Penny Lane is a song, mostly written by Paul McCartney and released in 1967, about this street in Liverpool, where McCartney and John Lennon grew up and often met to catch a bus to the city centre. The song mentions various sights and characters that McCartney remembered from his childhood, such as a barber, a banker, a fireman, and a nurse.
Penny Lane is also the name of the area around the street, which has a roundabout, a bank, and a pub called The Philharmonic Dining Rooms. The Beatles and McCartney visited these places frequently in their early days, and they became part of their musical and personal history.
St Barnabas Church, located across from the famous Penny Lane roundabout, is where Paul McCartney attended and was in the choir.
The street has a plaque that commemorates the song, and the pub has a sign that says “Paul McCartney played here”.
In August 2006 our Beatles tribute Mal Evans Memorial Band played for the first time during the Beatleweek festival in and around Liverpool. In between we visited as many Beatles spots as possible. This also applies to Penny Lane, of course.
Eleven years later I had a photograph taken near the same nameplate.
My visit in 2006:
My visit in 2017:
In the old days:
Paul in 2018:
