New Imagine mosaic for Liverpool's Strawberry Field bandstand

A huge version of the Imagine mosaic in New York’s Central Park has been unveiled at Strawberry Field in Liverpool.

The mosaic – measuring 21ft in diameter and comprising 390,000 tiles – has been installed on the floor of a new bandstand at the Beaconsfield Road Salvation Army site.

American company Mozaico Art was commissioned to create the work by Orange Amplification on behalf of Strawberry Field.

The original Imagine mosaic was presented by the Mayor of Naples and unveiled in the ‘Strawberry Fields’ area of Central Park in 1984, close to the Dakota Building where John Lennon lived and outside which he was shot in December 1980. Yoko Ono still lives in the Upper West Side landmark.

Liverpool’s Strawberry Field, immortalised in song by the Beatles in 1967, is a former Salvation Army children’s home which has now been opened as a visitor attraction telling the story of John Lennon’s childhood and the writing of Strawberry Fields Forever. Lennon visited the Strawberry Field grounds as a boy from his home on nearby Menlove Avenue.

The new bandstand on the site is based on the drum featured on Peter Blake’s famous Sgt Pepper album cover and has artwork by pop artist James Wilkinson. Along with the Imagine mosaic inside the structure, it has the Sgt Pepper artwork on its tilted roof.

Visitors will be able to enjoy musical and theatrical performances from the bandstand via wireless headsets while they walk around the Strawberry Field grounds.

Above: Major Kathleen Versfeld and Allister Versfeld with the new Imagine mosaic. Top: the new Bandstand at Strawberry Field.

Major Kathleen Versfeld, mission director at Strawberry Field, said: “The bandstand mosaic is a culmination of hard work and dedication by so many creative people from across the globe.

“In response to John’s death in 1980, a 2.5 acre landscape garden in the shape of a teardrop was built in Central Park in New York. The gardens were opened by Yoko Ono in John’s memory and named Strawberry Fields.

“The Strawberry Field bandstand and mosaic have been donated by Strawberry Field Honorary Patron, Cliff Cooper, CEO of Orange Amplification, and will sit in the original Strawberry Field garden in Liverpool as an enduring message of peace and hope, a beautiful new addition to our attraction.”