2014 Vacation: UK / England / Liverpool / Mathew Street

Mathew Street, Liverpool

Mathew Street is a street in Liverpool, England, best-known worldwide as the location of the Cavern Club, where The Beatles played on numerous occasions in their early career. Points of interest on Mathew Street include: the Cavern Club, the Cavern Pub, Liverpool Wall of Fame, Statue of John Lennon and sculpture “Four Lads who shook the World” by Arthur Dooley and Hard Day’s Night hotel.

Mathew Street, Liverpool

John Lennon

Sculpture of John Lennon by local artist Arthur Dooley. Unveiled: 1997. Location: in front of the Cavern Pub and on the Liverpool Wall of Fame on Matthew Street. Partly based on the front cover of Lennon’s 1975 album Rock ‘n’ Roll. [The Cavern Club is just opposite of the Cavern Pub].

Liverpool Wall of Fame

The Liverpool Wall of Fame [unveiled: March 2001] is a tribute to the groups which played at the original Cavern Club. It was commissioned for the 40th anniversary of the Cavern Club, in January 1997, and was constructed by a local stonemason. It features 1,801 bricks engraved with the names of all the artists that appeared at the original club from 1957 to 1973.

Liverpool Wall of Fame

The Cavern Club

The Cavern Club is a nightclub at 10 Mathew Street. The original Cavern Club opened in January 1957 as a jazz club, later becoming a center of the rock and roll scene in Liverpool in the 1960s. The Beatles played in the club in their early years. The original Cavern club closed in March 1973 and was filled in during construction work on the Merseyrail underground rail loop. It was re-opened on the 26th April 1984 and was rebuilt using many of the original bricks, to the original plans and on the same address, 10 Mathew Street.

The Beatles made their first appearance at the club on 9 February 1961 after returning to Liverpool from Hamburg, Germany where they had been playing at the Indra and the Kaiserkeller clubs. Between 1961 to 1963 The Beatles made 292 appearances at the club. Beatles manager Brian Epstein promised the club’s owners that the Beatles would return someday, but it was a promise that was never fulfilled.

NOTE: The Cavern Club and the Cavern Pub are different. The Cavern Pub, a pub in front of the Cavern Club, known by The Cavern Wall of Fame and John Lennon statue.

The Cavern Club

The Cavern Pub

Four Lads who shook the World – by Arthur Dooley

This was the first ever Beatles statue erected in Mathew Street, Liverpool (1974). The original ‘Beatle Street’ by local artist Arthur Dooley, depicts The Madonna and The Beatles with the tribute “Four lads who shook the world”.