WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2017

And here I was, reliving that musical history as I rode down
Penny Lane with my private guide Sylvia.
“So many fans through the years have constantly ‘borrowed’
the Penny Lane street sign that it’s now painted on,” noted
Sylvia as she pulled the car over, insisting on taking my picture
beside the famous landmark.
Here I was, under “the blue suburban sky” on Penny Lane-
-a rather nondescript and somewhat disappointing street, I
thought.
However, as we continued
driving down
the two-lane road,
Sylvia pointed out
that the end of the
street “was where the
bus terminated when
you came out of the
city; it was an important
intersection.”
“The shelter in the
middle of a roundabout”
became “Sgt.
Pepper’s Bistro.”
And the barbershop
(“In Penny Lane the
barber shaves another customer; we see the banker sitting
waiting for a trim. . .”) is still there.
“The Beatles didn’t do barbers any good,” Sylvia says with a
chuckle.
“They were only schoolboys--they had no great life experience;
they had to travel on buses, carry their guitars. Because
George and John lived in the suburbs, this bus stop was the
most important place to get together.”
On our tour Sylvia zips her car around, pointing out the Beatles’
sites (I’m amazed at how close they lived to one another-
-within a few miles): St. Barnabas, where Paul was a choirboy
(the Anglican Cathedral had rejected him, saying his voice was
not good enough!); the Woolworth’s where Cynthia Lennon
worked; the Liverpool College of Art where John and Cynthia
met; the Liverpool Institute next door which both Paul and
George attended (they didn’t meet there, but on the top of a
double-decker bus, when Paul noticed that George was wearing
the same shirt and had a guitar).
We drive past 197 Queen’s Drive, the former elegant home of
Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein’s family and, of course, tour
the downtown reconstructed Cavern Club, where the Beatles
performed 292 times between February 9, 1961, and August 3,
1963.
Fans can see modest 12
Arnold Grove, George’s
birthplace, where he lived
until age 7, and 25 Upton
Green, where the family
later moved--as well as the
tiny working-class rowhouse
at 9 Madryn Street
where Ringo was born, and
10 Admiral Grove, where he
lived from ages 5-23.
A special highlight is to
tour the childhood homes
of John Lennon and Paul
McCartney, now owned by
The National Trust.
As my husband Carl and I joined a dozen others for a van tour,
we were told the rules: Buckle-up, no gum-chewing, and no
cameras or cell phones allowed inside the houses.
“We don’t want to hear, ‘Guess where I am? Paul McCartney’s
bedroom!’” cheerily noted our guide.
We first stopped at 251 Menlove Ave. — “Mendips” — in Woolton,
where John had lived with his Aunt Mimi from 1945-1963,
from ages 5-23.
“The National Trust and Yoko Ono welcome you,” greeted our
guide.
The two-story, three-bedroom, one-bath duplex, built in 1933
The author and her husband Carl Larsen
pose next to their Beatles’ tour van.. Photo
courtesy Sharon Whitley Larsen.
140 WDT MAGAZINE SPRING 2017