Mark and Steve Mach Shau in Hamburg! (Part One)

St. Pauli,

Hamburg,

Germany

“I might have been born in Liverpool, but I grew up in Hamburg”

John Lennon
 
“As above”
Mark Ashworth, November 2025.

Sexy donkeys and sore throats, cinemas and cellars, drag bars and dodgem cars, prostitutes and prellies: Retracing the Beatles’ footsteps in Hamburg.  

In early November I visited Hamburg for the first time, accompanied by my friend, Beatles’ historian Steve Bradley from the Arrive Without Travelling – The Blog for Beatles Fans site, who acted as my personal tour guide, taking me to nearly 50 Beatles’ related locations in the city. 

We flew from Manchester airport to Hamburg Flughafen, immediately crossing two Beatles’ related locations off our list.  Paul and Pete Best were deported via Flughafen back to London on 5 December 1960, the first time either of them had flown.  Ringo made his first flight one year later, flying from London to Hamburg on 30 December 1961 to join Tony Sheridan’s house band at the Top Ten Club. 

On April 10, 1962, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Pete Best boarded a flight from what was then Manchester Ringway Airport, traveling to Hamburg via Amsterdam. Their journey marked another significant trip to the city that had played such a pivotal role in their early career. The following day, George Harrison departed for Hamburg as well, accompanied by manager Brian Epstein and Stuart Sutcliffe’s mother, Millie Sutcliffe. 

Returning to the airport to greet them, John, Paul and Pete were met with an unexpected reunion. Astrid Kirchherr and Klaus Voormann—close German friends they had made during their earlier visits—were at the airport to meet Millie. However, what should have been a warm welcome soon turned sombre. Astrid delivered heartbreaking news to the three Beatles: Stuart Sutcliffe, their dear friend and former bandmate, had passed away the previous day. The devastating announcement cast a shadow over their return to Hamburg, marking a profound and sorrowful moment in the band’s history.

Fortunately, over the next few days, I found that Hamburg  still has many places where fans can get a sense of connection to the group’s formative years and reflect on Stuart’s legacy as they retrace the Beatles’ steps through the city.

 

First Night Nerves on the Reeperbahn

After a 25-minute taxi ride through Hamburg we arrived at our lodgings for the next three nights. Disappointingly, Airbnb had no cinema storerooms available at the time of booking so we had to make do with rooms at the Prize Hotel by Radisson on Holstenstraße (Ring 2) in St. Pauli, an ideal location for visitors to Hamburg with an interest in the Beatles, as it is situated close to the Große Freiheit where many sites associated with the group’s time here can be found.

Undoubtedly, its position near the beginning of the Reeperbahn—Hamburg’s well-known red-light district— also makes it a convenient choice for those engaging in sex tourism, something I didn’t realise was a thing until doing the in depth research for this blog. In fact, a simple Google search for “Reeperbahn” quickly leads to websites that provide reviews and ratings of various Hamburg establishments, offering detailed guidance on where to get the most bang for your buck.

Indeed, as we walked from the Prize and turned onto the Reeperbahn I suffered something of a sensory overload, because Hamburg’s sinful mile, famous for its bars, strip joints and brothels appeared little changed from how I imagined it looked that August night in 1960 when the Beatles first stepped out of Allan Williams’ van and surveyed their surroundings. George would later remember the Reeperbahn and Große Freiheit as the best thing they'd ever seen with clubs and neon lights everywhere and lots of restaurants and entertainment.

I have to admit, I found myself feeling somewhat on edge, despite the fact that it was still relatively early in the evening and the streets were far from crowded. My imagination ran wild as we walked along; it seemed as though every passer-by could be a gangster, a pimp, or a prostitute, lurking with the intention of robbing us, murdering us, or perhaps something even worse. It was reassuring that Steve seemed so familiar with the area—he's visited three times over the past decade, likely because he's such a big Beatles’ fan.

