“As above”
Mark Ashworth, November 2025.
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.
Friday
morning, at nine o’clock, we set out for a day immersed in all things Beatles.
Before starting our planned walk, we paused for a moment on Nobistor, a short
street connecting Holstenstraße
to the base of Große Freiheit.
At Nobistor 4, we identified the location formerly occupied by Café Moller, a lesser-known establishment frequented by the Beatles during their time in Hamburg. In recent years, this site has been redeveloped and now accommodates the contemporary Hotel Am Beatles Platz, a Beatles-themed hotel that we’d completely overlooked the previous night. The hotel's exterior presents a modern appearance and certainly looked nice from what we could see through the glass front, but the Tripadvisor reviews seem mixed. For those of you who have stayed here, your feedback would be welcomed in the comments section.
Living in Liverpool and immersed in Beatles’ tourism, I was surprised to find that this memorial square is one of the few formal acknowledgements of the significant part Hamburg played in the Beatles’ formative years. Unveiled in September 2008 at the point where the Reeperbahn and Große Freiheit streets meet, it contains five stainless steel sculptures of the Beatles, which I jokingly referred to as the Beatles cookie cutters for the rest of our trip.
The figures stand upon a spinning record design which has several Beatles’ song titles engraved on metal strips within its grooves, My Bonnie—fittingly—listed first.
The idea of creating a memorial to the Beatles had been initiated in 2001 by Hamburg radio station Oldie 95. Hamburg's Mayor, Ole von Beust, said at the opening, "It is about time that Hamburg commemorated this great group."
Beatles Platz cost approximately €550,000 to realise, with €200,000
provided by sponsors and donors. Art is in the eye of the beholder, so I will
leave it to you, the reader, to decide if it was money well spent.
Now a kebab shop, this was formerly a snack bar called Harald und Lore.
TONY SHERIDAN: Another place we went to a lot was a typical German "Imbiss" on the Große Freiheit called Harald's. The Beatles always ate corn flakes with milk (at one time that seemed to be their staple diet!) - and we all had tea!
PAUL: Harald's was on the Große Freiheit. They would serve hamburgers called Frikadellen. We could never understand why they didn't call them 'hamburgers' in Hamburg.
GEORGE: [Harald's] used to give us cornflakes, and egg and chips. And milk; that probably saved us - there was lots of fresh milk in that street. We'd wake up in the morning and buy a litre of cold milk at a little dairy place opposite the Bambi Kino. A couple of times we got buttermilk and didn't know what it was. We thought, 'Phew! What's going on?' It tasted curdled.
RINGO: One morning, when I first got to Germany, I was wandering around,
wondering where to go, and I bumped into Stuart [Sutcliffe] in Große Freiheit.
I didn't really know him at all, but he took me to a café that sold pancakes
and got me my first meal. We all hung around together in the Reeperbahn and ate
cornflakes and pancakes together - that's how I learnt some German. The first
word I learnt was for cornflakes, and then I learnt Pfannkuchen (pancakes) and
Ei und Kartoffeln (egg and potatoes). The waiters would teach you to say, 'f*ck
off' or 'kiss my arse' and pretend it was something else. So, we'd say it to
someone, and they'd grab you by the throat and we'd say, 'No, we're English! He
told me to say it!'
A still from the film the 1979 film ‘Birth of The Beatles’ showing the Beatles in a Hamburg Café with Ringo.
Now a bar, Sacha’s, was another eaterie/ bar visited by the Beatles. Number 25 looks to have merged with number 23.
Große
Freiheit 27
The Paradieshof (Paradise Yard) at Große Freiheit 27 was a popular hangout for British musicians for food and drink.
The yard, which continued behind the buildings fronting Große Freiheit 29-37, contained several small pubs with quirky names called Hölle (Hell), Flunder (Flounder) and Schlachter (Butcher) Heinz, which are not names I traditionally associate with the image of Paradise
Whether by accident or design, Paul reportedly had a ‘bath’ in the small fountain in the ‘Paradieshof’ after drinking in Hell.
In the late Eighties this building was rebuilt with a new passageway, leading to Olivia's show club, one of the quirkiest, most colourful cabarets on St. Pauli. The club’s name-giver is the iconic drag queen Olivia Jones. The ambience of the club in particular takes you back to the old days when the Beatles still partied there. From erotic to funny, there’s something for everyone.
Gretel and Alfons, affectionately known as “the beer shop,” first opened its doors in 1953. The pub swiftly established itself as a favourite haunt among Star-Club musicians, including the Beatles. This lively establishment became a central meeting point where artists would gather with their fans to eat, celebrate, and drink—often carrying on well into the early hours of the morning.
The name of the pub stemmed from its founders, Gretel and Alfons Jankowiak who were known for their welcoming attitude towards the beatnik crowd, and the musicians particularly cherished the meat sandwiches prepared by “Mutti” Gretel.
For reasons that remain unclear, the Beatles left behind an unpaid bill at Gretel and Alfons in November 1962. Remarkably, this outstanding tab, along with interest, was finally settled 27 years later by Paul McCartney during his return to Hamburg in October 1989.
Excellent, as always. Many thanks.
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