Early Beatles venue the Casbah becomes Airbnb

Beatles fans will be able to stay at the club where the Fab Four performed some of their earliest gigs.

The Casbah Coffee Club, in West Derby, Liverpool, saw 13 performances by John Lennon’s first band the Quarrymen and more than 40 by The Beatles.

It was opened in 1959 by Mona Best, mother of the band’s original drummer Pete, in the basement of the family home.

Now the Grade II listed building, at 8 Haymans Green, has been developed into a five-apartment Airbnb.

The rooms above the club, which closed in 1962, have now been transformed into suites named after John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney and George Harrison, as well as Stuart Sutcliffe, the band’s original bass guitarist, and Best.

Best, 82, moved to the house when he was 16 and said he had “fond memories” of growing up there and performing with the band.

“The Beatles played here, The Beatles partied here and The Beatles slept here,” he said.

He said the opening of the house as guest accommodation was a “lasting tribute” to the band and a “projection” of his mother’s dream, offering fans the chance to follow in the footsteps of their idols.

He and younger brother Roag, 62, son of Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall, have been working on converting the house since 2020.

The rooms have been decorated with a “sprinkling” of a Beatles theme, including photos of the band members, posters and guitars on the wall.

The basement has been kept as it was when it was a club, with drum kits still on display and “John I’m back” scratched into the ceiling above the stage area.

Guests will not be able to stay in a suite named after drummer Sir Ringo Starr, who replaced Best in the band.

But Roag Best said it was not because of any bad blood.

“It’s nothing to do with Pete and Ringo and what happened,” he said.

“Everything we do is about being authentic and The Beatles that performed and partied here were John, Paul, George, Pete and Stuart.

“Ringo was never a member when he was here.”