I’ve been in London’s Soho at night which has a similar vibe, but this felt darker and seedier.  I read all the neon signs – Susi’s Show Bar, the Pink Palace Sex House - and thought back to George Harrison’s comments in the Anthology book about there being places where there were “donkeys shagging women (allegedly, he never saw it himself) and mud-wrestling women and transvestites” and wondered how much was true and how much was folklore. In Harrison’s recollection the history books had glorified and exaggerated it, and I decided not to investigate further. 

Reeperbahn view #1 looking back towards Große Freiheit

Reeperbahn view #2 looking towards the former Top Ten Club (now Molotow)

Reeperbahn view #3 looking up the Große Freiheit.

Thelma Pickles / McGough, Liverpool Beatleweek 2025 (Part Two)

This is part two of my transcription of Thelma McGough’s interview with Mark Lewisohn, which took place during International Beatle Week in Liverpool last August.

Thelma's photo of John (top left) and other art students taken on Gambier Terrace. Mature trees now obliterate the view of Liverpool Institute,  seen top right on the c.1958 photo.

There Is a Light that Never goes Out

'Mendips'
251 Menlove Avenue,

Woolton, Liverpool 25

9th October 2025

It’s become something of a tradition for the National Trust to mark John’s birthday by leaving his bedroom light on after the last visitors have left for the day.

Seeing an old grainy photo I took of the house resurface on social media today inspired me to drive over to 'Mendips' tonight to capture some fresh shots.

I wasn’t expecting to find a group of fans there, but I did. Sometimes you think you’re the only one with the idea.

Happy 85th Birthday, John. 

Thelma Pickles McGough, Liverpool Beatleweek 2025

A great portrait of Thelma I found during the research for this blog

[artist: Marta Ponce]

Ex hoc Metallo Virtutem

Liverpool Beatles Museum

Mathew Street

Liverpool 2

Quarry men old before our birth*

Straining each muscle and sinew

Toiling together, Mother Earth

Conquered the Rock that was in you.

Liverpool Beatleweek Convention Report 2025

International Beatleweek 2025 took place from August 20 to August 26 in Liverpool. 

Organised by Cavern City Tours, the seven day event gave hundreds of fans from all over the world the opportunity to enjoy all things ‘Beatle’ in Liverpool – from watching live music from international tribute acts in the Cavern and other venues around the city including, notably, the remaining Quarry Men at the Philharmonic Hall on Saturday 23rd, to riding on the Magical Mystery Tour coach visiting famous Beatles’ locations, through to attending the convention day itself held at the Adelphi Hotel, featuring more live music, dealers’ stalls selling every imaginable Beatles’ record, book, poster, dvd and items of clothing, stands promoting local Beatle related places such as St Peter’s Church, Strawberry Fields and Quarry Bank School, a video room, and guest speakers which this year included Stuart Maconie, Judd Lander, Billy J Kramer, Geoff Britton, and making her convention debut, Thelma McGough, ex-wife of the Liverpool poet and Scaffold member Roger McGough, who had previously dated both John Lennon and Paul McCartney (separately). 

Apologies for my abscess

Hi,

I can’t believe nearly 12 months have passed since my last post, during which time I’ve changed jobs and finally moved house after nearly five years of trying. Both of these events have been a distraction and taken up quite a bit of my free time. But if I’m truthful, the main reason for my absence is the fact that I fell out of love with the blogging for a while.

Last September I suffered what I can only describe as a catastrophic hard drive failure which resulted in my losing countless half-written blogs, thousands of photographs and worst of all, the first draft of the book I hoped to publish on the Beatles’ Liverpool Locations.  I remember staring at the screen in disbelief, a sick feeling in my stomach as I realised years of memories and work had vanished in an instant.

A few friends advised me there were places where I could probably get the hard drive fixed, but oddly, after a while the despair turned to apathy, and I found I wasn’t really that bothered.  

That’s not to say I’d lost interest in The Beatles, or Liverpool, or taking photographs, but every time I thought about writing about them for a blog, I always seemed to find something better to do.  

