A walking tour of Beatles sites

 Liverpool (sabbatical 2, week 3)

The Beatles are, of course, ubiquitous in Liverpool, from the name of the airport (Liverpool John Lennon Airport) to buildings named after John and Yoko at the universities and colleges in the city, to the weed-like spread of museums detailing their lives and music.  The museums will have to wait for another post; for this one Craig is going to walk around some real Liverpool Beatles sites.  So, he humbly submits to you this itinerary for a Beatles Walking Tour.  Transit times are from Googlemaps, he didn't actually time himself.

Transit (10 minutes) - the closest train station to the important sites is West Allerton.  You'll probably have to go from Lime Street, not Central Station.  Lime Street to West Allington is ~10 minutes.

Transit (15 minutes)  - exit the station, turn right. Take that road to the divided 4-lane motorway (B5180).  You'll pass a police academy.  Forthlin Road is on the right.

1. Paul McCartney's Childhood Home (20 Forthlin Road).  Both Paul and John's childhood homes are owned by the National Trust and do not have drop-in visiting hours.  You need to contact the National Trust and navigate their truly horrendous website to purchase tickets for a guided tour.<--use this page only; scroll down under the heading "Book Your Visit"; you'll have to choose your pick-up location first, and it cannot be changed (even though there's a button to change it, it did not work).  I did not do the tour, because the pickup locations are far from anything (including the houses you'll be touring) and sell out quickly.  There is a plaque and it's a nice pleasant neighborhood.

Transit (25 minutes) - back out to B5180, cross the road and turn left, take any of the next three rights.  These streets all end in a T-intersection, turn left and then right into the Allerton Manor Golf Club.  There is a walking path that runs along the edge of the course that is a pleasant walk through the woods.  Upon exiting the path, cross the 4-lane divided motorway (A562) and turn left to very shortly arrive at:

2. John Lennon's Childhood Home (251 Menlove Avenue).  Craig arrived at John's house in the middle of 3 tour groups (two from the National Trust - one arriving and one finishing - and a private tour operator).  In the process of waiting to take this picture, two more tours arrived, along with the hop-on-hop-off Liverpool Sites tour bus.  This was Sunday morning at 11 am!  The house is located on the A562; I imagine the locals hate it because there's nowhere to park, you just stop at the side of the road and block a lane of traffic.

Transit (15 minutes) - continue up (NW) the A562 turning right onto Vale Rd, which takes a big curve.  Left on Linkstor to the end, right on Church Road until you reach:

3. St. Peter's Church. The local Anglican Church, according to legend the location where Paul and John met.  In the graveyard is one Eleanor Rigby (if you are facing the front of the church the graveyard is on the left.  She is three rows back from Church Road  Paul has claimed the song name is a coincidence (perhaps - there are several other Rigby tombstones).

Transit (20 minutes) - backtrack (NW) up Church Street to Beaconsfield Rd.  Turn left.  Walk along to:

4. Strawberry Field.  The actual Salvation Army property is a singular field (presumably John pluralized it because it sounded better as a lyric).  The orphanage no longer exists, it is now a job-training facility.  The public is welcome to use the cafeteria and visit the small museum, however there is an entrance fee.

Transit (30 minutes) - from the Strawberry Field gates go to the end of Beaconsfield and turn right.  Follow the A562 northwest. It's still a 4-lane motorway but lined by nice houses and tall shade trees if it's hot.  There's a weird little jog 20-25 minutes in, so watch out for that (there's an HSBC bank, follow where the shops are, don't go down into the residential areas).  Stay on the motorway until you see:

5. Penny Lane.  If you take this suggested route, you will meet Penny Lane at the site of "...the shelter in the middle of a roundabout" (and also St. Barnabas Penny Lane Church).  Turn left to walk down Penny Lane.  Unfortunately, it's been 60 years since the song was written and the bus shelter is really the only thing left (there are barbershops, and the fire station building is still around but is not actually on Penny Lane).  There is no road sign at the bus shelter end, you'll have to walk to the western end to get a picture.  There is now little on the street to hint at why Penny Lane particularly would generate such nostalgia in a songwriter.  (P.S. for you chemists: here's the song as played by an NMR spectrometer)

And that's it!  From the end of Penny Lane it's an hour walk back to Liverpool Central or Lime Street, but there is a nice little park if you have kids who are bored; if you're hungry there's a little cafe (turn right off Penny Lane, it's only 100m or so).  Or you can turn left to get to Mossley Hill train station (10-minute walk).