It feels like a long way up from the nearby basement of the Cavern Club to the steel and glass penthouse extensions that sit above the new Hard Days Night Hotel in Liverpool. When the Beatles were playing locally back in 1961 they would never have dreamt of such lofty decadence.

Housed in the magnificent Grade II listed Central Buildings, built in 1884 in North John Street, this is the icing on the cake of another temple - an entire block, in fact - to the city’s favourite sons, which is finally due to open ten years and more than £20 million after its owners first had the idea.

From the £650-a-night Lennon and McCartney suites on the fifth and sixth floors, respectively, of the “world’s first” Beatles-themed hotel, you can survey the rooftops and cranes of central Liverpool and its swanky not-yet-finished £1 billion Liverpool One retail project.

The Lennon room comes with white baby grand piano, while upstairs the showpiece in Sir Macca’s suite is a knight’s suit of armour (a nod to his knighthood).

When the doors open on February 1 guests will be greeted by four statues of the Beatles over the cathedral-like arched main door. A gold banister lined staircase leads up to the Brasserie and reception, where hundreds of sheets of Beatles’ music hang from the ceiling and a frieze of black and white stills of the Fab Four runs like a film reel across the top of the entrance wall.

The lobby’s star feature, however, is a bright Yellow Submarine jukebox, apparently one of only 1,000 in existence. And, you’ve guessed it, Beatles music plays night and day throughout the hotel.

The hotel’s feature restaurant Blakes (named after Sir Peter Blake, who designed the cover of the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album) looks a promising space, with its dark wood interior, vast windows and giant white lampshades spawning big clear bulbs. The restaurant management team, who hail from Claridges and Kensington Place in London, will be overseen by images of everyone on the cover of the groundbreaking LP while serving “modern British and local, seasonal food” to 80 covers.

The marketing team describe the 110-room four-star hotel as “boutique” but it lacks the intimacy and truly original touches to be classified as such. In the rooms you can watch Beatles films piped directly on to a flat-screen TV while lounging beneath artwork by Beatles artist Shannon, whose work is mediocre at best. Other artworks, acquired from Lennon’s relatives and Mike McCartney (Paul’s brother), are scattered around the hotel.

“The key thing is the art work,” said Neil Sankey, the marketing manager, during a sneak preview. Hmm, perhaps they should concentrate on the music.

The hotel has some nice touches. It claims to be the only hotel in Liverpool where each of the three concierges hold the “key to the city”, meaning they are brimming with useful local knowledge. The sweeping ornate staircase has been restored and is punctuated by polished marble pillars. It encloses a half-moon underlit glass lift still in its original shaft. And maintenance is informed instantly by email when a bulb blows anywhere in the building.

Downstairs, though, is a bit of a write off. An underground conference room with swirling brown Seventies’ style carpet sits in a dead end beyond the token Buddha-themed Hari’s Bar, a bow to the Beatles trippy Indian spell, decked out with the sort of artefacts commonly found at kitsch spas and clad in hideously expensive £1,000-a-roll silk wallpaper.

“It’s the sort of private place we can shut off for exclusive celebrity use,” said Sankey. Grand - very egalitarian and community spirited in the best Liverpool tradition. Not.

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