The Beatles will open a museum on the site of their last gig

The Beatles are turning the building where they played their last ever gig into an exhibition space, where fans can experience seven floors of memorabilia and never-before-seen archive material.

A Grade II listed mansion, 3 Savile Row served as the band's headquarters between 1968 and 1972 - and they recorded their final album, Let It Be, in the basement.

Sir Paul McCartney told the BBC that he wanted fans to have an official Beatles destination in London.

"Tourists come to England and they can go to Abbey Road, but they can't go inside [and] it snares up the traffic and the drivers get really annoyed," he said. "So I thought this was a terrific idea."

Officially titled "The Beatles at 3 Savile Row", the experience is due to launch in 2027. Fans can register for tickets on the band's website from today.

The building will include a recreation of the basement studio where Let It Be was recorded, and the opportunity to relive the Beatles' iconic rooftop concert on exactly the spot where it happened.

Other details are yet to be revealed, but Sir Paul gave an idea of how the venue will operate.

"Well, you go in on the ground floor, and there's memorabilia and stuff like that.

"Then you work your way up through the building, and [see] various things that happened here and there, until you get to the top, where you go out on the roof and pretend to be a Beatle."

Naturally, the building will also contain a shop for licensed Beatles products.

"You know, a retail thing... but you want that," Sir Paul said.

"You even want that at the National Trust, you know? You've got to have a souvenir."

The Beatles' rooftop concert, which took place in January 1969, was the last time anyone saw the Fab Four perform in public - but it nearly never happened.

Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who filmed the show, recalled that some of the members wanted to pull the plug at the last minute.

"George didn't want to do it and Ringo started saying he didn't really see the point"

"Then John said, 'Oh, [expletive] it - let's go do it.'"

So the band climbed five storeys and created pandemonium in the middle of the day, as fans realised what was happening and rushed to vantage points on the streets and rooftops of neighbouring buildings.

They played for 42 minutes - in a set including Don't Let Me Down, I've Got A Feeling and two versions of Get Back - before complaints from local tenants forced the police to pull the plug.

The footage was recently restored and cleaned up for Peter Jackson's Get Back documentary; and a blue plaque on 3 Savile Row commemorates the gig.

The building was home to many notable figures before the Beatles set foot on the doorstep.