Lighthouses

	John Lennon's Home, Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue, Woolton Beneath the blue suburban skies ... This was Lennon's Aunt Mimi's house, 251 Menlove Avenue, and his home from 1945 to 1963. It was bought for the National Trust by Yoko Ono and lovingly restored to an authentic 1950s condition, with period artefacts and Lennon memorabilia. Anyone who lived through the 1950s will find the time-warp eerily effective and Lennon's presence is palpable.
	Paul McCartney's Home, 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton This modest terraced house was the home of Paul McCartney and his brother Mike from 1955 and is where the Beatles met, rehearsed and wrote many of their earliest songs. The interior has been reconstructed in an authentic 1950s style and is so small that you wonder how they ever got a drum kit inside. There are plenty of early Beatles memorabilia including family photographs by Mike McCartney. Comparison of this house with Mendips, where John Lennon was brought up, is intriguing. Paul, often labelled a 'social climber' was evidently raised in a more working class family environment than the middle class, self-styled 'working class hero', John. Both would seem to have felt a need to distance themselves from their origins.
	George Harrison's Home, 12 Arnold Grove, Wavertree Beatle George Harrison's birthplace was here at 12 Arnold Grove. George's parents moved to this house following their marriage in 1930 and George was born here in 1943. His three elder siblings Louise, Harry and Peter were also born here. The family moved to Speke when he was only 6 years old. George has recalled: 'It was OK that house [...] Outside there was a little yard [...] and for a period of time we had a little henhouse where we kept cockerels.' Unlike the houses associated with the early lives John Lennon and Paul McCartney, this one does not seem to have warranted the commemorative English Heritage Blue Plaque, though maybe the owners weren't too keen on being inundated with geeks like myself.
	Ringo Starr's Birthplace, Dingle, Toxteth Beatle drummer Ringo Starr's birthplace was here at 9 Madryn Street. He was born Richard Starkey in 1940. He left this house when he was three years old after his parents split up. If George Harrison's birthplace does not seem to have warranted an English Heritage Blue Plaque, the fate of this house is obviously even more ignominious. After years of wrangling, Liverpool City Council have issued notice to demolish it and the surrounding streets. Maybe it is still not too late? In view of the widespread sniggering disparagement of Starr's drumming in the Beatles among those who have evidently never bothered to listen to the recordings (and by John Lennon), I feel compelled to try and redress the balance for what it's worth. In 2011, Rolling Stone readers voted Starr the fifth-best drummer of all time, though he himself is modest about his achievements. For the Beatles, he was a creative musician who wrote inventive and unique parts that are in their way just as important in the overall compositional scheme as the contributions of the other three. This is especially true of the more mature songs.
	Quarry Bank, Allerton The gothic Quarry Bank was built in 1866-7 for timber merchant James Bland. It became Quarry Bank School, the alma mater of John Lennon. While at Quarry Bank, John developed a well-earned reputation as a troublemaker with subversive artistic talents and formed The Quarrymen, his first group.
	St. Peter's Church, Woolton The present grand sandstone church, one of Liverpool's largest parish churches, was completed in 1887. The nearby church hall was the place where John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met at a fateful fête on July 6th 1957.
	St. Peter's Churchyard, Woolton The resting place of Eleanor Rigby, posthumously, though coincidentally, famous thanks to the exquisite Paul McCartney song. Although the graveyard must have been familiar to him at that time, McCartney claims that the name came to him from other sources : Eleanor Bron, who co-starred in the film Help and Rigby from a shop in Bristol that he noticed when visiting his then girl-friend Jane Asher.
	Penny Lane, Mossley Hill Penny Lane is, thanks to the Beatles, one of Liverpool's most famous streets, but is otherwise unremarkable. The bank and the shelter in the middle of the roundabout are still there at the north-eastern end, a place where bus routes from Allerton and Woolton converge on the way into Liverpool city centre and allegedly where John Lennon and Paul McCartney used to meet up. The south-western end, where our picture was taken, contrasts strongly with its leafy, semi-rural atmosphere. The street is named after James Penny, an 18th century slave trader.
	Strawberry Field, Woolton Let me take you down ... The gateway to Strawberry Field, the Salvation Army children's home on Beaconsfield Road, immortalised in Lennon's song (the best song ever written, according to some) and now an object of pilgrimage for Beatles tourists from all over the world.
	The Bandstand, Sefton Park There is a rumour that this bandstand in Sefton Park may have inspired the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
	The Grapes, Liverpool City Centre Situated in Matthew Street in the Cavern Quarter, the Beatles centre of the universe with it's reconstructed Cavern Club and autumn bank holiday festival, the Grapes was a haunt of the Beatles in their early days and the evidence is there: a little known photo of the four of them drinking in the pub with wall paper in the background, a scrap of which is still preserved.
	Ye Cracke, Liverpool Georgian Quarter A characterful pub and a pub full of characters, at least it used to be when it was the haunt of John Lennon, the Art School crowd and the Liverpool Poets. Unusual art work includes a large garish painting of a Napoleonic battle scene done in a primitive style, but what I'm sure I remember as being an abstract expressionist painting by the 'Fifth Beatle', Stuart Sutcliffe, is no longer there - probably too valuable nowadays.