The key to Sir Paul McCartney’s childhood home has sold for £6,100 at auction.
The original brass Yale house key sold at UK auctioneers Dominic Winter for three times its pre-sale estimate of £2,000-£3,000 to a private collector.
Home where Beatles history was made
The house at 20 Forthlin Road in Liverpool is where Sir Paul learned to play trumpet, piano, guitar and the drums prior to his Beatles fame.
It is also where he spent time writing and developing songs with John Lennon and made early home recordings with the band.
The key was accompanied by a three-page letter from the then occupant alongside a period photograph of the house.
Key’s journey from New York fan
The house has been owned by the National Trust since 1995, and is where the Beatles star lived with his family from 1955 until late 1963 before he rose to fame.
Built in 1949 and owned by the local authority, the McCartney family moved into the property in 1955 when the musician was at secondary school.
He lived there with his parents, Mary and Jim McCartney, and his younger brother Mike. Sadly, only a year after the family moved in, Mary died.
The singer relocated to London in 1963 and his father moved out the following year.
The house then became owned by Ashley and Sheila Jones, who had frequent visits from Beatles fans over the years.
The house key came into the possession of 13-year-old Beatles fan Kathleen Salt, maiden name Duffy, from New York after she wrote a letter addressed to the occupant.
She received a three-page handwritten reply from Ashley Jones explaining that he had been given two original keys to the property and believed the key he was sending Kathy could have been Sir Paul’s.
Autographs and photographs also sold
Four Beatles autographs, each inscribed to “Kathy”, also went up for sale along with a number of photographs and a newsletter showing the frenzied Beatlemania and press entourage.
The autographs were obtained by her father, Frank Duffy, who worked for the band’s security team during their first American tour in 1964.
One of the photographs shows the Beatles boarding their National Airlines aircraft with Mr Duffy visible behind Lennon, while another captures Lennon and George Harrison with Mr Duffy and Murray the K at the terminal before departure.
Together they sold for £5,124 to a private collector in the UK following an estimated sale of £3,000–£5,000.
Chris Albury, director at Dominic Winter Auctioneers, said: “The level of competition we saw today demonstrates that the Beatles’ popularity remains as strong as ever.
“What makes these particular pieces so extraordinary is the deeply personal links to the band and to the people and places that formed part of their story.
“The 20 Forthlin Road key is an example.
“It has a remarkable provenance stretching back to 1965 and provides a tangible connection to Paul McCartney’s family home and to one of the most important addresses in Beatles history.
“To see it sell for £6,100, for three times its low estimate after such strong bidding was a fantastic result.”
