Inside the Beatles' childhood homes in Liverpool (PICTURES)
By Amy Browne
25 February 2015
As Paul McCartney's chilldhood home goes under the hammer, we take a look through the keyhole at other houses where the Fab Four lived before finding fame
John Lennon as a young boy outside his childhood home of Mendips with his Aunt
The childhood home of The Beatles legend Paul McCartney will be sold at an auction at Liverpool’s Cavern Club tomorrow night.
Bids will be taken from 7pm on 72 Western Avenue, a humble three bedroom terrace, in Speke, where Macca lived for six years from the age of four, with parents Jim and Mary.
It is said to be the first house he remembers living at and the family became well known in the area during their time there in the early 1950s, due to Mary’s career as a midwife.
The Beatles’ homes have always been a great source of interest to fans across the world, who want to see where their heroes grew up.
These pictures take you inside some of the homes that John, Paul, George and Ringo lived in before they found fame as the Fab Four.
Most famous of course are Mendips on Menlove Avenue, where John Lennon lived, and 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, which was another of Paul McCartney's childhood homes. Both are now owned by the National Trust, and have been restored to look like the homes that Lennon and McCartney would remember.
Using photographs and eyewitness accounts, the houses have been kitted out with original fixtures and fittings and identical items of furniture.
Find out more about each house, and others belonging to the Beatles:
Mendips, Menlove Avenue
The former home of the McCartney family in Forthlin Road. Picture by Mike McCartney
John Lennon moved into Mendips, which belonged to his aunt Mimi and uncle George, after his parents’ marriage broke down. Visitors who take a tour of the home are told that aunt Mimi would insist that all guests entered through the back door to "save the carpets", and George would encourage John's reading by showing him copies of the Liverpool ECHO.
It is the house where John wrote Please Please Me in his bedroom and suffered great heartache when his mother Julia was killed in a road accident just outside, in July 1958.
The creaky floorboards leading to John’s bedroom were left at the request of Yoko Ono, who donated the property to the National Trust. It is said that John would have to carefully navigate his way across the boards when sneaking home from gigs at the Cavern, so that his late night antics weren’t discovered by Aunt Mimi.
20 Forthlin Road
20 Forthlin Road, Paul McCartney's childhood home
In 1955 Paul McCartney moved into the house in Speke, with mum Mary, dad Jim and brother Mike.
Jim would plant lavender in the garden and place cuttings in his ashtrays to disguise the smell of smoke.
Aged 14, Paul sat at the family piano and composed what would eventually become ‘When I’m 64’. It was also the house where John and Paul wrote ‘I Saw Her Standing There’.
But living at 20 Forthlin Road was also a time of tragedy for Paul, after Mary died of breast cancer in 1956, aged just 47.
9 Newcastle Road
John Lennon's first home on Newcastle Road, Wavertree
The red-bricked terrace in Wavertree was John Lennon’s first home. He lived there with his parents and grandparents, from the day he was born on October 9, 1940, until he was around the age of five.
It is there that years later, John is said to have penned the song One After 909.
Today, the modest bay fronted home, comprises two lounges, a kitchen, three bedrooms, a family bathroom and backyard. In October 2013, it sold at auction for £480,000 to an anonymous US buyer.
25 Upton Green
George Harrison's childhood home as seen from the front
The modest three bedroom mid-terrace in Speke is where George Harrison lived from the age of six. His parents moved into the then council house, in 1949 and remained there until the early 1960s.
It was during his time at the house that George met Paul and John, and the three held some of their first rehearsals at the house, before they found fame.
Since his time there, the house has undergone a complete renovation and has a hallway, lounge, kitchen/dining room and a family sized rear garden, plus three spacious bedrooms, a bathroom and WC.
The house went under the hammer last October and was bought by Beatles fan Jackie Holmes, from north London, for £156,000.
9 Madryn Street
Beatles drummer Ringo Starr's old house, centre, in Madryn Street, Liverpool
On July 7, 1940, Ringo Starr was born in the terraced property in Dingle's Welsh Streets and despite his family moving away when he was still a baby, it continues to attract Beatles fans.
It is one of hundreds in the area that were bought by the council as part of a regeneration project.
Last year, accounts showed that Ringo’s house, which was worth £60,000 in April 2013, had a value of just £525. But Cllr Ann O’Byrne, council cabinet member for housing, said the property is one of several that would be refurbished, rather than demolished, and the value would increase with the scheme.
1 Blomfield Road
Julia Lennon's house on Blomfield Road
Although John Lennon never lived here, he was a frequent visitor to the semi-detached on Allerton’s Springwood estate.
It was the home where John’s mum Julia lived when he was a teenager, along with her partner ‘Bobby’ Dykins and John’s sisters Julia and Jackie.
In her book, John’s sister Julia said his aunt Mimi would refer to her own home as the ‘House of Correction’ and John’s mum’s as the ‘House of Sin’. But that didn’t stop John visiting his mum at her three bedroom council house, where he would often stay over.
It was also at this house where John, aged 17, opened the door to a policeman who told him his mum had been killed in a road accident. The singer had been planning to move into the house for the summer holidays, which were just about the begin.
The star last visited the home in 1970. He and Yoko Ono drove up to it in his white Rolls Royce and were show around. The house will be sold at auction, at the Liverpool Town Hall, on March 31.
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