A Liverpool house famous for having its basement as the venue for some of The Beatles’ first concerts has been given new life and is now listed on Airbnb.
Mona Best, the party-loving mother of the band’s original drummer, Pete Best, opened the Casbah Coffee Club in the English suburb of West Derby in 1959, shortly before the group’s formation.
The band performed over 40 times in the basement of the building on a leafy residential street, after 13 concerts by John Lennon’s first band, The Quarrymen, had also taken place there.
The Casbah began with concerts on Saturday nights, but soon expanded to Friday through Sunday. It closed three years later, but remains a tourist attraction for Beatles fans from all over the world.
Now the property has been converted into suites named after members of the Fab Four – one is named after Best rather than Ringo Starr, who became the Beatles’ drummer in 1962.
Stuart Sutcliffe, the band’s original bass guitarist, also gets a room named after him.
“The Beatles played here, the Beatles partied here and the Beatles slept here,” says Pete Best.
The 82-year-old adds that it was intended as a “lasting tribute” to the most famous band in the world.
Since 2020, he has been working with his younger half-brother Roag, 62, the son of Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall, to convert the house into a rental apartment.
The rooms were decorated with all kinds of Beatles memorabilia, including photos of the band members, posters and guitars on the wall.
The famous basement has been preserved from its heyday in the 1960s. Drum kits are still on display there and the words “John, I’m back” are carved into the ceiling above the stage area.
The five suites mentioned above have been available for booking since the beginning of August and have already been booked by guests from the UK and the USA.
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Under the Airbnb heading “What makes my home unique?” the brothers jokingly wrote: “The Beatles played and stayed here.”
Prices for September start at around £125 (US$163) per night.
Roag revealed that he was born in what is now the McCartney Suite while most of the band were downstairs.
“When I was born, I was basically introduced to the Beatles,” he said.
He grew up on the property and moved out at 24.
Roag pointed out that McCartney had previously said he loved playing at the Kasbah because “it was like playing at a big house party” and “it felt like a safe place” to try new things.
He justified the lack of a Starr suite by saying that he was “concerned with authenticity”.
“The Beatles who performed and celebrated here were John, Paul, George, Pete and Stuart.”
