Here I am outside the former
hospital where Paul McCartney was pushed out into the world while World War Two
raged. Now it’s a large apartment block but at the time it was Walton Hospital
where most locals went to give birth..
Paul’s mum Mary was a 32-year-old midwife and
knew this building as she’d qualified to practise as a nurse here. For a short
spell she'd been in charge of the maternity ward. His dad Jim didn’t witness
the big push as the country was amidst WW2 and he was working as a volunteer
firewatcher. It was remarkable they’d met, married and meshed together to
produce Paul - when they met in an air raid Mary was 31, rather spinsterish, a Catholic and too ambitious to marry.
Jim was 38, an agnostic and a confirmed bachelor. Paul was their first child
together though later on they’d have another son.
Though Mary had the luxury of a private room Paul was born not
breathing. He was in a state of white asphyxia caused by oxygen-deficiency to
the brain. The obstetrician and midwife thought he was dead but the latter knew
Mary, was a staunch Catholic and prayed fervently for God to intervene. Moments
later Paul started breathing unaided. Mary thought the prayers had been
answered or perhaps she’d witnessed a miracle and went on to have Paul baptised
in a Catholic church. Hours later Jim arrived from fire-watching duties to see
a his lad for the first time. He was no longer a deathly white and said later
he “looked like a horrible piece of red meat.” The McCartneys
took their lad home - a set of furnished rooms on Sunbury Road two miles away in
Anfield. Mary would return to this building to give
birth to Peter Michael but she didn't see much of her sons lives. They were 14
and 12 years old when she died aged 47 from breast cancer. Cancer had been
found in the her breast and a mastectomy was planned but the cancer had spread
too quickly and too far.
To reach this handsome landmark building you pass
a rather vulgar modern white hospital with looks comparable with a prison. It serves
to make the former Walton Hospital even more handsome. I parked up and had a
stroll around the grounds. Walton Hospital was originally a workhouse and the
Clock Tower Drive that takes you to it refers to the broad tower at the front
of the building. Strolling around I saw a woman pushing a pram. I waved but she
didn't wave back - perhaps my saluting and pointing into mid-space made her
think I was a nutter.
The hospital closed its doors after a long
history in December 2010 and most of it was demolished the following year. There're
nearly 200 properties here now in the form of flats,
houses and bungalows. Where was everyone? I strolled around for about twenty minutes and
didn't see anyone at any of the hundreds of windows. I saw only five
people and one was a delivery driver. There was a car park at the rear but -
again - nobody was around. Perhaps there was a meteor approaching earth and it's
incoming journey was live on television.
If Paul hadn't made we wouldn't have The Beatles - or perhaps we would but
in another form with John Lennon doing all the singing. Who knows? Paul’s dad
eventually remarried a woman twenty years his junior and ended his days on the
Wirral where he was cremated. His mum lies five miles from the hospital in an unmarked
grave and the link is here if you'd like to see it:- http://johnhalley.uk/Grave%20-%20Mary%20McCartney.htm