Penny Lane is the title of a song by The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and released in February, 1967.


The song's title is derived from the name of a street in the English city of Liverpool.





The area that surrounds its junction with Smithdown Road is also commonly called Penny Lane. Locally the term "Penny Lane" was the name given to Allerton Road and Smithdown Road and its busy shopping area.

McCartney and John Lennon grew up in the area and they spent a lot of time playing on Penny Lane junction as children. The street is an important landmark, sought out by most Beatles fans touring Liverpool. In the past, street signs saying "Penny Lane" were constant targets of tourist theft and had to be continually replaced.

 Eventually, city officials gave up and simply began painting the street name on the sides of buildings. This is still the case at the Smithdown Road junction, but there is a conventional sign at the other end of the street.

The barber shop mentioned in the song was probably a shop owned by a Mr. Bioletti, who has claimed to have cut hair for Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison when they were children. The fire station in the song ("It's a clean machine") was not at Penny Lane junction, but a short walk away along Allerton road. It was on the corner where Allerton Road meets Mather Avenue The station is very close to the site of Quarry Bank School which Lennon attended. Mather Avenue leads to Forthlin Road, home of McCartney. The line about the banker with a motorcar probably refers to an employee of the Penny Lane branch of Barclays bank, which was situated on one of the corners of the junction. However, there were also two other nearby banks.

Penny Lane - The Bank

    

But which is the bank? Penny Lane Roundabout had 3 banks to choose from back then - although only one remains a bank today. One building on the corner of the roundabout was "Martins Bank" which was later absorbed by Barclays. Staff there reckoned they knew the identity of the banker being sung about, and that he worked for Martins Bank.

The next candidate is on the opposite corner of the roundabout, and is now after various name changes a Lloyds TSB.

The third bank was a Barclays Bank, and is the popular choice for the bank. It is on the corner of the block where the barber shop is It is now the Penny Lane Doctors Surgery.

Penny Lane - Very Strange

In the song "Penny Lane" there is the line "very strange". This is not just because it fits, or sounds nice, but is probably a reference to the firm of Strange and Strange, a firm of motor engineers who were based in number 51 Penny Lane for many years, and it was too good an opportunity to miss!

Penny Lane - The Pretty Nurse

It was here on the roundabout, in front of the shelter, that the "pretty nurse" (or more likely Nurse Cadet - not a full-time nurse) stood. It is thought that this nurse was in fact Beth Davidson, a childhood friend of John Lennon, and later to become Lennon's best friend Pete Shotton's wife. She would stand there and meet up with her friends while raising money selling poppies .
"And though she feels as if she's in a play, she is anyway" To add credence to the story that the nurse was in fact Beth, this line confirms it. As a child, she and her friends would put on plays in her back yard in Borrowdale Road. Her father even built her a stage.

Penny Lane - The Barber Shop

Bioletti's is no more, the barber shop where John, Paul and George would get their haircut, but it is still a hairdresser's, now called Tony Slavin.

Penny Lane - The Chip Shop

Here, on Penny Lane, on the corner of Crawford Avenue, is Penny Lane Fish and Chip shop. "Fish and finger pies" (chips!) was also a play on the urban myth in Dovedale School that someone had found a real finger in with their chips

The song conflates different temporal moments. The sky is referred to as blue, and yet it is raining. Events are apparently occurring in November, since the "pretty nurse" is selling poppies for Remembrance day (November 11), yet the reference to "fish and finger pie" recalls summertime experiences.

One innovative feature of the song was the piccolo trumpet solo played by David Mason. This is thought to be the first use of this instrument (a distinctive, specialty instrument pitched an octave higher than the standard B-flat trumpet) in pop music, where it is now (in certain genres) almost a commonplace.