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A school desk once used by John Lennon, and reportedly hidden away because teachers considered him a “nuisance”, has been unearthed from an attic and will now go on public display.
The item, discovered at Quarry Bank School in Liverpool, is set to become a centrepiece at the Liverpool Beatles Museum.
The desk, from what is now The Calderstones School, will be exhibited alongside other artefacts from the legendary musician’s schooldays, including the enrolment ledger recording Lennon’s details after he passed his 11-plus, signed by his aunt Mimi Smith.
Tom Barry, a design and technology teacher at the school, confirmed longstanding rumours about the desk’s existence.
He explained: “The story is that the headmaster, Bill Pobjoy, when John had made some sort of fame with The Beatles, we think in about 1963 or 1964, he asked the caretaker, known as Yozzer, to unscrew John’s old school desk from the history room and put it into storage.”
Mr Barry added that the desk had been “locked away for years” with the key lost, and staff even had to force open the door to access it.
While the rumour of its existence circulated, definitive proof was elusive until a document from the headmaster’s PA was found, noting the caretaker’s task. “So we have written proof,” Mr Barry stated, confirming the desk’s authenticity.
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The school desk of former Beatles frontman John Lennon and the Quarry Bank High School ledger on display at The Beatles Museum (Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
Mr Barry said there were rumours Lennon had carved his name into the wood, but they had not been able to find anything.
He added: “It’s one of those old-fashioned lift-up desks, but it’s locked and we don’t want to break it open, so it could be there is something inside.”
The school is starting to offer tours of their site for Beatles’ fans, where they will be able to see spots including the stage where he performed for the school dance with his first band, The Quarrymen, which he originally formed with school friends before Sir Paul McCartney and George Harrison joined.
The tours will also show the wall that originally separated Lennon and his classmates from the neighbouring girls’ school, which the young musician was known for scaling.
But, Mr Barry said, for years, teachers did not want to acknowledge their link to pop history.
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Lennon appears on the register at Quarry Bank High School for Boys (Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
He said: “When John left, he was that much of a nuisance and a bully and that much of a poor student, the school staff didn’t want to acknowledge that he ever went to the school and removed any trace of him.
“He was never spoken about; he was never acknowledged through Beatlemania.
“Apparently, fans would come to the school gates and just be sent away because the school didn’t want any connection to him.
“They didn’t want to idolise him and for students to think you can prat about and be a bit of a bully and still be successful.”
Mr Barry said pupils now were well aware they were walking the same corridors as the star.
He said: “At the start of the year, we always have new students coming in who are so happy to tell us, ‘this is where John Lennon went to school,’ and we say, ‘we know, we work here!’”
The desk and ledger, along with old school signs and uniforms from the time Lennon attended, are the latest items to go on display at the Liverpool Beatles Museum on Mathew Street.