The Cavern Club is a nightclub at 10 Mathew Street, Liverpool, England. The Cavern Club opened on 16 January 1957 as a jazz club, later becoming a centre of the rock and roll scene in Liverpool in the early 1960s. The club became closely associated with the Merseybeat music genre and, famously, regularly hosted The Beatles in their early years. The Cavern Club closed and opened in a new site on March 1973 and was filled in during construction work on the Merseyrail underground rail loop. It would later be excavated and reopened on 26 April 1984.
Alan Sytner opened The Cavern Club, having been inspired by the jazz district in Paris, where there were a number of clubs in cellars. Sytner returned to Liverpool and strove to open a club similar to the Le Caveau de la Huchette jazz club in Paris. He eventually found a fruit warehouse where people were leasing the cellar; before this, it was used as an air-raid shelter in World War II. The club was opened on 16 January 1957. The first act to perform at the opening of the club was the Merseysippi Jazz Band. Local commercial artist Tony Booth created the poster artwork for the opening night, who shortly after became the original poster artist for The Beatles.