 A SECOND Beatles Story museum is to open on Liverpool’s waterfront. The attraction will be part of the new Pier Head-based Mersey Ferries terminal. The £10.5m centre, being built now in front of the Three Graces, is due to open in the late summer. The museum is part of the hugely popular Beatles Story. Based at the nearby Albert Dock, it attracts some 200,000 visitors a year. The Pier Head exhibition will link up with the ferry service. A single ticket offers customers entry to the Beatles experience and a ferry across the Mersey.
 The new extension will feature a four-dimensional theatre which promises to take visitors on a "magical journey through the music of The Beatles" complete with motion, smoke and water. Special exhibition areas and a Fab4Store will also be set up. Beatles Story director Jerry Goldman said he hoped it would be ready to open at the same time as the ferry terminal. He said: "Although we are close to completing a massive extension at Albert Dock there were certain things we had to drop because we did not have enough space. "The ferry terminal proposal gives us the opportunity to complete the picture and attract all the people around the Pier Head using the ferry terminal. "Combining the two will boost business for both sites tremendously and create something fantastic at the Pier Head to complement what we have at Albert Dock." The scheme was approved by Merseytravel yesterday. Chief executive of Merseytravel Neil Scales said: "We promised something special for the Pier Head - a visitor attraction like no other. "Our commitment to the Mersey Ferries is as strong as ever and we have backed up that commitment with more than £40m of investment over the last 10 years. "As well as having the most popular paid-for attraction in the region we are looking to boast three top-class visitor attractions at each of our three terminals - a new Beatles Story exhibition at the Pier Head, Spaceport at Seacombe and the U-534 at Woodside." The Beatles Story, the world’s only permanent Fab Four exhibition, opened in 1990 and tells the tale of their creation, career and break-up. The size of its Albert Dock home is being doubled with facilities such as a new gallery dedicated to The Beatles’ solo careers and a hands-on interactive discovery zone due to open within weeks. The new ferry terminal replaces the previous interchange and the Shanghai Palace restaurant which were demolished last year. Its design was heavily criticised by Liverpool council a year ago with councillors saying they felt "blackmailed" into backing it so European funding was not lost. nick.coligan@liverpool.com | 
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