Paradoxically, it was during this time that the blog achieved a million views. It’s had nearly 80 thousand more since, and this level of engagement helped convince me that it was something worth continuing with. 

I needed to find out precisely what I had lost in the crash. It took a long time, especially with the other life events I’ve mentioned, but I managed to recover a good portion – but by no means all - of my notes and photographs from backup drives and the cloud. I was able to re-take some of the photographs I’d lost, while adding hundreds of new ones to the archive. 

Now, as I look back on these challenges, I feel ready to return to blogging – perhaps with a fresh perspective and renewed enthusiasm for sharing my journey. I don’t think I’ll be writing the lengthy posts of the past – at least not yet - but I do plan to share some easier reads – quick hits if you like – about the places I’ve been and some of the great people I’ve met over the last 12 months. No matter where I go, it seems that one or more of the Beatles have always been there before me!  

Thanks for sticking with me,

Mark

Casbah Coffee Club Suites - Official Launch

The Casbah Coffee Club Suites

8 Haymans Green

West Derby

Liverpool 12

8 Haymans Green, the former home of the Best family and the Casbah Club

On Wednesday, 21 August, I was lucky enough to attend the official opening of the Casbah Coffee Club Suites in the company of the Best family - including Pete and his brother Roag – and other invited guests.
 
The Best’s former home at 8 Haymans Green has been remodeled as an AirBnB, with all three floors of the house transformed into Beatles’ themed suites. While the basement Casbah Club has operated as a tourist attraction for some years, this is the first time that fans have had the opportunity to see the rest of the house.
 
Arriving at 9am we were provided with refreshments and allowed to walk around the Casbah Club at our leisure while Pete and Roag were engaged elsewhere, doing press interviews for the local papers as well as a team from Sky, their story going into the hourly news programme. I was speaking to the Sky reporter beforehand and he said it was nice to be doing a good news story for a change. After recent events both locally, nationally and globally, I knew exactly what he meant.

Pete Best being photographed for the Guardian 

With the freedom to explore the Casbah I was able to take plenty of photos without the usual crowds and I’ll share them in a future post. Here's one to whet your appetite.

With their media duties fulfilled, Roag and Pete invited us to join them in the Spider Room, which was the main performance area in the club.
 
By way of introduction, Roag explained that they had talked about turning the empty rooms of their former home above the club into a place where fans could stay since 2006, but other opportunities had arisen – not least the opening of their Liverpool Beatles Museum in 2018 - which meant it was 2019-2020 by the time that the Best family finally agreed that if they were ever going to do it, now was the time.

Roag worked six days a week for three and a half years to bring their vision to life. “I became not just the supervisor on site, but part of the workforce,” he told the press. “I’ve gone from plaster in my eyes, to a nail through my foot, to a scaffold bar hitting me on head – so I’m a fully fledged builder now.

After three and a half years of blood, sweat and tears, the Casbah Coffee Club Suites are the result.

Roag Best

Those who regularly attend Roag’s reveals at the Liverpool Beatles Museum will know their ethos is to try and keep everything that they do authentic, unique and original, and they can justifiably claim that there is nothing more authentic, unique and original than the Casbah Club. Its the most important of the relatively few buildings with a Beatles connection Liverpool has left which remain practically unchanged from how they looked 60+ years ago. 

 
With regards to the new suites, Roag explained that ‘the Beatles not only formed here, they played here, they ate here, they partied here, and they...’ at this point Pete leapt towards his brother, covering Roag’s mouth and mimed the cutting throat action whilst shaking his head… ‘slept here’ Roag concluded, as Pete feigned relief.  As Roag told me later, ‘if these walls could talk, we’d have to tape their mouths up.’  

Pete was up next: “Thank you all for coming, it’s a very special day for us. As Roag said, it’s a pipe dream…an extension of our mother Mona’s legacy. We’re very proud of it, and you can see for yourselves why, when we let you meander around the rooms at your leisure. It’s a piece of history, it’s a piece of love, because a lot of emotion has gone into it.”
 
