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Lot Essay
The McCartney family moved to 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton in April 1956, leaving behind another terraced council house on a rough estate in Speke, South Liverpool. The house, in a more agreeable area and closer to Paul's school, the Liverpool Institute, was owned by the local authority and rented to Paul's parents Jim and Mary McCartney. Following the death of Paul's mother Mary in October 1956, Jim brought up Paul and his younger brother Michael as a single parent.
Developing a friendship over their shared passion for rock and skiffle, Paul and his school friend George Harrison began to play music together at 20 Forthlin Road - Paul on his trumpet and George on guitar. After meeting John Lennon at the Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete on 6th July 1957, Paul joined John's band The Quarrymen, purchased his first guitar, invited George to join the group, and 20 Forthlin Road became one of the main places the band would rehearse, and where Paul and John would compose and try out new songs. In Volume 1 of his Beatles biography The Beatles - All These Years, Mark Lewisohn explains that Paul and John would often 'sag off' school together to play and write songs: Within thirty minutes of sneaking out, they were inside Paul's terraced council house at 20 Forthlin Road, empty in the daytime. As Jim McCartney would no more let Paul skip school than allow that boy in the house, subterfuge was vital. Afternoon sessions, two till five, ended with a hurried wafting around of smoke and washing of dirty dishes ... though by then they'd often written another song. Over 100 songs are believed to have been written at Forthlin Road, including Love Me Do, I Saw Her Standing There and When I'm Sixty-Four.
The McCartney family had moved to the Wirral by 1964, when Ashley and Sheila Jones moved into 20 Forthlin Road. In around 1978 Sheila Jones modernised the house, scrapping doors and window fittings. Glen South, the current owner, was alerted to this and arranged to buy the door in order to auction it for an asthmatic charity. Subsequently it was South himself who purchased the door at the charity auction and retained it until April 2013, when it was acquired at auction by the current vendor.
The National Trust purchased 20 Forthlin Road in 1995, restoring the 1950s decor from the period the McCartney's lived at the property, including a replica of the original front door offered here, and now run tours to see inside the place where the Beatles met, composed and rehearsed many of their earliest songs.
Developing a friendship over their shared passion for rock and skiffle, Paul and his school friend George Harrison began to play music together at 20 Forthlin Road - Paul on his trumpet and George on guitar. After meeting John Lennon at the Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete on 6th July 1957, Paul joined John's band The Quarrymen, purchased his first guitar, invited George to join the group, and 20 Forthlin Road became one of the main places the band would rehearse, and where Paul and John would compose and try out new songs. In Volume 1 of his Beatles biography The Beatles - All These Years, Mark Lewisohn explains that Paul and John would often 'sag off' school together to play and write songs: Within thirty minutes of sneaking out, they were inside Paul's terraced council house at 20 Forthlin Road, empty in the daytime. As Jim McCartney would no more let Paul skip school than allow that boy in the house, subterfuge was vital. Afternoon sessions, two till five, ended with a hurried wafting around of smoke and washing of dirty dishes ... though by then they'd often written another song. Over 100 songs are believed to have been written at Forthlin Road, including Love Me Do, I Saw Her Standing There and When I'm Sixty-Four.
The McCartney family had moved to the Wirral by 1964, when Ashley and Sheila Jones moved into 20 Forthlin Road. In around 1978 Sheila Jones modernised the house, scrapping doors and window fittings. Glen South, the current owner, was alerted to this and arranged to buy the door in order to auction it for an asthmatic charity. Subsequently it was South himself who purchased the door at the charity auction and retained it until April 2013, when it was acquired at auction by the current vendor.
The National Trust purchased 20 Forthlin Road in 1995, restoring the 1950s decor from the period the McCartney's lived at the property, including a replica of the original front door offered here, and now run tours to see inside the place where the Beatles met, composed and rehearsed many of their earliest songs.