors, The Beatles<\/a> at 3 Savile Row will showcase items from the Apple Corps archives and host temporary exhibitions and a shop. The biggest attractions, however, will be a recreation of the studio where the band recorded their last album, Let It Be, and access to the rooftop where that poignant final concert was performed.<\/p>\n Paul McCartney, who recently revisited the Georgian mansion house, said: \u201cThere are so many special memories within the walls, not to mention the rooftop. The team have put together some really impressive plans and I\u2019m excited for people to see it when it\u2019s ready.\u201d His bandmate Ringo Starr described it as \u201clike coming home\u201d.<\/p>\n The Beatles with Billy Preston and Yoko Ono in the recording studio at 3 Savile Row. Photograph: Ethan A Russell \/ \u00a9 Apple Corps Ltd<\/p>\n The Beatles founded Apple Corps in the late 60s to gain control of their own financial affairs and with the intention of backing other artistic and business ventures, ranging from music and film to retail and electronics. When the band split in 1970, it found new purpose as the guardian of their legacy, stewarded by their former road manager, Neil Aspinall<\/a>, until shortly before his death in 2008.<\/p>\n Apple Corps left Savile Row in 1976 and today the company\u2019s chief executive is Tom Greene, who is overseeing the ambitious return. \u201cEvery single day, fans are taking pictures of the outside of 3 Savile Row \u2013 but next year they can go in,\u201d he said. Regarding the rooftop, he confided: \u201cEven the railings remain the same from that famous day in 1969.\u201d<\/p>\n That open-air performance featured five new Beatles songs, performed across nine takes: Get Back, Don\u2019t Let Me Down, I\u2019ve Got a Feeling, One After 909 and Dig a Pony, plus a rendition of God Save the Queen. The unadvertised gig was filmed for Michael Lindsay-Hogg\u2019s 1970 documentary about the making of Let it Be<\/a>, and attracted an astonished crowd of passersby \u2013 plus the police. Two officers entered the building, climbed to the roof and switched off the band\u2019s amps, though the band still managed to perform one last take of Get Back.<\/p>\n Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, called the plans for The Beatles at 3 Savile Row \u201chugely exciting\u201d and said the attraction would \u201ccaptivate Londoners and visitors from across the globe\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Anyone thinking the project comes decades too late, meanwhile, can be disabused by the band\u2019s career in the 2020s so far.<\/p>\n In 2021, Disney released Get Back \u2013 an acclaimed reworking of footage recorded for Lindsay-Hogg\u2019s 80-minute Let it Be film. Made by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, the three-part documentary ran to nearly eight hours<\/a> and spawned a further standalone film of the 3 Savile Row performance.<\/p>\n Then, in 2023, the band released a \u201cnew\u201d song \u2013 Now and Then<\/a> \u2013 which used AI technology to enhance demo recordings<\/a> of the late John Lennon and George Harrison with newly recorded parts by McCartney and Starr. It reached No 1 in the UK, creating a record-breaking 54-year gap between chart-topping singles for a band.<\/p>\n Another documentary film followed in 2024, with the Martin Scorsese-produced Beatles \u201964<\/a> focused on the moment the band broke the US and featuring new interviews with McCartney and Starr.<\/p>\n And last year, the career-spanning Beatles Anthology project<\/a>, which originally told the band\u2019s story across three albums of demos and outtakes, a TV documentary and a book in 1995 and 1996, was reissued and updated with a fourth album and a new documentary episode.<\/p>\n McCartney and Starr, meanwhile, have continued to release new music, with McCartney\u2019s next album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane<\/a>, due for release on 29 May. Featuring ruminative songs that contemplate his parents, his marriage, his boyhood in Liverpool and his memories of his Beatles bandmates, it also includes his first ever duet with Starr.<\/p>\n Starr has released two albums in the past 15 months, exploring a country blues sound on Look Up and Long Long Road with producer T Bone Burnett and star guests such as Sheryl Crow and St Vincent.<\/p>\n And the biographies keep on coming. Sam Mendes is currently filming one about each band member<\/a>, for simultaneous release in April 2028. The \u201cfour-film cinematic event\u201d will star Paul Mescal as McCartney, Harris Dickinson as Lennon, Joseph Quinn as Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Starr.<\/p>\n Likely to arrive before that is Hamburg Days, a TV drama focusing on the band\u2019s formative years playing a concert residency in the German city\u2019s red light district. Now filming, with UK broadcast rights acquired by the BBC, the series is scripted by Jamie Carragher, part of the writing team for Succession.<\/p>\n If you can\u2019t wait for those projects, rare photos and letters from the band\u2019s formative years are currently on display in Hamburg<\/a> as part of the city\u2019s Hafengeburtstag festival, while Please Please Me, a play by Tom Wright<\/a> about the Beatles\u2019 manager, Brian Epstein<\/a>, and his closeness with John Lennon is playing this month at London\u2019s Kiln theatre.<\/p>\n Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney. Photograph: Chiabella James\/\u00a92026 CTMG, Inc., All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n