After thanking his daughter Bonnie, who had helped with the design of the suites, choosing the fabrics and furnishings, helping with the upkeep of the suites in addition to being the customer experience and events manager (“thanks kid”) he became slightly somber, his voice tinged with emotion.
 
“I also want to thank a lady who can’t be with us today. She was taken from us many, many years ago, and I know she’s up there watching, making sure that Roag and I do everything correctly, otherwise she’ll come down and kick our arses, which has happened before. So that’s my mother Mona, Mona Best, known as Mo to family and friends, the ‘Mother of Mersey Beat’ and as always I say, without Mo, maybe none of this would ever have happened. So, wherever you are Mo, thank you, and God bless.”

He blew a kiss skywards.

After thanking everyone for coming Pete invited us to explore the new suites and “feel free to enjoy the comforts up there” before handing back to Roag, who gave thanks to his wife Leigh for all her support, his extended family, the builders and tradesmen who had worked so hard over the last few years to make their dream a reality and finally us, the fans, without whom,  8 Haymans Green would just be a big old house that bands used to play underneath. Luckily for the Best family, one of those bands happened to become the biggest in musical history.

“And now, in the words of our mother Mo, Come with us to the Casbah”!

The entrance hall gives you an idea of just how grand the house is

Key safes for the individual suites named after John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best.

You may notice that none of the suites are named after Pete’s replacement, Ringo Starr, but as Roag explained to the press, this is not because of any bad feeling. 

He said: “It’s nothing to do with Pete and Ringo and what happened. Everything we do is about being authentic and The Beatles that performed and partied here were John, Paul, George, Pete and Stuart. Ringo was never a member when he was here.”

Two of the invited guests explore the Harrison suite.

The kitchen / diner area of the Harrison suite has a fine view over the huge back garden and West Derby village beyond.

The Sutcliffe Suite, photographed from the bathroom

The period staircase leading to the second floor where the Lennon and McCartney suites are situated

The Lennon suite has room for a fab four guests while the McCartney suite is for 'two of us'.

Views of the Lennon suite.

The Lennon suite also has a living room, kitchen and full bathroom.

 You’ll notice that the rooms have been decorated with a “sprinkling” of a Beatles theme, including photos of the band members, posters and guitars on the wall, but not overly so.

The McCartney Suite bedroom.

The view from the kitchen diner in the McCartney suite.

Something I discovered reading the press interviews today was that Roag was born in the house: “I was born in the McCartney suite and presented to John, Paul and George, who were here that night, they’d played the Cavern. So some of the first people I ever saw in the world were the Beatles.”

In 1959 the Quarry Men (Paul, John and George) were photographed standing by this fireplace. Paul could never have imagined that 65 years later this room would bear his name!

A 2024 recreation. The resemblance is truly striking!

The rooms were available to book from the start of August and guests from America, London and Scotland have already stayed ahead of yesterday's official launch. 

 
With rooms starting from £150 a night, bookings have already come in from the USA and Canada, England and Scotland. I spoke to Evelyn and Andy, a lovely couple from Glasgow who had made the four hour drive down that morning to be one of the first to stay here. You may have seen them interviewed by Sky News. 

Saving the best until last, the best suite in the house is also the Best Suite, encompassing the entire upper floor which I assume from the sloping ceilings was originally the attic space. It’s a huge area which sleeps at least eight.

Something we recognised while roaming the house was that we were likely the last people to have the opportunity to visit every room. In the future any one staying here as a guest will only have access to their room and the communal areas, with the other suites being off limits.  

 Pete Best, circa 1962

 The author, yesterday

Even when you put the significant musical history of this Grade II listed building to one side for a moment, the fact is that 8 Haymans Green is simply a beautiful house. Though they wouldn't have recognised this at the time , Roag and Pete must know with the benefit of hindsight that they were fortunate to have grown up there. Mona certainly backed a winner!

