I’m in the midst of getting ready for my research trip to Northwestern University, followed by London, Liverpool (and Luxembourg, but that’s not directly Fab-related). So this week, instead of a written update, I thought I’d share with you a few photographs from prior trips.
In keeping with the zeitgeist of The Abbey, these photographs offer perspectives that are different from the usual ways in which a Beatles pilgrimage is photographed.
Temple Street, Liverpool.
Mathew Street, Liverpool.
Interior, 1 Blomfeld Road, former home of Julia Lennon. This is the last place she lived, where John would visit and the Quarrymen would practice.
St. Peter’s churchyard on a snowy day. Eleanor Rigby’s grave is in the second row from the left. The unusual perspective here is that it rarely snows in Liverpool.
Rain gutter at Strawberry Field(s)
Liverpool terrace house. Not an unusual physical perspective, but an unusual cultural one. These displays are not uncommon, and if you’re in the US, they might remind you of the “never forget” 9/11 memorials. We talked in episode 1:1 (Kairos) about how the trauma of World War II was felt far more directly and deeply in Europe/UK than in America. WWII may be history to Americans, but it’s still a living memory in Liverpool, one of the most heavily bombed cities in the war.
Locked gates at the entrance to Long Lane Jewish Cemetery, where Brian Epstein is buried.
Interior courtyard, Liverpool School for the Performing Arts (LIPA), formerly the Liverpool College of Art/Liverpool Institute for Boys This is one of the sections that is still exactly as it was when John, Paul and George attended.
Penny Lane from the top deck of the #86 bus. The roundabout is to the left. St. Barnabas Church, where Paul sang in the choir, is to the right.
Mersey River trail, south Liverpool. The Mersey is usually experienced as an urban/commercial river, but farther south it becomes something different.
The “John and Paul Walk” that runs along the golf course and connects Mendips (John’s childhood home) with 20 Forthlin Road )Paul’s childhood home). It’s likely that a night, they both cut across the golf course itself, as that would be more direct, and that they took this path only during the day when the course was active. The “John and Paul Walk” also winds past a Carmelite monestary.
Italian Beatles pilgrims talking with a street musician by the Fab Four statue, Liverpool waterfront.
Sign in the window of Curly’s music store. A reminder that Liverpool still has a vibrant local music scene — fated, as are all musicians, but more than most, to make their name in the long shadow of The Beatles.
London. The attic of 57 Wimpole Street, home of the Ashers, where Paul composed/dreamed the melody for “Yesterday.”
Graffiti on the wall, Abbey Road Studios, London.
Hamburg. Interior of what used to be the Bambi Kino, where John, Paul, George, Stu and Pete roomed during their first residency at the Kaiserkeller.
Hamburg. St. Pauli District backstreet
Seeing places we thought we knew through unexpected perspectives invites us to experience those places — and our emotional connection to them — in a different way. And this is, of course, the mission of The Abbey.
Okay, y’all, I’m off on my travels. Updates will continue in my absence.
Peace, love, and strawberry fields,
Faith 🍓
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