Part One - Liverpool

1940-1942
9 Newcastle Road
Liverpool L15
John Winston Lennon's first home was here, close to Penny Lane, in the Liverpool suburb of Wavertree where he lived with his mother Julia Stanley (born 12th March 1914), her parents and John's father Alfred Lennon (born 27 Copperfield Street, Toxteth, Liverpool 14th December 1912), a Steward on troop and merchant ships crossing the Atlantic who had finally Married Julia on the 3rd December 1938 having been courting her for almost 10 years. Alf, Julia and her parents had moved into this Red brick house shortly after the marriage*, it had three bedrooms - one at the front, one at the back, and a tiny one in the middle (which presumably was John's room). John was apparently conceived on the kitchen floor in January 1940 after his father had returned from sea, but he was off again shortly afterwards and was not home for the birth of his son who was born at 6:30pm at the Liverpool Maternity Hospital on Oxford Street on October 9th 1940, just over a year into the Second World War. Liverpool was bombed on the night of his birth.
John once visited his Paternal Grandmother, Mary Lennon (better known as Polly), on Copperfield Street, she was the 2nd wife of Jack Lennon who had been born in Ireland and, after emigrating with his parents and brother, toured the United States as one of the original Kentucky Minstrels in the late 1800's. Jack died in 1921.

*Julia and Mr & Mrs Stanley had previously lived in a flat on Berkeley Street.
 

1942-1943
Dairy Cottage
High Street, Woolton Village
Liverpool
A month before John reached his 2nd birthday his Dad landed a job as head waiter on another ship and this would mean an even lengthier trip away. John's Aunt Mimi (Julia's sister) suggested that Julia and John should move into this semi-detatched cottage owned by her husband George Smith as it was not far from where they lived and this would mean George and Mimi could see more of them, it would also give Julia space from her mother and father. Yet, free of her parents influence and with Alf not around,  John's mother began going out on her own (something she had never done before) and taking to drink.  The relationship between John’s parents quickly began to sour from early 1943 when his father returned to the cottage on leave and noticed a change in his wife. In July of that year Alf was off yet again, though this time he claimed he was duped into a whole 18 months away without leave, this would effectively destroy the marriage as far as Julia was concerned.
 

1943-1946 Returned to:-
9 Newcastle Road
Liverpool L15
Woolton Village had been an unhappy period for the Lennon’s, John's maternal Grandmother had died and when his grieving Grandfather went to stay with relatives, Julia seized on the opportunity to move back into Newcastle Road. However, her loneliness and sense of isolation became more acute and, once she had found John a babysitter, she was soon to be out drinking again.
Alf eventually returned to Newcastle Road shortly after John’s 4th birthday having not seen his son since he was 2 &1/2.  He was greeted at the door by a lodger who, with her husband, had taken the downstairs room. Julia came home a little later and immediately announced the bombshell - she was pregnant. Alf soon tracked the father down, a young Welsh Soldier by the name of Williams who offered to marry Julia if Alf agreed to a divorce - but Julia declined. Alf offered to bring up the child as his own, but when Julia‘s father found out - he insisted that the child should be put up for adoption.
On 19th June 1945 Julia gave birth to an "illegitimate" baby girl who she named Victoria Elizabeth - that would be the only influence she would ever have on her daughter’s life - she was adopted by a Norwegian sea captain and his wife.
In March 1946, with the 2nd World War now over, John's father returned home from another long trip, by this time Julia had developed a relationship with Bobby Dykins. An ugly row ensued that involved John's Mother, Father, Maternal Grandfather and Dykins - John (Now 5 &1/2) heard the commotion from the top of the stairs.
Julia decided that she was moving out - which she did, briefly - only to return and move Bobby Dykins in with her. Alf had now left for the South coast English port of Southampton where he took a telephone call from Aunt Mimi, she informed him that John had walked - by himself - all the way from Newcastle Road to Menlove Avenue where she was now looking after him. John spoke to his Dad over the phone “I don’t like my new Daddy.....when will you be coming back to me?”. Alf returned two weeks later with John still being cared for by his Aunt Mimi.
 

