Cavern Club

Useful Information

Location:	10 Mathew Street, Liverpool. (53.4062724, -2.9879004)
Open:	All year Mon-Wed 11-18, Thu 11-02, Fri, Sat 11-02:30, Sun 11-00:30. [2006]
Fee:	depend on gig, pub free. [2006]
Classification:	Cellar
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:	n/a
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Cavern Club, Cavern City Tours Ltd., Liverpool L2 6RE, Tel: +44-151-236-1965 (12:00-21:00).
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

16-JAN-1957	club opened by Alan Sytner.
09-NOV-1961	Brian Epstein introduced to the Beatles.
MAR-1973	original club closed.
	destroyed during construction work on the Merseyrail underground rail loop.
1984	taken over by Tommy Smith, a former soccer player of Liverpool F.C., re-built next to the original Cavern.

Description

photography — The Cavern Liverpool. Public Domain.

This is a website about caves and caverns, and we are true Beatles fans too. So we were convinced to include the cavern, although it isn't a cavern. The Cavern Club is not a cavern, but an underground rock and roll club, dubbed The Most Famous Club in the World. It is the place, where the Beatles made their first appearance in 1961, after they had returned to Liverpool from Hamburg, Germany. From 1961 to 1963 The Beatles made 292 appearances at the club. Here they first met their future manager Brian Epstein in 1961.

During its half century of existence a wide variety of popular acts appeared at the club. This includes The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Kinks,Elton John, The Who and John Lee Hooker.

The Cavern Club is located in a series of underground cellars. They were used during World War II as air raid shelters. This is the reason, why they could be transformed into a club in 1957, many aspects of a public space like lavatories and sufficient entrances was already there. Unfortunately the club was closed in 1973 and subsequently destroyed during construction work on the Merseyrail underground rail loop. In 1984 Tommy Smith, a former soccer player of Liverpool F.C., re-built the club in cellars next to the original Cavern. So there are now two Cavern clubs, one which is destroyed and filled in, and the new one, which is now 40 years old and exists twice as long as the original club. And actually, it's impossible to see the difference, the cellars are almost identical.