Published on Wednesday 29 February 2012 15:36
The childhood homes of former Beatles John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney in Liverpool have become listed buildings, it has been revealed.
Heritage Minister John Penrose made the announcement from Mendips, the house at 251 Menlove Avenue in Woolton, south Liverpool, where Lennon first learned to play guitar.
The terraced house where Sir Paul lived for nine years at nearby 20 Forthlin Road, and where the Beatles rehearsed and wrote some of their most famous songs, was also listed a Grade II building.
Mr Penrose said: “I think they (The Beatles) are tremendously important, not just to Liverpool and Britain, but the worldwide music scene owes them a huge debt and you still get bands in all kinds of music and in all countries citing them as one of the things that was a formative influence even after all these years.
“This means they (the houses) are legally protected from being bashed around or altered in future and that means they will be preserved for future generations to come and enjoy just the same as people can today.”
Lennon lived at Mendips, a semi-detached 1930s home, from 1945 to 1963 with his aunt Mimi and her husband George Toogood Smith after his parents separated when he was five.
The Forthlin Road building in Allerton, south Liverpool, was McCartney’s home for nine years after his family moved there in 1955.
It was at these houses that Lennon first started to play guitar, and where he and McCartney, now 69, had the early practice sessions for their first band, The Quarrymen.
In a statement, Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono said: “Mendips always meant a great deal to John and it was where his childhood dreams came true for himself and for the world.”
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