In 1959, when Mona Best converted the cellar of her Liverpool home into a rock ‘n’ roll venue, little did she know how the club would outlast its short lifespan.
She charged half a crown for membership, set up a small Dansette record player, and booked her first band, a skiffle group formed by of friends of her son, Pete. Known as the Quarrymen, the band was made up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ken Brown. It would eventually morph into the Beatles, with which Pete would briefly drum.
The house at 8 Hayman’s Green in Liverpool that once housed the Casbah Coffee Club. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images.
Today, while the Casbah Coffee Club is no more, the Beatles’ world-shaking renown has lent a shine to the venue that hosted its earliest incarnation (the Fab Four also returned in 1962 to play the club’s final gig). “The Beatles played here, the Beatles partied here, and the Beatles slept here,” Pete Best told the BBC.
But Best and his brother Roag, who now own the home, are not content with 8 Hayman’s Green simply being a pilgrimage site for Beatles die-hards. The pair has now converted the Merseyside residence into rental accommodations and listed it on Airbnb.
The Sutcliffe Suite at the Casbah Club Airbnb. Photo: Peter Byrne / PA Images via Getty Images.
Guests have their choice of five suites in the Victorian brick mansion, named after Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Best, and Stuart Sutcliffe, the band’s original bassist, who was persuaded by Lennon and McCartney to pick up the instrument at the club.
Each lodging is lushly furnished, with an attached bathroom and kitchenette, and decorated with touches unique to each Beatles member. The McCartney suite is hung with a small bass guitar, for instance, while the Lennon suite contains a “War Is Over” poster, recalling his and Yoko Ono’s 1969 peace campaign. Every room is also adorned with photographs of the group.
The Lennon Suite at the Casbah Club Airbnb. Photo: Peter Byrne / PA Images via Getty Images.
Offering these rental units, Best said, serves as a “lasting tribute” to the Beatles, as much as a “projection” of his mother’s vision. “She had a dream,” he told the Guardian, “She brought music to the kids of Merseyside.”
Conspicuously missing in the listing is a suite named for Starr, who replaced Best as the Beatles’s drummer. Pete insists there’s no ill feeling between them, with Roag explaining that Starr wasn’t a member during the band’s time there.
The Best Suite at the Casbah Club Airbnb. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images.
What’s not available for rent either is the cellar that housed the actual Casbah Club. The space has been carefully preserved by the brothers—its walls still coated with the paint applied by Pete and his friends, the drum kits still installed, and a bit of graffiti reading “John I’m back” still carved into the ceiling over the stage.
Roag Best, who was born in the room now known as the McCartney Suite, also runs the Liverpool Beatles Museum, which details the band’s history across hundreds of objects. Earlier this year, the museum exhibited long-lost acorns that Lennon and Ono planted at Coventry Cathedral in 1969, a display that joins a floral-patterned toilet that Lennon once owned.