George's Childhood

George Harrison was the youngest of four children of Harry and Louise Harrison.  He was born into a "two up - two down" home at number 12, Arnold Grove. This was a four room domicile with a parlor and kitchen downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs.  There was no inside plumbing, so there was a privy in the back garden and a zinc tub for filling with hot water from the stove for bathing.

12 Arnold Grove

Harry made a passable living as a Liverpool bus driver, but the family got by on very modest means.  However, George showed himself to be an intelligent young man and was accepted into the Liverpool Institute, where only the most talented kids were allowed to attend. George, by this time, was obsessed by guitars and it didn't take a lot of pleading to convince Louise that her son should have one of his own.

Paul McCartney happened to be another of those kids enrolled at the Institute, and it so happened that George and Paul would ride the same public bus to school.  George was already known to Paul as a talented guitarist when he hooked up with John, so he invited him along to an audition on the upper level of a bus.  George played an expert rendition of the popular guitar song called "Raunchy" by Bill Justis and he was in.