Casbah Coffee Club, Mona Best's Cellar in West Derby

The Casbah Coffee Club is a basement club at 8 Hayman's Green in West Derby, Liverpool. Mona Best, mother of drummer Pete Best, opened it in her cellar on 29 August 1959, and the Quarrymen played the first night. The rooms they helped paint still survive, and the basement has been Grade II listed since 2006.

A cellar club in a family house

Mona Best got the idea from a television report about London coffee bars. Wikipedia names the 2i's in Soho. The club went into the cellar and old coal stores of 8 Hayman's Green, a Victorian villa from about 1860 that had once belonged to the West Derby Conservative Club. The Historic England list entry says the name came from the film Tangiers. Members paid half a crown a year, and Mona served coffee from an espresso machine along with soft drinks and snacks.

The band booked for the opening, the Les Stewart Quartet with George Harrison on guitar, pulled out after a row. Harrison offered his friends instead. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Ken Brown played on 29 August 1959, and before that they helped Mona finish painting the walls. The first residency ended after seven Saturdays in a dispute over Brown's pay. Pete Best's own group, the Black Jacks, then became the house band.

What the painted rooms show

The listing names each room and says who painted what. John Lennon did the geometric ceiling in the Aztec Room. Next door, the narrow Rainbow Room held the first stage at its west end, under a rainbow ceiling by Paul McCartney. The Spider Room was a coal store until it was knocked through around 1960 to make a bigger stage; Pete Best painted the spider and web on its south wall and Lennon painted its ceiling.

The Star Room has silver stars on a black ceiling, credited to Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe. On its bare brick wall is the white silhouette of John that Cynthia Lennon, then Cynthia Powell, painted.

The entrance area has a "CCC" spider logo by Pete Best, and a red and white dragon by Mona Best is in the old entrance corridor. The list entry also records original amplifiers, chairs and a bar with a mug wheel from about 1959.

The Beatles years and the last night

Stuart Sutcliffe was talked into buying his Höfner President bass at the Casbah, using his prize money from the John Moores exhibition. Historic England says the Beatles signed their management contract with Brian Epstein in the club. Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Searchers also played there.

The Casbah closed in 1962. Wikipedia dates the last night to 24 June 1962, with the Beatles as the final act. The list entry says the club shut after a family bereavement and puts the closing crowd at 1,500, a figure that came verbally from the Best family. Totals for the shows depend on the source too. The Best family told reporters in 2024 that there were 13 Quarrymen shows and more than 40 by the Beatles.

Listing, tours and the 2024 suites

Culture Minister David Lammy announced the listing on English Heritage's advice, and the basement was added to the list on 15 September 2006 as entry 1391759. The house is about 5.6 km from Liverpool city centre, and visits have to be booked.

In 2024 the Best family turned the upstairs rooms into five holiday suites. They are named after Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Pete Best and Sutcliffe. Roag Best said Ringo Starr has no suite because he never played in the club, not because of any bad feeling. The basement below was left as it was.

Ringo Starr's birthplace at 9 Madryn Street and the Cavern Club are both about 5.8 km away in a straight line.