Friday 23 August 2024

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.”




Thank you to Roag for the invite, and to Pete for allowing us to meander around the house at our leisure. I wish you every success with the Casbah Coffee Club Suites.


Links:

Lennon Suite: https://shorturl.at/0qWIK

McCartney Suite: https://shorturl.at/TCZHV

Harrison Suite: https://shorturl.at/T8fe2

I can't find links to the other suites but I'll add them here when I do.


Liverpool Echo report: https://shorturl.at/RshuY

ITV News: https://shorturl.at/OSUjN


(C) Mark Ashworth. First published 22 August 2024

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