From tours of The Beatles' old haunts to the beautiful churches and poignant Albert Dock, there's something for everyone, writes MAL ROGERS
IT’S HARD to believe when you look at No 20 Forthlin Road that this small terraced house is where the English language’s battle for supremacy was finally won. Here, on the Mersey’s northern bank, John Lennon and Paul McCartney composed most of their early work, to help herald in the 1960s. If any doubt lingered about the world supremacy of English, then it was dispelled right here when global rock’n’roll took off.
Tim Hemmings of Pool of Life Tours will reel off all the Beatles songs written at No 20 – and many other Fab Four facts besides. Hemmings is omnivorously interested and informed about the cultural caryatids supporting Liverpool – the football teams (Everton and Liverpool FC, if you’ve just arrived on the planet), the docks, the art galleries, the churches (“If you want a cathedral we’ve got one to spare,” sang The Spinners). And, of course, The Beatles.
The Cavern is the centerpiece of this pilgrimage to pop. Opposite the club where it all began is the Wall of Fame – a brick for every British No 1 hit from Liverpool, from ( How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?by Lita Roza in 1957 to Atomic Kitten's Whole Againin 2001.
Lennon and McCartney first met in Woolton, where the Quarrymen were performing at a fete. Just behind the rather picturesque suburban parish hall is the grave of Eleanor Rigby. "Paul McCartney says that it's just pure coincidence. The woman in the song was named after Eleanor Bron, an actress in A Hard Day's Night, and Rigby's – the department store," Hemmings explains.
With “ . . . picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been, lives in a dream. Waits at the window . . . ” reverberating through the coach’s sound system, we bowl towards 251 Menlove Avenue, Aunt Mimi’s house, where John Lennon grew up. From there we go to Arnold Grove, where George Harrison was born. Then on to Ringo’s birthplace, Toxteth.
In the unlikely event of Hemmings not having a specific Beatles favourite of yours on board, he’ll have a bash at singing it – as befits a man who used to be vocalist with an Irish folk band in Barcelona.
But there’s more to Liverpool than being a musical lodestone. By the middle of the 16th century, the population was still only about 500. Then came the slave trade, and by the end of the 17th century Liverpool could boast a baleful statistic – it controlled more than 40 per cent of Europe’s slave traffic. (Penny Lane, the street immortalised in song by The Beatles, is named after James Penny, an 18th-century slave trader.)
The population continued to rise rapidly with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Irish as a result of the Great Famine. We're at Albert Dock now, and Hemmings paints the picture (he's still with us – we'd just been singing Imaginein the coach). "The Old World's unhappy campers," he says gesturing along the quayside of Albert Dock, "would have gathered here. Irish, Yiddish, Scandinavians, Romanies – all clamouring to get on a boat."
Albert Dock can be a poignant place, evoking thoughts about the millions who departed, desperate for a new life.
Now with World Heritage Site status, the waterside is overlooked by the Three Graces: the Royal Liver Building, topped with its two Liver Birds; the Cunard Building; and the Port of Liverpool Building.
If you want to do some mooching around the city, there’s much to mooch. Art galleries, musuems of every type, football grounds, cathedrals, pubs. Walk along Hope Street to the Grade I listed bricks-and-mortar of the magnificent Philharmonic pub. This glorious gin palace has the fanciest urinal slabs imaginable. The pink marble of the stalls has guaranteed that the ornate WC is a tourist attraction in its own right. Altogether now, “Oh Liverpool loo, lovely Liverpool loo . . . ”
** Mal Rogers was a guest of Mersey Partnership (www.merseyside.org.uk). See also www.visitliverpool.com
Go there
Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies daily from Cork and Dublin to Liverpool. EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) flies Belfast to Liverpool daily.
Norfolk Line (www.norfolk line.com) sails twice daily from Dublin and Belfast to Liverpool from €75 return, car and driver.
