16 January 1957: The Day The Cavern Club Opened Its Doors

On 16 January 1957, in a warehouse cellar at 10 Mathew Street, Liverpool, a music venue opened that would go on to change popular culture forever. That venue was The Cavern Club.

What began as a bold jazz experiment beneath the streets of Liverpool quickly became the beating heart of a global music movement. But on opening night, the dream was clear and precise: to create the finest jazz club outside London.

A Parisian Idea Beneath Liverpool’s Streets

The Cavern Club was the vision of Alan Sytner, a Liverpool-born entrepreneur with a deep love of jazz and an eye firmly fixed on Europe. Inspired by his experiences in Paris, Sytner named the club after the legendary Le Caveau de la Huchette, a famed jazz cellar on the Left Bank.

Like its Parisian namesake, The Cavern was built underground. A brick-vaulted cellar carved out of a warehouse basement, its low ceilings and echoing arches were designed to amplify sound and atmosphere in equal measure. Sytner’s aim was ambitious: to establish Liverpool’s premier jazz venue, and to rival anything being offered in London.

Opening Night: Jazz Takes Over Mathew Street

When The Cavern Club opened its doors on 16 January 1957, the response exceeded all expectations.

The Merseysippi Jazz Band topped the bill, supported by an all-star lineup of local jazz talent including:

• The Wall City Jazzmen

• The Ralph Watmough Jazz Band

• The Coney Island Skiffle Group

Inside the cellar, 600 jazz fans packed shoulder to shoulder, filling every inch of the venue. Above ground, hundreds more queued along Mathew Street, hoping for a chance to descend the narrow steps into Liverpool’s newest cultural hotspot.

It was loud. It was humid. It was electric. From the very first night, The Cavern was alive.

From Jazz Cellar to Cultural Landmark

At its opening, The Cavern Club was unapologetically a traditional jazz venue. Rock ’n’ roll had not yet found its way underground, and skiffle was only just beginning to ripple through the city.

Yet something about the space, the crowd, and the energy proved irresistible. Within a few short years, the cellar that began with jazz would become synonymous with a new sound, a new generation, and a band that would change music forever.

The bricks stayed the same. The spirit only grew louder.

The Beginning of a Global Story

Today, The Cavern Club stands as the most famous music venue in the world, but every legend has an origin story. Ours begins on a cold January night in 1957, with jazz echoing through a cellar and a queue stretching down Mathew Street.

From those first notes played beneath Liverpool, a cultural ripple spread outward, one that continues to draw music lovers from every corner of the globe.

On this day, we remember not just the opening of a venue, but the birth of a place where music history would be written daily.

This is The Cavern Club. This is where it began.