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Beatles’ Childhood Homes Become Historic Sites

Published: 2012-03-01

The childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney in Liverpool have been placed on a national list of protected historic sites in England, ensuring they cannot be altered without government approval, a quasi-governmental organization that curates historic buildings announced Wednesday.

The decision means the homes where the two former Beatles first rehearsed and wrote some of their early songs, including “Please, Please Me," will be protected from major changes going forward. (A preservation group, the National Trust, has already restored the houses to look as they did when the lads were growing up in the 1950s.)

After his parents separated when he was a small boy, Mr. Lennon lived from 1945 to 1963 with his aunt and uncle in a 1930s-era duplex on Menlove Avenue known as Mendips. Mr. McCartney lived nearby in a row house on Forthlin Road from 1955 until the early 1960s.

The two met as teenagers and held early practice sessions for their first group, the Quarrymen, in these houses, and their memories of the neighborhood later provided inspiration for songs like “Penny Lane" and “Strawberry Fields Forever." The preservation order was granted by English Heritage, a semiautonomous, government-sponsored organization entrusted since the mid-1980s with preserving historic sites.

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