What’s absolutely evident is that the renovation has been a labour of love. Pete and Roag are deservedly delighted to see Mona’s legacy live on. 

Pete: “I think she’d be delighted; she had a dream … she brought music to the kids of Merseyside. I think if she’d still been here today – and she’s watching from above, I’ll tell you that now – she’d be very proud of the legacy that’s been left, and the legacy that we’re building.” 

Roag: “My mum would be absolutely over the moon with how this property looks now. So it’s nice to make her proud, you always want to make your mum proud.”

Remembering Tony Bramwell

4 June 2024

Tony Bramwell, the Beatles' friend and associate has died, age 78.

Tony Bramwell

I went to bed last night as the news started to come through, and I was hoping that it wasn't true, but on waking this morning posts have started appearing on Facebook and elsewhere stating that Tony Bramwell has passed.

Tony grew up in Hunts Cross, an area of Liverpool between Halewood, Speke and Woolton, practically the same spot as where I live now. He went to the same school as my Dad (Hillfoot Hey) so when we finally met we already had that local connection.

26 Hillfoot Avenue, Hunts Cross: Tony's former home where George Harrison delivered meat  

George Harrison: Blue plaque on where he once belonged

Alternate titles:

Plaque’s Man

Blue Plaque Way

Deep Blue Plaque

For You Blue Plaque

Tired of Midnight Blue Plaque

20 Forthlin Road

20 Forthlin Road,

Allerton,
Liverpool 18

Co-authored by Beatles historians Steve Bradley and Mark Ashworth. 

Simultaneously published on Steve's blog here: Link

Days after spending an afternoon with Paul McCartney's brother Michael,  Steve messaged me again to see if I wanted to join him for a tour of 20 Forthlin Road.  Naturally I jumped at the chance. We enjoyed our visit so much we decided to share our experiences in this co-authored blog, a first. I've let Steve take the lead and incorporate my observations at the appropriate time. 

The former McCartney family home in Allerton

A stolen drum-kit, egg-boxes on the wall, and the smell of lavender. A visit to Paul McCartney’s childhood home.

Recently my friend and fellow Beatles blogger Mark Ashworth joined me for a tour of Paul’s childhood home at 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton. This blog has been co-authored by us both, in true Lennon / McCartney style.

In the care of the National Trust, the home has become a must-see attraction among Liverpool’s Beatles tourism destinations. Furnished in the 1950’s style of the McCartney family’s occupancy, we are given the opportunity to step back in time to experience the ordinary post-war family home of Jim and Mary, Paul and Mike. 

Mark: In 1995 the house came to the attention of the National Trust who chose to buy the property as a means of preserving the site of historical interest for the public. The Trust set about recreating the look and feel of the property as it would have been at the time the McCartney family lived there, with the same level of care and attention as would be afforded the finest stately home. The restoration took three years at a cost of £47,000 (around £93,000 or $117,000 now) with fixtures and fittings, wallpaper, paintwork, furniture, and fireplace all restored in a 1950’s style. Luckily, they had Mike McCartney’s many photos taken both inside and out to use as a reference. 

At the end of April 1956, the McCartney family moved for the last time to this three-bedroomed brick-built terrace house at 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton. Built to a design by the City Architect Sir Lancelot Keay, it had a front parlour which led off to the left from the hallway, and a door led through from the parlour to the rear dining room, overlooking the back garden. The dining room was connected to the kitchen, which in turn connected to the hall. The house was owned by the local authority to whom the McCartneys paid rent of one pound, nineteens shillings and ten-pence a week (around £60 or $75). Jim was earning £400 a year (around £8,300 or $10,445 in 2024) at the Cotton Exchange, which was less than Mary. Because of Mary’s occupation as midwife and health visitor a phone was installed, which in 1956 was still something of a rarity in working-class areas of Liverpool. 

