Reclaimed bricks help Cavern club celebration

Footage from 1962 of the Beatles at the old Cavern club from which the bricks were saved after its demolition in 1973



Liverpool, Merseyside UK - THE Cavern Club in Mathew Street is celebrating its 50th birthday with a thirteen hour party. The Beatles played hundreds of gigs at the Cavern Club between 1961 and 1963. The original club was located in the cellars of a Victorian warehouse and was demolished in 1973 to allow a shaft to be built for the Mersey underground railway Link improvement. In 1983 it was decided that the Cavern should be rebuilt, following the death of John Lennon, a few yards away from its original location, reusing some of the bricks reclaimed from the original demolition. Over 15,000 bricks from the old Cavern were reused in the reconstruction.

Some bricks were taken by locals and 5,000 were sold by site owners the Royal Life company in 1983 for £7 each. A plaque certifying their authenticity was glued to each brick with the proceeds being donated to a local charity. All of the bricks were sold and in the late 1980s one was said to have been resold for over £500 by Sotheby's. [The true story of the Cavern]

Authenticated brick from the original Cavern club. One was sold at Sotheby's for £500