Wednesday 17th October
The childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Liverpool
We’ve said before what a wonderful job the National Trust do in the UK. We’ve certainly had our money’s worth from them. The day we saw the childhood homes of two of the Beatles was no exception. Other groups take Beatles Tours, where you stand outside and picture what it is like to be inside the houses, but the only way you can see inside the two homes is through the National Trust.
To go inside the two houses was an amazing experience. You need to book them through the National Trust (we pre-booked two months ahead as the tour is very popular) and prepay costs to cover the tour and mini bus. They do about four tours a day and take only about 13 people at a time. I know this sounds like a bit of an advert but if you’ve enjoyed the talent of the Beatles then this comes highly recommended by us! We met at a Nat Trust property at nearby Speke Hall in Liverpool and the mini bus took us firstly to 20 Forthlin Rd.
Paul McCartney’s family moved there in 1955. He lived with his mum, dad and brother Mike, a clever amateur photographer who took some great black and white photos in the early 60’s, which are on the walls in the rooms. The house was a Council home and the wallpaper and lino are still as is! The Nat Trust bought it in 1995 and have done an excellent job in keeping it as it was. The lounge still has the three different wallpapers on each wall just as it was when the parents put it there! Buying an “end of run” wallpaper roll was a cheap way to buy wallpaper and to cover the walls…one wall had an Asian scene on the paper, one wall had stripy wallpaper and the other wall had a somewhat bland pattern. The carpets were runners sewn together, (cheaper to buy than one large mat), which covered the same lino that was there in the 60’s. Our custodian was excellent in her commentary and told us that last week Mike McCartney had visited and talked to her about his memories – how important it is that homes like this remain authentic and respected, just as the two brothers want it to be. It was quite an emotional experience to know that in this lounge they practiced some of their first hits like “Hold Me Tight” and “Love Me Do”. Up on the walls were photos showing them rehearsing in that same lounge with the same Japanese wallpaper in the background. You then go through the dining room, the kitchen/laundry and then upstairs to the three bedrooms. In his small bedroom you can see some of his original art work and memorabilia and it was here that he wrote songs like “I Saw Her Standing There”. There were plenty of anecdotes about life there, how he met John Lennon at the local church fete then had him over to play music together…how Paul, being left handed, adapted his guitar by putting the strings the other way round and the story of the time when their Mum died suddenly and how that affected them. It was from here and then that they became famous and in 1963 the Beatles left home to sing their music to the world.
John Lennon lived about a mile away, with his Aunt Mimi in her home, Mendips, in Menlove Avenue from age 5-20. Years after Lennon’s death, Yoko Ono bought the house and gave it to the Nat Trust; it houses some original and some acquired pieces which she provided. The house has changed little in that time. It was more “upmarket” than the McCartneys house – Mendips had a larger garden, was a larger house, had leadlight windows and was in a “better” neighbourhood. Strawberry Fields wasn’t far away from there. Once through the back door you were in the kitchen….the kitchen where his aunt cooked many a meal for John and later on for the lodgers she’d taken in to help pay the bills. Upstairs was the small bedroom where he would play and compose. It was in this room that he did his dreaming…..and what a talent and dreamer he was - maybe “Imagine” came from thoughts from this room. It was amazing to see lying on the bed a few things like his school reports from 1955 and a few of the drawings he did as a kid. I mean - this was his school report with hand written teacher comments just like any other school kid….and for us it was overwhelming to be in a room where hits like “Please Please Me” and “Do You Want to Know a Secret” were probably written and from where the talent of ’63 emerged and the group known as the Beatles became famous!
Visiting these homes is a feeling you cannot describe. It took us days to unwind - we couldn’t stop thinking about the two experiences and how we’d seen first hand such reality and such a famous part of musical history.