The kitchen at 20 Forthlin Road, restored by the National Trust. Photo credit: Liverpool Echo.

We were greeted by custodian and tour guide Andy Jones, who shows us the alleyway beside the house. It leads to the rear garden with storage where the boys kept their bicycles, and where Paul was snapped by Mike through the window. Andy is determined to offer a memorable visit for fans. His commentary relies on facts shared with him by Mike McCartney, avoiding the need for mythmaking, or speculative storytelling. It feels like we’re stepping into a real home, not a ‘Beatles Museum’ - this is a living documentary of 1950’s Britain. 

Aspirational Mary was proud to call this place home, seeing it as a step-up socially from their earlier home in Speke. Tragedy struck when the family cruelly lost Mary to cancer in October 1956, leaving Jim to raise his two sons with help from the extended family. Jim’s sister Millie visited weekly to do laundry, she would be celebrated in the Scaffold’s ‘Lily the Pink,’ and her husband inspired Paul’s ‘Uncle Albert’. 

Seagulls squawked above us, a sure sign you’re near Liverpool. “Music was always in the house” Andy explains, “Jim always encouraged music, it was a great distraction.” After Paul saw Lonnie Donegan at the Liverpool Empire in November 1956 – just eleven days after losing his mum – his future was assured. The boy threw himself into music as a distraction from grief; the lawn is where Mike photographed Paul playing guitar, his candid shot capturing a boy lost in a world of his own. 

Andy delighted us when he produced a deck-chair from the garden cupboard, enabling us to replicate the photo from Paul’s album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. 

The guitar was Paul's salvation during desperately difficult months, as 1956 slipped into 1957, the year he would meet a fellow guitarist from Woolton. 

Andy helpfully pointed out details loved by trivia buffs like Mark and me; the former location of the washing line pulley, and the original fenceposts hidden by the hedge. We pulled up photos on our phones of the Beatles photo session here with Dezo Hoffman on 25th March 1963. A sunny spring day after a long cold lonely winter, the Fab Four were posed on the roof of the outhouse, overlooking the police-dog training ground. Andy explained where Dezo climbed up precariously onto a narrow wall to capture the image. Just four lads snapped in a provincial English council-house garden; eleven months later they were the biggest group in the world.

  

The boys pose for Dezo Hoffman on the roof of the outhouse, and the same location today.

Jim was a proud member of the Speke and Garston Horticultural Society; he tended plants and vegetables in the garden. Andy pointed out the sheltered corner of the garden where Jim planted seedlings, another detail that would have been lost to time had Mike not shared it with Andy and the National Trust. Andy reported that if the boys were locked-out they would climb the back wall, getting in via the bathroom window; “they didn’t see a drainpipe, they saw a climbing frame” he explains with a smile. Inside, Andy puts his slippers on, which reinforces the feeling we’re visiting a friend’s home, rather than a museum. He warmly invites us in, in the same way Jim McCartney admitted the teenaged Lennon, Harrison et al. 

Growing up with the comedy of the Scaffold, Andy taped Beatles records onto cassettes as all our generation did, then was gifted albums as Christmas presents. His fascination developed when he attended Art College in Liverpool, the same one as John, Cynthia, and Stu, he tells us proudly. He was a regular at the Mathew Street Festival and the Cavern, while gradually expanding his knowledge of the group from library books. When he met his future wife Liz – in the Jacaranda – she lived on Newcastle Road. Clearly the Beatles were weaved into Andy’s life long before he arrived at Forthlin. 

The kitchen is furnished with 1950’s cupboards and appliances, detailed with vintage food packets on the shelves. Teacups hang on hooks waiting to be used – Lennon was snapped here by Hoffman, pouring from a teapot. A photo of Mike’s captures his widowed dad stirring a pot on the stove – he was soaking his sons underwear in the days before most homes had a washing machine. The McCartney’s original kitchen sink – retrieved from decades as a plant-bed in the garden – is back in its rightful place.