Aer Lingus (www.aer lingus.com) flies daily from Dublin to Manchester and from Cork to Manchester on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Manchester is a 45-minutes drive from Liverpool.
5 places to stay
The Malmaison. William Jessop Way, 00-44-151-2295000, www.malmaison-liverpool.com. Doubles from £75. The Malmaison has a minibar labelled Refuelling, and the bill comes in an envelope labelled The Damage.
Hope Street Hotel. 40 Hope Street, 00-44-151-7093000, www.hopestreethotel.co.uk. De luxe double rooms £175. Gazza was arrested outside; English model Jodie Marsh was spotted wolfing her breakfast here. So it’s a surprise to find that it’s actually rather classy.
Hard Days Night Hotel. 41 North John Street, 00-44-151-2361964, www.harddaysnighthotel.com. Doubles from £170. Four-star Beatles-themed hotel, in a listed building.
Parr Street Studios. 33-45 Parr Street, 00-44-151-7071050, www.parrstreet.co.uk. Doubles from £65. A four-star hotel comprising 12 bedrooms. Downstairs is a famous recording studio.
Racquet Club. Hargreaves Buildings, 5 Chapel Street, 00-44-151-2366676, www.racquetclub.org.uk. A suave boutique hotel with only eight rooms. The leather and wood hark back to when this was a private club. There are squash courts upstairs.
5 places to eat
Delifonseca. 12 Stanley Street, 00-44-151-2550808, www.delifonseca.co.uk. Sit in a leather booth upstairs and tuck in to a masterpiece sandwich – goat’s cheese with beetroot type of thing. Excellent for lunch.
The London Carriage Works. 40 Hope Street, 00-44-151-7052222, www.tlcw.co.uk. Simple English dishes with French aplomb. The desserts are divine – in 1960s-speak it would be sex, drugs and profiteroles.
60 Hope Street. 00-44-151-7076060, www.60hopestreet.com. Modern British food in a Georgian house. Deep-fried hake with home-made black pudding is a speciality.
Philharmonic Dining Rooms. 36 Hope Street, 00-44-151-7072837, www.liverpoolphil.com. Liverpool is fish-and-chip territory, and at this elegant boozer (a listed building), your battered cod will come with mashed potatoes and chips.
The Monro. 92-94 Duke Street, 00-44-151-7079933, www.themonro.com. Luxury pudding nights (three desserts served) at this fine gastropub are not to be missed – especially if you’re trying to put on weight. Lunch is just as filling.
5 places to go
Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. Mount Pleasant, 00-151-7099222, www.liverpoolmetrocathedral.org.uk. Known as Paddy’s Wigwam, this is where the city’s Catholic faithful have been heading since the 1960s.
Tate Liverpool. 00-44-151-7027400, www.tate.org.uk/liverpool. Home to the national collection of modern and contemporary art in the north of England. The sort of place where you wonder if the fire extinguisher is an exhibit.
St George’s Hall. William Brown Street, 00-44-151-2256909. The finest neoclassical building in Europe, St George’s could hold its own in Rome or Athens. Admission is free.
Pool of Life Tour. Tim Hemmings on 00-44-151- 2834349 or 00-44-776-276- 9296, www.pooloflife tours.com. For Fab Four fans, this is the definitive tour, from the Cavern to the Casbah.
The World Museum. William Brown Street, 00-44-151-4784393, www.worldmuseumliverpool.org.uk. There’s a statue of King Albert outside. Inside includes a Bug House, where you can spend time with giant centipedes or sample baked spider.
Where to shop
For something a little different, try Quiggins (12-16 School Lane, 00-44-151-7092462, www.quiggins.com), a three-storey emporium with vintage clothing, antiques and more to rummage through.
Hot spot
The Magnet. 45 Hardman Street, magnetliverpool.co.uk, 00-44-151-7096969. Chocker with people who seem to have lost the run of themselves. An anything-goes attitude, enthusiastic DJs, hip-hop, funk and breakdancing make this one of the city’s top venues.