Liverpool Walk Tour 2001

We were lucky to get Liverpool's best Walk Tour guide - EDDIE PORTER!		64 Mount Pleasant was the place of a Registrer's Office. Here on Thursday 23 August 1963 JOHN married CYNTHIA. BRIAN EPSTEIN was best man. PAUL and GEORGE also attended. 25 years earlier, on 3 December 1938, John's mother JULIA had married FREDDIE LENNON. The following day Freddie sailed off for the West Indies. Julia saw little of him during their brief and stormy marriage and by the time John was 18 months old, he left them both for good.
	Eddie outside 64 Mount Pleasant

	4 Rodney Street was once a nursing home and the birthplace, on 19 September 1934, of BRIAN EPSTEIN, The Beatles' manager.
4 Rodney Street

	MATERNITY HOSPITAL , Oxford Street is the birthplace of Liverpool's most famous son - JOHN WINSTON LENNON. He was born here at 6.30 pm on Wednesday 9th October 1940.
Maternity Hospital

	FORMER ROYAL LIVERPOOL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL, Myrtle Street. (Now demolished and replaced by Liverpool Community College's Arts Centre.) RINGO suffered two long illnesses as a child. 6 years old he spent many weeks here suffering from peritonitis, and at the age of 12 he contracted tuberculosis which necessitated almost 2 years' convalescence.
Former Children's Hospital

	36 Falkner Street was the place of JOHN's and CYNTHIA's honeymoon flat. The ground floor apartment belonged to BRIAN EPSTEIN, who let them use it during the first few months of their marriage. Also here John wrote 'Do You Want To Know A Secret', later a No.1 hit for BILLY J. KRAMER with his DAKOTAS.
36 Falkner Street

Mount Street was the place of LIVERPOOL INSTITUTE -"THE INNIE". The school of PAUL McCARTNEY and GEORGE HARRISON 1953-1959. Today it's the place of Liverpool's "School of Fame" LIPA - LIVERPOOL INSTITUTE OF PERFORMING ARTS. This has been made possible through Paul McCartney's interest and donations. The whole school is renovated now. Only the front is intact. Next door to LIPA we return to...

Hope Street was the address of LIVERPOOL COLLEGE OF ART. It was JOHN LENNON's school 1957-1960. John was not a succesful student. But this was the place where he met his best friend, the talented artist STU SUTCLIFFE - later a member of The Beatles. Here he also met his future wife CYNTHIA POWELL.

	3 Gambier Terrace. Much against his AUNT MIMI's advice JOHN left the conforts of 'Mendips' to share a flat here in 1960 with STU SUTCLIFFE and ROD MURRAY, another student from Art College. Also a good place to spend time with CYNTHIA. Many were the nights she spent here, her mother believing she was staying over with a girlfriend.
3 Gambier Terrace

	THE PILGRIM was one of JOHN's favourite pubs, situated very near the Art College and in the corner of Pilgrim Street and Mount Street.
The Pilgrim

Seel Street is the place of the BLUE ANGEL CLUB. On 10 May 1960 THE SILVER BEETLES auditioned here for London rock impresario LARRY PARNES. The group didn't pass the audition. But Larry later hired them for a tour in Scotland with one of his other stars, JOHNNY GENTLE. In 1961 the club was run by ALLAN WILLIAMS, then The Beatles' manager.

23 Slater Street was the place of the JACARANDA COFFEE BAR owned by The Beatles' manager then - ALLAN WILLIAMS. The Beatles played here several times in 1960.

	NEPTUNE THEATRE, Hannover Street. In August 1997, on the 30th anniversary of BRIAN EPSTEIN's death, Liverpool City Council dedicated this theatre to his memory.
Neptune Theatre

BLUECOAT CHAMBERS, School Lane is the oldest building in the city center, dating back to 1717. Long a centre of arts, YOKO ONO appeared here on 26 September 1967 in a "happening". In September 1990 the Bluecoat staged an exhibition of works by STUART SUTCLIFFE.

MARKS & SPENCER, Church Street. Totally crazy to take a photo of a Marks & Spencer store off course. So my friends had to pose so the people in the street didn't understand. As YOU all know(?) this used to be the working place for JULIA, JOHN's mother.

