The Casbah Club

A large detached Victorian villa built around 1860 in red brick with stone dressings, comprising two storeys with an attic. The building is of particular architectural interest for its basement, which contains a unique coffee and music club that opened in 1959 and served as the performance birthplace of the Beatles.

The house itself follows a double-depth plan with the main entrance on the west side. It features sash windows with decorative surrounds to the front and west elevations, and canted bay windows to both the front (south) and rear (north) elevations. A second door is located on the east side. The rear elevation has been altered, and a small courtyard with outside toilets adjoins the main house. A door at the west end of the rear elevation provides access down to the basement club.

The interior retains decorative features including architraves, four-panel doors, and decorative moulded cornicing in the stair hall. The entrance porch has a geometric patterned tiled floor. The main staircase is a dog-leg design with carved brackets, a spiral newel post, and alternately plain and carved slender splat balusters decorated with foliage designs. The fireplaces have been replaced, and the first floor and attic have been converted to flats.

The basement is accessed via an entrance inserted around 1960 on the rear (north) elevation of the property; the original entrance in the courtyard wall was blocked up at the same time as the club's popularity grew. A secondary access is provided by an internal cellar stair beneath the house's main stair. The basement comprises six rooms arranged in an interlinking plan with a corridor.

The entrance room serves as a ticket office and cloakroom, with whitewashed brick walls and a counter inlaid with square mosaic tiles. A logo on the west wall depicts a spider with the letters 'C C C' (for Casbah Coffee Club), each letter within a square black border, painted by Pete Best.

The Aztec Room lies to the south of this entrance space. Its ceiling is decorated with painted geometric shapes by John Lennon, and the lower half of the walls is lined with plywood panelling, with temporary exhibition panels above. A brick-arched door in the south wall opens into the narrow, corridor-like Rainbow Room. This was the first stage area where the Beatles performed at the west end, with fans standing to the east and in the adjacent Aztec Room. The walls are lined with plywood panelling and the ceiling features a 'rainbow' design painted by Paul McCartney. Original musician equipment and furniture from the period survive.

A door in the south wall of the Rainbow Room leads to the Spider Room. This space was knocked through around 1960 and converted from a coal store to provide a larger stage area. It features plywood panelling, original musician equipment, and late 20th-century replica railings based on the original 1960s designs used to separate the bands from fans. The south wall bears a painting of a spider's web and spider by Pete Best, while the ceiling is divided into brightly painted sections executed by John Lennon.

The Star Room is accessed from the east wall of the Rainbow Room via the original entrance corridor and occupies the rear (front) part of the house. It features panelling on its south, west and north walls, while the east wall shows a white silhouette of John Lennon against a black background painted by Cynthia Lennon. A 1950s-1960s gas fire with a mosaic surround is set into the room. The ceiling is decorated with silver stars on a black background, painted by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe. A large opening in the north wall forms a bar counter serving the small coffee and Coca-Cola bar room behind. This bar retains its original 1959 mug wheel, and features a 19th-century panelled cellar door with an opening inserted at the top and a painted ceiling matching the Star Room's style.

To the north of the Star Room and east of the Rainbow Room lies the original entrance corridor, which features gated booths along the west wall where customers once sat while Mona Best collected admissions before the entrance was relocated. The east wall bears an image of a white and red dragon on a black background painted by Mona Best.

The building was constructed around 1860 to designs by an unknown architect. In 1957, Mona Best, mother of Pete Best (the original drummer of the Beatles), purchased the house for use as a private residence. It had previously been occupied by the Conservative Club of West Derby. In 1959, inspired by a television programme about coffee and music bars in London, Mona Best opened the Casbah Coffee Club in the cellars and coal stores of the property. The name was derived from the film 'Tangiers'.

On the opening night of 29 August 1959, George Harrison, Ken Brown, Paul McCartney and John Lennon formed a group called The Quarrymen to perform at the club. They became the club's resident band. Following Ken Brown's departure, Stuart Sutcliffe and later Pete Best joined the group, and the Beatles were subsequently formed. The Beatles played their first performance and many subsequent performances at the Casbah, and also signed their management contract with Brian Epstein in the club. As the band's popularity increased, additional rooms in the basement were knocked through and converted into larger dance and stage spaces.

The walls and ceilings throughout the basement contain numerous images and designs painted by members of the original Beatles line-up, along with works by Mona Best and Cynthia Lennon. Other bands that performed regularly at the Casbah included Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Searchers, The Undertakers and many others who subsequently achieved regional and national prominence.

The Casbah closed in 1962 following a family bereavement. The Beatles played the closing night to a crowd of 1500 people. The former club has undergone little alteration since its closure and remains a unique piece of physical evidence documenting the beginning and development of what became a significant mid-20th-century cultural phenomenon of enduring international influence.