She’s Got A Ticket to Write (and she don’t care): Let Me Take You Down to Penny Lane

In 1967 John and Paul (who were 27 and 25 at the time) each wrote a song about their childhoods in Liverpool. Not only were the songs major hits, but they starkly showed the Lennon/McCartney dichotomy.

John, during that summer, was in Spain after agreeing to appear in director Richard Lester’s black comedy film How I Won the War. He found the process of filmmaking boring, and spent a great deal of time writing a song about his childhood.

Near the house where John lived with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George, there was an orphanage that went by the name of Strawberry Field. The institution was set up in a large, mansion-style house with spacious wooded gardens. The entrance was marked by enormous cast-iron gates painted bright red, but John, and sometimes his friends, used to climb over the fence. As a boy, John would play in the woods and gardens, or just sit and think about whatever came to his mind. Strawberry Field was something of a refuge for him when his world got to be too much. With his peaceful childhood hideaway in mind, John began working on a song that would eventually be titled “Strawberry Fields Forever” (adding the plural for reasons known only to him.)

Paul remembered the days when he would take the bus downtown from his home in Allerton, whether to school, or to John’s, or on the way to visit George in Speke, or just to hang out in the middle of town. He would change buses on Penny Lane (which is actually a longer thoroughfare.) He ended up painting a lyrical, dynamic picture of the area and the characters that inhabited it. This song was titled "Penny Lane."

Listening to the songs today, it's possible to discern John's introspective versus Paul's optimistic outlook. While John’s song is internal, a mystical retelling of his childhood in his own mind, Paul’s features colorful characters and sights he would see every day while changing buses or walking around on Penny Lane. On pretty much every tour of Liverpool that features the Beatles, fans can see both.

Strawberry Field outside gate is a duplicate; the original gate has been moved inside the grounds.

Strawberry Field is owned by the Salvation Army. They operate a visitor’s center, a small museum, and a garden with a bandstand and meditation area (not next to each other). There’s also a training center for young people with special educational needs. Plus a cafe, and a very nice gift shop where one can snatch up Beatles related souvenirs.

The property was opened to the public for the first time in 2019. There was a mansion on the property from 1870, which changed hands between wealthy owners until 1934, when the Salvation Army bought it and opened a children’s home in 1936.

As a child, John especially loved the garden party that took place each summer on the grounds of Strawberry Field, which was in walking distance from his home in Menlove Avenue - he could see the house from his bedroom window. As soon as the band started, he would hurry Aunt Mimi along.

Picture on glass in the garden of Strawberry Field shows where the house stood.

John wrote “Strawberry Fields Forever” while he was in Spain shooting the movie “How I Won The War,” a dark comedy for which he was cast in a supporting role by Richard Lester, who directed the Beatles’ motion pictures “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” He passed his time writing the song. He was likely influenced by Hindu spiritual themes, by his admiration for Lewis Carroll’s writings, and by his own use of LSD. John said of “Strawberry Fields Forever” that it reflected how he had “felt different all my life.” The words “nothing to get hung about” were inspired by Aunt Mimi’s order for John to stop trespassing on the grounds of Strawberry Field, to which he replied “They can’t hang you for it.” Some analyze “No one, I think, is in my tree” to literally mean John’s tree house that he had at Mendips, but he might be also referring to the fact that he felt alone in the world.

John’s lyrics (and some of Paul’s too) are featured on plaques around the garden.

‘Sgt. Pepper” style bandstand.

On the bandstand’s mural, the Beatles sit around a table with George Martin. Many people line up behind them, including John’s son Sean, Jimi Hendrix, Olivia Harrison, Bob Dylan, Brian Epstein, David Bowie, and what appears to be a much older Paul.

In 2000, the original gates to Strawberry Field were stolen and sold to an unsuspecting antiques dealer who didn’t realize they were the actual gates. He returned them to the police upon request, and they are now standing within the grounds.

Penny Lane is a road in the south Liverpool suburb of Mossley Hill. The roundabout at Smithdown Place (not a good title for a song) was a major bus hub and a frequent stopping place for Paul, John, and George during their student years. They would take the bus to school, and change at Penny Lane. They would also change here to visit each other’s homes (John and Paul were only a mile apart and often bicycled back and forth, but they took the bus at times. George lived way out in Speke and rode the bus into town to meet them, or they would ride out to Speke.)

Once presented with John’s “Strawberry Fields Forever,” Paul was spurred to write a song about his own childhood in Liverpool. He chose to recreate the sights and sounds around Penny Lane, throwing in some psychedelia and surrealism for good measure.

Penny Lane bus hub. The building is famous as “the shelter in the middle of the roundabout.”

It was formerly a “Sgt. Pepper Bistro” but is now vacant.

Tony Slavin’s is THE barbershop. Unfortunately the woman who ran it retired, and it hasn’t been picked up by anyone else yet. Paul stopped in here in 2018…and tourists came in a lot.

One of the buildings that can lay claim to being THE bank on the corner. There are three. Apparently Paul can’t be certain which bank he was thinking of.

That fireman was really rushing, because this used to be the fire station.

It’s one and a half miles from the Penny Lane terminus.

On the corner opposite the “bank” is St. Barnabas Catholic Church, where Paul sang in the choir when he was ten years old. Right outside St. Barnabas there is a special monument.

Statue of John Lennon by Laura Lian. He’s supposed to tour the world for peace, but he’s come home now. He might be waiting for that bus.

Of course, when you have a street that has been made famous by a popular song, the street signs get stolen. Here is the only remaining original street sign on Penny Lane.

It’s been preserved, but that is not the only reason it’s covered in plexiglass. Many delinquents have written their names on it by now, including this one.