12-13 Whitechapel was the place of NEMS (now Ann Summers), a record store owned by the Epstein family and managed by BRIAN EPSTEIN. It was here that, on 28 October 1961, BRIAN first heard about The Beatles when a youth called RAYMOND JONES asked for the record 'My Bonnie' with The Beatles, released in Germany only. He eventually tracked down the record and curiosity lead him, on 9 November 1961, to the CAVERN CLUB in nearby Mathew Street, where The Beatles were performing a lunchtime session. By December 1961 he had become their manager. The rest is history.

60 Stanley Street was the place of HESSY's (now Wade Smith), Liverpool's other major music store during the Merseybeat years. Here AUNT MIMI, in 1957, bought JOHN a guitar for the pricely sum of £17. Also here The Beatles bought JOHN's Hofner Club 40 guitar, GEORGE's Futurama guitar and PAUL's amplification equipment. Sadly Hessy's closed for business on 5 August 1995.


Rushworths Music Store

RUSHWORTHS ,Whitechapel is Liverpool's longest established music shop. Many of the Merseybeat groups bought their gear here including The Beatles. In 1962 the firm's Chairman JAMES RUSHWORTH presented JOHN and GEORGE with two Gibson 145 aucustic-electric guitars, specially flown in from Chicago. They were prices for being voted Liverpool's leading band in THE MERSEYBEAT poll.

	THE ELEANOR STATUE, Stanley Street. Sculptured by British pop star TOMMY STEELE in 1982 as his tribute to the Liverpudlian pop idols.
The Eleanor Rigby Statue

	WHITE STAR PUB, Button Street was an alternative venue to THE GRAPES, on Mathew Street, for The Beatles and other groups appearing at The Cavern.
White Star Pub

MATHEW STREET became the center of Liverpool's music scene during the early sixties, with music shops, record shops, coffee bars, pubs and, of course the club number one - THE CAVERN.


The Beatles Shop	A great poster

31 Mathew Street is the place of THE BEATLES SHOP, containing the widest range of Beatles memorabilia in the world. Fans can spend hours here browsing through thousands of original items to a backdrop of Beatles music, played on an original 1962 jukebox.

	DOOLEY STATUE, Mathew Street. This controversial statue by local sculptor ARTHUR DOOLEY was erected in 1974 and was the first to symbolise the relation between The Beatles and the rest of the world. A guitar-carrying cherub(!) complete with a 'Lennon Lives' halo was added in 1980 following JOHN's murder. (Phew!) The statue was renovated by Cavern City Tours in 1995.
Dooley Statue

The stylish CAVERN WALKS complex at Mathew Street opened in 1984. There you can find this full-sized statue made by JOHN DOUBLEWAY.

ALLAN WILLIAMS was The Beatles' first manager and the man who first took the group to Hamburg in 1960.
THE GRAPES is known as "The Beatles Pub". Since The Cavern didn't serve alcohol, it was the obvious choice for The Beatles and all other groups. When PETE BEST was sacked from The Beatles on 16 August 1962, he drowned his sorrows here in company with their Road Manager NEIL ASPINALL.


THE WALL OF FAME includes all the records by Liverpool artists, who have reached No. 1 in the national chart. We take a closer look at the last record...
	The Wall Of Fame

THE CAVERN PUB is situated on Mathew Street, just on the opposite side of THE CAVERN CLUB...
	Authentic Beatles instruments at The Cavern Pub

10 Mathew Street is the place of THE CAVERN CLUB. The Beatles played here 274 times, the debut on lunchtime 21 February 1961. The final performance took place on the evening of Saturday 3 August 1963. Together with other top local groups like Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Searchers ,The Fourmost and The Swinging Blue Jeans, they made The Cavern the most famous rock and roll venue of its day.

The original Cavern was closed down 27 May 1973. The fruit warehouses above The Cavern was then demolished and The Cavern was filled in. In late 1981 the site was excavated. The Cavern was intact! However the foundations of The Cavern was deemed to be unsafe. In 1982 the original Cavern was knocked down. The original bricks were saved, treated and utilised in re-building of The Cavern on its original site to its original dimensions. In 1984 The Cavern re-opened on its original site.

Just opposite the street of The Cavern Club you find this brick-wall with all the artists, that have performed at the legendary club.