The Monty Python Plaque

Number 13 Monmouth Street in London served as the 1963 headquarters for Brian Epstein's Beatles management company, Nems, before becoming the official Beatles Fan Club office. Located above a bookstore, the site hosted Beatles press conferences and processed massive amounts of fan mail on its second floor. Just around the corner in Neal's Yard, Monty Python members Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin established their film editing suites in 1976.

London Β· from the walk β€œLondon's Best-Kept Secrets” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

13 Monmouth Street, London WC2H 9DA

What connection does 13 Monmouth Street in London have to The Beatles?

Look up at number thirteen Monmouth Street... and you'll spot a blue plaque on the wall above you. This little patch of Seven Dials is where the worlds of The Beatles and Monty Python practically overlap.......... Brian Epstein's management company Nems moved from Liverpool to London in nineteen sixty-three, setting up right here at thirteen Monmouth Street. Nems β€” that stood for North End Music Stores β€” named after his family's record shop back in Liverpool.......... Now here's the thing most people don't know. The Beatles would come here for press conferences, so they were seen on this street often. But the offices were above a dirty bookstore! Not exactly the glamorous image Epstein wanted for the biggest band in the world. So when Nems eventually moved to a better location on Argyll Street, this building became the headquarters for the official Beatles Fan Club... which grew at such an extreme pace it took over the entire second floor. Imagine... bags upon bags of fan mail arriving here daily, and secretaries upstairs signing autographs on behalf of John, Paul, George, and Ringo.......... Paul Mccartney himself once said, "If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian." But Epstein's story has a darker side. Artistic and deeply private, he had briefly studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts β€” his classmates included Albert Finney and Peter O'Toole. Great success followed with the Beatles, but his personal life was troubled... and he was found dead in nineteen sixty-seven at just thirty-two years old.......... Now, turn and look toward Neal's Yard β€” that colorful alleyway just around the corner. In nineteen seventy-six, Monty Python members Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin bought offices there to use as studios and editing suites for the Python films. And what does the blue plaque say? Simply... "Monty Python, Filmmaker, lived here, nineteen seventy-six to nineteen eighty-seven." The plaque was opened by Andre Jacquemin, the Pythons' record and sound producer.......... So within just a few steps of each other, you have the nerve center of Beatlemania... and the creative workshop behind Life of Brian and The Holy Grail. Two blue plaques, two revolutions in British culture β€” one in music, one in comedy β€” hiding in plain sight in this remarkable little neighborhood.

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