Liverpool Institute
In this month’s newsletter, we take a more in-depth look at the school that produced 50% of The Beatles
“The school that I went to with George was a very Dickensian old place. In fact, Dickens had talked there. That’s how Dickensian it was” - Paul McCartney
But before we get to Paul & George’s schooldays there’s some…
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1956 - Liverpool Institute
The Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, an imposing stone structure on Mount Street in Liverpool, at the time already considered an overcrowded and ancient building (1) plays a central role in the story of the foundation of The Beatles. It was here that George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Neil Aspinall, Len Garry, and Ivan Vaughn were all in attendance at the same time (2).
The story of George meeting Paul on the bus on the way to school is well recounted, leading to George’s invitation to join the Quarrymen and forming the key triumvirate
that would be the core of the Beatles. It was also at the Institute that George recalls meeting Neil Aspinall for a smoke behind the bike sheds - Neil of course going on to be The Beatles longest serving employee and guardian of their legacy for many years. Len Garry would also for a time be part of the Quarrymen’s lineup, and then there was Paul’s school friend Ivan Vaughn who thought it would be a good idea to introduce Paul to a friend of his named John Lennon,
It could be argued that without the Liverpool Institute, there would have been no Beatles.
The school was founded in 1825 as a ‘mechanics institute’ whose primary purpose was to provide educational opportunities, mainly through evening classes, for working men. It was also charted to provide open lectures and readings for members of the general public. These talks would cover a wide range of topics both practical and philosophical. Among the noted speakers who appeared at the Institute in its early days were Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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