National Trust buys McCartney house

A council house which was home to Paul McCartney's family and dubbed the birthplace of The Beatles, has been acquired by the National Trust, the trust announced yesterday.

The terraced house, 20 Forthlin Road, in Allerton, Liverpool, was McCartney's family home for nine years, and McCartney and John Lennon used it for writing and rehearsing in their early days.

The family - Paul, his brother, Mike, father, Jim, and mother, Mary - moved there in 1955, when Paul was 13, and stayed until 1964, when Paul bought his father a house on the Wirral.

McCartney said yesterday: "My mum would have been dead chuffed to think our little council house would end up with the National Trust. It's fantastic for me and our family."

The trust said it would not be possible to open the house to the public in the near future.