John Lennon and Yoko Ono holiday hotel set for demolition

BBC News

25-05-2025

A hotel where John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent a holiday as newly-weds when The Beatles were top of the charts with their final number one before splitting up is in danger of being demolished.The Beatles star and his wife stayed at the Georgian Grade II listed Corbett Arms in the seaside town of Tywyn, Gwynedd, in the summer of 1969 during a turbulent time in the band's historyLennon and Ono were pictured by 13-year-old Alan Finlay, who also washed the superstar's car, while sat in the hotel's garden. The hotel has been shut for a decade, and after attempts to find the owner, the local council has applied for the 19th Century hotel to be knocked down as parts have already collapsed.
The run-down Corbett Arms, which dates back to the early 1800s, is now a far cry from being the landmark hotel which attracted stars like Lennon and Ono.The Beatles were on a break during the recording of what would become Abbey Road - which includes songs like Come Together, Something and Here Comes The Sun - when Lennon visited north Wales.It was just months after his marriage to Ono in March 1969 and the singer wanted to show his new wife special places that meant a lot to him.
They arrived on the north-west Wales coast as The Beatles song about them, The Ballad of John and Yoko, was number one - the 17th time they had topped the UK singles charts.Their visit to Tywyn was also between the recording of Lennon's first solo single Give Peace a Chance, which the pair recorded three weeks earlier in their second week-long anti-war bed-in in Montreal, and its release.The Corbett Hotel's odd-job boy Alan Finlay, then 13, greeted the superstars as they arrived."Dad would tell us about this real fancy car pulling outside the hotel and John Lennon got out," remembered daughter Gaby, 26."He was a huge music fan and was like 'oh my god', he couldn't believe it.
"John Lennon then asked dad to clean his car. So he did with pride and couldn't believe it when John Lennon paid him, he said he'd have done it for free! But John paid dad quite a lot of money!"According to local folklore they had been turned away from another hotel, the Trefeddian Hotel in nearby Aberdyfi, before spending the night in Tywyn.Gaby's grandmother Jean also worked at the four-storey hotel and said the couple, accompanied by Lennon's six-year-old son Julian and Ono's five-year-old daughter Kyoko Cox, did not have a booking."They asked to book out the whole top two floors for privacy," added Gaby."After dad washed the car, he saw them as a family sitting out in the garden and asked them for a picture and they agreed."
Welsh rugby fan Alan went on to have three children, worked in the Royal Air Force and later as a mortgage advisor and taxi driver, and was a grandfather when he died aged 69 in 2022."That was dad's claim to fame, he loved telling people about that story," said Gaby. After a brief pit stop in Wales, Lennon and Ono went on to his home-town of Liverpool and on holiday in Scotland in his white British Leyland Austin Maxi car."This was downtime for them in a very busy time and it was an attempt to be discreet," said Mark Lewisohn, a historian, biographer and well-respected authority on the Beatles."But everywhere they went, they were recognised because nobody on the planet looked like John Lennon and Yoko Ono."Yoko was John's new partner and she wasn't British so he wanted to show her places important and special to him."
"He had a life-long affinity to Wales after going there as a child and John Lennon's mother's family had a Welsh connection," Mr Lewisohn said. "He told the South Wales Argus in 1965 that 'Wales seemed full of green grass, beautiful mountains and such friendly people' so he always had a feeling for Wales."Following his UK road trip, Lennon returned to the studio with bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in the July of 1969 to finish off Abbey Road in what proved to be their last recording session.Lennon then quit what is widely-regarded as the UK's most famous and successful band in the September, days before Abbey Road's release.
"At no point when the picture in Tywyn was taken was John thinking The Beatles were going to break up," added Mr Lewisohn."But he wasn't adverse to it because what he thought about The Beatles and what we thought about The Beatles were two different things."Lennon and Ono's visit to north Wales was just days before Prince Charles' investiture as the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle in the north of the county.The couple sent a postcard of the 20-year-old prince to Starr and his family to the Apple offices in London, containing the simple message: "Hello".That postcard, bearing the postmark of Tywyn and dated 23 June 1969, was included in drummer's 2004 book Postcards From The Boys.
From hello, it could be goodbye to the Corbett Arms for good unless help is found to save the once grand building that was described by locals as the "gateway into the town".It could be demolished within months because it is dilapidated and unsafe, with parts of it having already collapsed.The Corbett Arms is considered one of the UK's most endangered buildings, according to conservation charity SAVE Britain's Heritage.
Campaigners, including Catherine Evans who remembers Lennon's visit to her home-town, want this important part of Tywyn's history to be saved. "The history is unbelievable, going back to the 1800s, and it's a shame it got to this state and pulled down when it could have been saved," added Ms Evans, whose parents both worked at the Corbett Arms.The local authority has issued 11 notices to force repair works by the owner but emergency demolition now seems likely in order to protect public safety.
Scaffolding has been put up to secure the building with an application in place for listed building consent to carry out the demolition work."We understand the significance of this historic building and concerns of the local community," said Gareth Jones, of Cyngor Gwynedd."However, the condition of the building has deteriorated to a point where immediate action is now required to protect public health and safety. Sadly there is no other option."