20 Forthlin Road, Paul McCartney's Childhood Home in Liverpool

20 Forthlin Road is Paul McCartney's childhood home in Allerton, south Liverpool. The McCartneys rented the 1949 council terrace from 1955, and Lennon and McCartney wrote and rehearsed early songs there. The National Trust has owned it since 1995, it was Grade II listed in 2012, and the interior is open only on pre-booked Trust tours.

A council house with a telephone

Forthlin Road was built in 1949 by the local authority. Jim and Mary McCartney rented number 20 in 1955 and moved in with their sons Paul and Mike. According to Historic England, one reason they chose it was the telephone, which Mary needed for her work as a midwife. She died about a year after the move.

Paul lived here from 13 to 22. Sources disagree on exactly when the family left. The listing says around 1964, and other accounts say Jim moved out in 1965, when Paul bought him a house in Heswall on the Wirral.

Where the songs were written

The Historic England listing says the band used the house for writing and practice, and that up to 100 songs are believed to have been written there. The BBC's 2012 report used the same figure. The listing also names the rooms. The front room on the ground floor was where songs were composed. Through the double doors, the smaller back room was used for rehearsing.

Upstairs are three bedrooms. Paul had the small front bedroom next to his parents' room. Mike had the larger back room, which had a built-in wardrobe so he could also use it as a darkroom. His photographs from the early 1960s later helped the National Trust work out how the house used to look.

What the National Trust rebuilt

The Trust bought the house in 1995. Historic England says the purchase was about the McCartney connection and also about keeping an example of post-war social housing. The Trust redecorated it in late-1950s style. A lot of what you see is reconstruction:

• The windows are replacements, and the ones at the front came from a house on the other side of Forthlin Road.
• The tiled fireplace in the front room was put in by the Trust. The Chinese-style wallpaper was recreated from a fragment that survived.
• Only one or two of the panelled doors are original.
• The quarry-tiled kitchen floor and one kitchen cupboard are original. The linoleum in the boys' bedrooms may be too.

Historic England listed the house at Grade II on 28 February 2012, alongside Mendips, John Lennon's childhood home. Paul McCartney went back in 2018 for a Carpool Karaoke segment that aired on 22 June. He said it was his first visit since he moved out in his late teens.

Visiting: street or tour

The house is one of eight in a brick terrace on the north side of Forthlin Road. You can see the front from the pavement, but there is no blue plaque. A black National Trust sign in the front garden names Jim, Mary, Paul and Mike and makes clear there is no direct access inside.

The only way in is the Trust's combined minibus tour, which also visits Mendips, about 1.2 km away. Tours have to be booked in advance and leave from Liverpool South Parkway or Speke Hall. The Trust says anyone who turns up at the house without a tour will not be let in. In 2026 an adult ticket costs £37 for non-members and £13 for National Trust members, and prices change in July and August. You can't take photos inside. At Forthlin Road there are steps to the front door, and narrow doorways mean only part of the ground floor is accessible. The minibus itself is fully accessible.

The other Beatles' early homes are private houses you can only see from the street: 12 Arnold Grove, George Harrison's birthplace, and 10 Admiral Grove, where Ringo Starr grew up.