Hi everyone,
This week, I’d like to wrap up my scruffy semi-travelogue from my most recent research trip by talking about the Fox and Hounds.
Some of you may recognise the Fox and Hounds as the pub — owned by Paul McCartney’s cousin Betty and her husband Mike — where, in the spring of 1960, Paul and John gave their only (as far as we know) performance as an acoustic guitar duo, aka the Nerk Twins. We talked about this trip in the Nerk Twins Rabbit Hole in Part One of Beautiful Possibility.
Visiting the Fox and Hounds has long been on my list of things to do while in London, and this trip, I finally had room on the schedule to explore this unusual stop on the Beatles pilgrim trail.
Full disclosure — my ulterior motive for this update is to encourage those of you planning a Beatles pilgrimage to include it on your list of stops. This is an important persuasive effort, because while I was there, I talked with Kevin, the owner of the Fox and Hounds. And Kevin shared with me — with no small amount of disappointment — that very few Beatle people have actually visited the Fox and Hounds, despite its unique and enchanting place in the history of The Beatles (and in the history of Paul and John, although Kevin and I did not talk about that part of things).
I think the reason for the lack of Beatle people at the Fox and Hounds is that the pub is located in Reading (pronounced Red-ing, like the colour red). And on the map, Reading looks like it’d be hard to get to, especially without a car.
Looks daunting, yes? But in fact, Reading is not at all hard to get to.
The Fox and Hounds is a 24-minute train ride from Paddington Station in Central London (followed by a very short and beautiful walk along the Thames from the train station to the pub). That’s about the same amount of time it takes to ride the Underground from Paddington Station to Abbey Road.
So in service of encouraging y’all to make that short trip to the Fox and Hounds, I thought I’d offer you a bit of a virtual tour.
First, here’s the exterior, which isn’t that different from how it used to look, when John and Paul were there—
Inside, the layout of the pub is the same as it was when John and Paul were there. Here’s the main room—
In addition to performing, Paul and John worked behind the bar during their stay, and please let’s all take a moment to imagine John Lennon as a bartender—
To the best of the recollection of those who were there at the time, Paul and John performed in the adjacent room—
Kevin is a friendly pub owner, as all pub owners ought to be, and more than happy to welcome Beatle people and show them around. Here he is in 2017, when the Fox and Hounds was awarded the coveted blue plaque, denoting a place of significance to the history of Britain—
Now is a good time to tell you that the Fox and Hounds won the 2024 Pub of the Year award from from the Campaign for Real Ale. I didn’t sample their ale, but their hard cider is first-rate, as is their food, which isn’t posh but includes some of the best pepperoni pizza I’ve ever had. (A friend who came along would like me to also mention that the beer-battered cauliflower was amazing.)
Then there’s the matter of the upstairs, where Paul’s cousin Betty and her husband Mike and their kids lived, and where Paul and John stayed in that “little single bed” that we spent so much time talking about in the Nerk Twins Rabbit Hole. That same upstairs is available for rent as an Airbnb, and yes, of course I rented it for a night — which brings me to my special prezzie for the Beatles studies counterculture.
My friend who recommends the beer-battered cauliflower also happens to have experience in both construction and drawing floorplans. While the interior of the upstairs has been somewhat modified over the years, the footprint of the original layout remains. Sadly, the room in which Paul and John stayed is currently a storage room, but Kevin was kind enough to show it to me anyway. Also, Kevin knew a little bit about what had been added over the years in terms of extra walls and such, and was happy to fill us in.
So taking all of that into account, I traded my friend an order of beer-battered cauliflower in exchange for a sketch of the floorplan for what was likely the original layout of the upstairs living quarters, when the Nerk Twins were in residence—
I have little doubt that the passionate and able scholars in the Beatles counterculture will glean some new insights about the Nerk Twins trip from this floorplan. I know I did.
So if you’re going to be in London, I encourage you to take the short, 24-minute train ride to the Fox and Hounds. It’s well worth your time (and if enough Beatle people start arriving, Kevin could probably be persuaded to restore the store room to its original state, complete with that little single bed).
Finally, I’ve been slowly making my way through the research material I gathered in the archives of Northwestern University. Among that research is a collection of ‘60s teen fan magazines. One of those magazines published a regular “The Beatles Answer Your Questions” feature where readers could send in their questions to have them answered by an actual Beatle.
While I think it’s highly unlikely that the actual Beatles did, in fact, answer these questions themselves, and thus all of them should be taken with the requisite grainof salt, I came across this one that seems appropriate to share here—
Is it true that Paul McCartney studied anatomy at school on a skeleton called Fred Nurk? (Kathryn Walter, East Ham, London, E.6.)
The Beatles answer: Yes, indeed, and Fred later gave his name to John and Paul when they appeared together at a Reading concert as The Nurk Twins.1
I submit this tidbit for your consideration, with no clue whether it’s true or not because I haven’t done the research to find out. The alternative spelling of Nurk Twins with a “u” instead of an “e” suggests that the answer is not, in fact, composed by anyone Fab. Still, I think it’s at least possible this is rooted in some vague kind of truth.
The most plausible explanation would seem to be that the name Nerk Twins takes its inspiration from the British slang term “nerk,” meaning a stupid or objectionable person. But I could see a clever grammar school student naming a school science skeleton Fred Nerk.
If anyone is inspired to do the legwork of verifying the existence of Mr. Fred Nerk, the Skeleton, and comes up with the goods, please do email Robyn and let her know. It’s not of any relevance whatsoever to Beautiful Possibility, but it’s a good story, and I’d be curious to know if this is really the origin of the name.
Until next week, here’s the link to the Fox and Hounds.
Peace, love, and strawberry fields,
Faith 🍓
Marilyn Magazine: Special Beatles Issue, Anthology 1992 (note, this has nothing to do with the Beatles Anthology — it predates it by several years. This was a special commemorative issue that included a compilation of reader questions, with no original dates given. But all are from 1963-1967, at which time it seems the feature seems to have been discontinued)