Publisher at The American Bystander
is Blogmom of Hey Dullblog. His novels and parodies have sold 1.25 million copies in 25 languages. He lives in Santa Monica, CA, and runs The American Bystander all-star print humor magazine.
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I refuse to go to London unless I can see Paul’s Magic Piano.
Folks, a contributor is planning a trip to the UK in January and sent me this list of places to visit. “Did I miss any?”
This, I thought, is a job for the commentariat!
Did she miss any? Where else should she go?
London
British library Paul McCartney exhibit
Abbey Road
Cavendish
Kenwood
AppleLiverpool
20 Forthlin
Mendips
Julia’s house
Casbah
Cavern (such as it is)
Gambier Terrace
Liverpool Institute/Inny
Beatles Museum
Museum of Liverpool (Beatles exhibit)
Jacaranda
Grosvenor
Litherland
St. Peter’s Church (need to email to see the hall itself)
Penny Lane
Strawberry Fields
Blackpool
the chip shop
Hessy’s (site of)
British library Paul McCartney exhibit
Abbey Road
Cavendish
Kenwood
AppleLiverpool
20 Forthlin
Mendips
Julia’s house
Casbah
Cavern (such as it is)
Gambier Terrace
Liverpool Institute/Inny
Beatles Museum
Museum of Liverpool (Beatles exhibit)
Jacaranda
Grosvenor
Litherland
St. Peter’s Church (need to email to see the hall itself)
Penny Lane
Strawberry Fields
Blackpool
the chip shop
Hessy’s (site of)
Allerton Cemetery (Julia, George)
North (time permitting)
Fox and Hound (Nerk Twins)
May as well take in Savile Row, especially as nearby Bond St tube is only a couple of stops on the Jubilee Line from St John’s Wood, where Abbey Road and Cavendish Ave are found.
Thanks! What’s the Beatles link to Savile Row (other than that they probably bought suits there)? I’ve been to London and my time there will be really limited, so I’m focusing down on just Beatles things.
@Faith, the Apple offices used to be at 3 Savile Row and is where the Beatles Get Back rooftop concert was performed. In Liverpool, LIPA is in Mount Street, previously the Liverpool Institute grammar school where Paul and George attended. Maybe if you have time, the tour of John and Paul’s childhood homes where they wrote some of their first hits.
The Beatles’ Apple HQ used to be at 3 Savile Row – featured heavily in the Get Back documentary and the site of the rooftop concert
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles%27_rooftop_concert
3 Savile Row was the Apple office during their peak period, and the rooftop was the site of the Get Back concert.
I came back to say that I am a moron for forgetting that the rooftop concert was Saville Row. I keep forgetting that somehow it just doesn’t stick in my head! So yes, of course that’s on the list. Thank you!
Suppose you went already but
12 Arnold Grove
Ye Cracke by the Inny
The Grapes by the Cavern
In London do the London Walks Beatles With Richard!!!
The Fox and Hounds pub is in Caversham near Reading, not the north. It’s an hour’s train journey from London.
They won’t let you in, but you can take a picture outside of McCartney’s music publishing company MPL Communications (1 Soho Square, London).
Replica Studio (where Rockestra/Back To The Egg was recorded) used to be located there but I don’t believe it exists anymore.
Sorry for being off-Beatles, but if one is going to London the famous Batterea Power Station has been renovated and reopened. One can even go up to a sightseeing platform in the northwest stack. Not all the stores are opened yet, but it is very much a slice of British musical history and well worth the visit. A Tube station is within walking distance.
Algie, the famous pig, is sadly not keeping watch from on high.
Might want to stop outside the Wimpole Street address of the Ashers (where Paul was living between ’63 to ’66), and it’s just a short walk away from the home of Stephen Ward, where the ‘Christine Keeler/Profumo affair’ got propelled into the national media.
Then there’s the old ‘Indica’ site (Mason’s Yard, London).
Also, 34 Montagu Square, London. It was Ringo’s abode in the sixties, and the basement was turned into a studio for Paul to get involved in his avant-garde sounds, and he worked on ‘Eleanor Rigby’ there, playing it to William Burroughs who was a visitor there as were others within that milieu.
Later, after Ringo and Maureen had moved out, it became the home of Jimi Hendrix’s manager and former Animal, Chas Chandler. Later in the late Sixties, John and Yoko moved in there and were busted there for cannabis possession. I visited this private home (outside of it of course) some years back – it’s a short walk from Piccadilly Circus if I’m not wrong, and I think it’s got a blue plaque too. Certainly, an abode steeped in Rock history.
https://beatlesinlondon.com/34-montagu-square-home-to-ringo-starr-john-lennon-and-jimi-hendrix/
Outside Twickenham Studios too? Still being used as a film-studio apparently, as well as for post-production (sound-mixing for ‘Top Gun Maverick’ was done there so I’m informed – and it was the location for the making of… the ‘Teletubbies’).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twickenham_Studios
Re; St. John’s Wood is where Paul has had a home since moving out of the Ashers and where Brian’s memorial service was held
That’s all I can think of at the moment.
