St John’s Market Liverpool 1962

One of the first fully enclosed, roofed market halls, St. John’s Market Liverpool opened to the public in 1822. It was the largest in the nineteenth century.

The Beatles generally stayed in town between lunchtime and evening sessions at the Cavern and as the ‘Dive (The pub depicted in the painting) was only a short walk from Mathew Street across Williamson Square they often drank there. Being skint, each would buy his own drink because none of them could afford to pay for a round. On occasion they would pull the old trick of ordering a single beer between them and then use it as an excuse to sit in the warm for hours on end. During the summer of 1962 the Old Dive was the setting for several clandestine meetings between Brian Epstein, his associates and the Beatles in the weeks leading up to the sacking of drummer Pete Best. Before accompanying the Beatles on their tour of Australia in June a journalist was interviewed at the bar of the Old Dive by a television unit from Australian TV, talking about the early days of the group.

He recalled that the ‘Dive was one of the first places they [the Beatles] rushed to when they received the first demonstration copy of their first record and got Danny English to play it on his record player so many times that it drove everyone nuts’.

During the Australian tour Harrison mentioned to the Beatles that the pub was due for demolition. Paul wrote out a big “‘R.I.P.” card and he, John, George and Ringo all wrote their own semi-suitable remarks on it and sent the card to Danny.

John Lennon scribbled ‘Is my autograph still where I wrote it on your toilet wall?’.

When he saw the card Danny promptly went out to look. It wasn’t. He later said ‘If it had been, I’d have chipped the brick out and kept it.’

This history of the Dive, St John’s Market Liverpool and the Beatles was taken from this link

Original Oil Painting by leading Northern artist Steven Scholes.

Framed in a bespoke charcoal frame with white slip.