FOR the first time in more than a century, one of the great merchant prince’s mansions of Liverpool is revealed in its full glory.

A huge £1.2m restoration has returned Lowlands, in West Derby, to its former Italianate pomp.

At last, visitors can fully appreciate the breathtaking four-storey atrium and main staircase with its reglazed skylight.

But the English Heritage Grade II-listed house has a double identity. Besides being a grandee’s former home, it contained the Pillar Club.

From 1959 to 1966, all the top Mersey bands appeared before crowds of 400 people at the basement Sunday nightclub, across the road from the Casbah Club.

They included all four Beatles individually, and as the Silver Beatles a handful of times.

Other bands to appear were Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Searchers, The Hollies and Herman’s Hermits.

Owned by West Derby Community Association since 1957 for the use of residents and community groups, the house now glows in its original early Victorian pastel paint scheme.

It also occupies a rare woodland city site, amid a huge lawn, in Haymans Green.

The association’s ownership not only preserved the house from demolition, but stopped its grounds being sold.

The refurbishment also involved building a large community room and disabled facilities, such as a lift.

Lowlands was built by leading Liverpool architect Thomas Haigh for his own use in 1846, ten years after he designed Edge Hill railway station.