Re; the Cavern; controversial subject in Liverpool of course as to its ‘real’ location. When you get there, you’ll note the shiny, spangly ‘modern’ Cavern Club “where the Beatles began,” however, on the opposite side of that small road, you’ll see some information (and pictures) on part of a wall claiming that the Cavern was actually situated THERE, not opposite.
Bill Harry indicates in his Beatles books that the Cavern was indeed situated on the opposite side and that it closed in March 1973 after British Rail exercised whatever their equivalent of “eminent domain” is to buy the warehouses that had the original Cavern in the basement to build a ventilation shaft for a new Merseyrail underground railway. They didn’t wind up building it, and it became a parking lot instead. (I can hear strains of Joni Mitchell in my head… if one interprets paradise metaphorically, that is…)
Furthermore, when the people who built the current Cavern began their task in ’81, the initial plan was to excavate the original, but the architect involved soon discovered it was impossible for structural reasons; when they demolished the ground floor of the Cavern and the warehouses above back in ’73, the arches were badly damaged. “No can do.” So they finished the demo job and sold 5,000 bricks from the arches at a charity auction, the other 15,000 being reused as part of the new Cavern, which sits at a 90-degree angle to the original and covers 70% of the original Cavern footprint. Purportedly, the stage is not far from the original location, and the ‘Live Lounge’ is an exact replica of the original, using as many of the old bricks as possible.
Yes, @notorious_g_i_b, I’ve read similar regarding British Rail and the resulting parking-lot.
What I found quite perplexing was when I took a ride on the ‘Magical Mystery’ tour-bus in Liverpool, which took us on a tour of some of the Liverpool Beatles landmarks including George’s childhood home, Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, etc. There was a tour-guide on the bus who spoke to us as the bus drove through the city, telling us details about the sights and sites that we were witnessing, and as the bus ended its tour near the Cavern Club – and by ‘the Cavern Club’ I mean the modern version of the Cavern which is a club, live venue and bar – he told us that this Cavern was most definitely the site of the original Cavern and he went to some lengths to warn us not to believe ‘stories’ that it wasn’t the site of the original Cavern (as if to dissuade us from taking any notice of the claims that I mentioned in my earlier post, by that I mean the claims that are displayed on the wall on the opposite side of this ‘modern Cavern’). Okay, pardon me for my cynicism, but, I’m under the impression that the people who organise the Magical tour-bus ride are (or were at that time) in some form of partnership or association with the ‘modern Cavern’ – so, was this appeal for us to ignore the gossip merely a way of promoting the ‘modern Cavern’ (getting us to get down there and spend our hard-earned dough)?
Well, as I interpret the “placement” stuff, once you get downstairs, where the club is physically situated occupies much of the same ground, which may be their leg to stand on. It’s my understanding, limited though it may be, that once you’re underground, it covers 70% of the original Cavern footprint, and the stage is not far from the original location.
A bit more I just remembered… Regarding museums in Liverpool… There are two. There’s Roag Best’s ‘Liverpool Beatles Museum’ and also ‘The Beatles Story’ located on the Albert Dock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_Story
There are two former Epstein homes perhaps worth visiting, one is the home where Brian grew up (the address being at Queen’s Drive, if I’m not mistaken), and then there’s his grandparents’ house:
“Originally the home of Brian Epstein’s grandparents, features one of the largest private collections of Brian Epstein memorabilia outside of the Epstein family. Acquired over many years by Epstein House owner Patrick Duggan, the memorabilia exhibition also includes a model of a proposed Brian Epstein memorial statue.
Brian’s grandparents, Isaac and Dinah Epstein, lived at the house for over 20 years. Brian’s father, Harry, grew up in the house, and Brian was a frequent guest as a young child when his parents Harry and Queenie visited Brian’s grandparents many times.”
https://www.luxurybnbmag.com/epstein-house-liverpool-patrick-duggan-interview/
It’s now a guest-house:
http://www.epsteinhouse.co.uk/
You might like to stay at the (pricey) ‘Hard Day’s Night Hotel’ in the city:
https://www.harddaysnighthotel.com/
When visiting the ‘Pool, I’d add Ye Cracke Pub.
There is also a Beatles Store in London on Baker Street.
Worth noting that only Julia is at Allerton (or Springwood) Cemetery, Uncle George is at St Peter’s church-yard in Woolton along with Eleanor Rigby. Allerton also has Cilla Black and Ken Dodd. A comprehensive list I would say. Although I’d make Admiral Grove a stop off too – didn’t see it in the original list, though I may have missed it.
PS never seen the piano bit I met the man who painted it at an event in May. A top fella!