BARCLAYS HOUSE ON GREY STREET IS ON THE SITE OF THE OLD ROYAL TURKS HEAD HOTEL WHERE BEATLES WROTE "SHE LOVES YOU"

 

Music-loving students coming to Newcastle could soon get a chance to live in accommodation with a notable pop history.. Plans have been submitted to convert Grade II listed Barclays House on Grey Street into a hall of residence.

The building was formerly the Royal Turks Head Hotel where, it is claimed, Paul McCartney and John Lennon were inspired to write She Loves You after a Beatles concert at the Majestic Ballroom in Newcastle as part of their tour with Roy Orbison and Gerry & The Pacemakers.

So it is possible that students could sleep in the very same room where the hit was penned.

In an interview Paul said: “There was a Bobby Rydell song out at the time, Forget Him, and, as often happens, you think of one song when you write another,” said Paul. “We were in a van up in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

“I’d planned an ‘answering song’ where a couple of us would sing ‘she loves you’ and the other ones would answer ‘yeah yeah’.

“We decided that was a crummy idea but at least we then had the idea of a song called ‘She Loves You’.

“So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it — John and I, sitting on twin beds with guitars.”

However in 2003, plans to install a plaque at the hotel were stalled after it turned out neither Paul nor Ringo, could recall whether it was the Imperial Hotel in Jesmond or the Royal Turk’s Head where the group had stayed.

Many fans had believed it was the Imperial Hotel but retired taxi driver Les Curry, of West Denton, said he was the man who picked the band up at the Central Station and was convinced he dropped Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr off at the Royal Turks Head on June 26, 1963.

What isn’t in doubt are plans to turn the listed building into 116 self contained ensuite bedrooms with communal facilities for students, which are going to put to the planning committee of Newcastle City Council.

Built in 1837, the neo Classical building is in Grainger Town, a council Central Conservation Area, close to the Theatre Royal.

It was Grade II listed in 1965 and later became Barclays House, however the bank left in May for new premises.