The plaza located between the State Department Store and the Circus has an unofficial name – Beatles Square, so named after the monument to the Fab Four located close to its northern end. The monument features bronze images of John, Paul (barefooted), George and Ringo on one side, and on the other, a sculpture of a young man sitting in a stairwell strumming a guitar.
The sculpture recalls the 1970s era in Ulaanbaatar when groups of teenagers would gather in apartment stairwells and sing Beatles songs, which they learned from contraband records smuggled in from Eastern Europe. The plaza – surrounded by cafes, restaurants and cashmere shops – is a popular meeting place and hub of activity in summer when locals relax by the fountains.
In August 2017 locals hit the street in protest against plans to bulldoze the square for commercial development; though regardless of how it plays out, the Beatles statue is expected to remain.
