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And here I was, reliving that musical history as I rode down worked; the Liverpool College of Art where John and Cynthia
Penny Lane with my private guide Sylvia. met; the Liverpool Institute next door which both Paul and
George attended (they didn’t meet there, but on the top of a
“So many fans through the years have constantly ‘borrowed’ double-decker bus, when Paul noticed that George was wear-
the Penny Lane street sign that it’s now painted on,” noted ing the same shirt and had a guitar).
Sylvia as she pulled the car over, insisting on taking my pic-
ture beside the famous landmark. We drive past 197 Queen’s Drive, the former elegant home of
Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein’s family and, of course, tour
Here I was, under “the blue suburban sky” on Penny Lane- the downtown reconstructed Cavern Club, where the Beatles
-a rather nondescript and somewhat disappointing street, I performed 292 times between February 9, 1961, and August 3,
thought. 1963.

However, as we con- Fans can see modest 12
tinued driving down Arnold Grove, George’s
the two-lane road, birthplace, where he lived
Sylvia pointed out until age 7, and 25 Upton
that the end of the Green, where the family
street “was where the later moved--as well as the
bus terminated when tiny working-class row-
you came out of the house at 9 Madryn Street
city; it was an impor- where Ringo was born, and
tant intersection.” 10 Admiral Grove, where he
lived from ages 5-23.
“The shelter in the
middle of a rounda- A special highlight is to
bout” became “Sgt. tour the childhood homes
Pepper’s Bistro.” of John Lennon and Paul
And the barbershop McCartney, now owned by
(“In Penny Lane the The National Trust.
barber shaves another customer; we see the banker sitting
waiting for a trim. . .”) is still there. 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
“The Beatles didn’t do barbers any good,” Sylvia says with a cameras or cell phones allowed inside the houses.
chuckle.
“We don’t want to hear, ‘Guess where I am? Paul McCartney’s
“They were only schoolboys--they had no great life experi- bedroom!’” cheerily noted our guide.
ence; they had to travel on buses, carry their guitars. Because
George and John lived in the suburbs, this bus stop was the We first stopped at 251 Menlove Ave. — “Mendips” — in Wool-
most important place to get together.” ton, where John had lived with his Aunt Mimi from 1945-1963,
from ages 5-23.
On our tour Sylvia zips her car around, pointing out the Bea-
tles’ sites (I’m amazed at how close they lived to one another- “The National Trust and Yoko Ono welcome you,” greeted our
-within a few miles): St. Barnabas, where Paul was a choirboy guide.
(the Anglican Cathedral had rejected him, saying his voice was
not good enough!); the Woolworth’s where Cynthia Lennon 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