1946
Blackpool
Address not known
Alf was staying over at Mimi’s house when, without telling anyone, he took John out and disappeared to this nearby seaside resort. Mimi's version of events was slightly different - Alf had just turned up out of the blue demanding she pack John some clothes as he was taking him away, but one suspects her version was designed to free herself of any blame when it came to telling her sister what had happened. John remained away from home for nearly two months. Initially - he stayed with his father at Alf's friend's parents house at 25 Ivy Avenue, South Shore as guests of Mr and Mrs Hall.

John suffered two core traumatic experiences in Blackpool, the first - on the beach, happened when he fell into a deep gully of sand, he was screaming for his Daddy, but Daddy could neither see him or hear his cries which were drowned out by the sound of the waves crashing down onto the shore and the noisy seagulls. Once his Dad had realised that John was missing he began a frantic search until finally he became close enough to hear his son's pleas for help - this was an event John later recalled whilst undergoing primal therapy (See Primal Therapy section) .

Alf later took John to see his older brother who lived a few miles north of Liverpool in Maghull on Cedar Grove - John barely knew his Uncle Sydney and Auntie Madge yet Alf believed it would be ok to leave John with them whilst he went off to spend two more weeks in Southampton helping out with his friend’s business.
Sydney and Madge Lennon had just the one child - a 10 year old daughter. In a matter of a fortnight they were keen to adopt John as their son - this idea was suggested to Alf once he returned, but his friend's parents, the Hall’s, had also become very fond of John and they put forward an idea that Alf and his son should join them in emigrating to New Zealand. Alf decided to go with the latter option, but on the 22nd June 1946 with arrangements being finalized - Julia and Bobby Dykins had tracked them down and turned up at Mr and Mrs Hall’s house to take John home.
With Dykins waiting outside, Julia became convinced that John was being well cared for and she conceded defeat, but John did not want his mother to leave. Alf suggested that they should give the marriage another go, Julia rejected this idea. Alf then put his 5 year old son into a terrible dilemma asking John to choose between him and his mother. After deciding to stay with his father John then ran after his mother as she left, calling for his Daddy to join them. He would not see his father again for almost 20 years.
 

1946
Gateacre flat
Liverpool. Address not known
Shortly before the Blackpool trauma, John's mother and Bobby Dykins* had moved into this flat in Gateacre (North of Woolton) and this was where they returned after retrieving John from Blackpool. In cramped conditions the relationship between Dykins and John was becoming increasingly more strained. In July 1946 Julia discovered she was expecting Dykins' child and knew things could not continue as they were. She gratefully accepted her sister Mimi’s offer and allowed John to move in with the Smith’s.
A very different version of this period (possibly originating from a guilt ridden Julia) has Mimi taking a very pro-active role in securing John for herself by getting social services involved, contacting them to investigate the poor conditions in which John was living. Initially they were said to have sided with Julia, but Mimi persisted with further concerns (John was having to sleep in the same bed as his mother and Dykins) and this time they agreed that John should live with his Auntie until Julia and Dykins found a more suitable home. Whilst these claims may well be true, the notion that Mimi practically kidnapped John does seem somewhat far-fetched, especially in the context of the 1940's - Few people in Mimi's position would not have taken some sort of action given the morals of the day, particularly when she had the support of Mr Stanley (Julia and Mimi's father).

*John nicknamed Bobby Dykins "Twitchy" because of his nervous habit of coughing and then putting his hand to his face.
 

1946-1963
Mendips
251 Menlove Avenue, Liverpool L25
John's Aunt Mimi and her husband George were a childless couple and so they were very happy to raise John here (from the age of almost 6) as their own. Menlove Avenue is a wide and busy boulevard scattered with trees and parks with simple semi-detached houses lining both sides of the suburban road. No.251 was named 'Mendips', it was the most middle-class of all the Beatles' childhood homes and it was here that John would finally settle down into something approaching a normal stable family environment and live out the rest of his childhood, adolescence and (inbetween various excursions) through to the onset of Beatlemania, but even his life at 'Mendips' was not trauma free, when John was 12 he returned from a holiday visiting his Aunt Elizabeth in Durness, Scotland to be told of the sudden death of his Uncle George (he had died of a liver haemorrhage) and there was to be an even greater tragedy 5 years later......

Mother's house :- 1948-1958
1 Blomfield Road, Springwood Council Estate
Garston, Liverpool L19
Julia had returned to her father’s house on Newcastle Road shortly after John had moved in with Mimi, she stayed there with 'Twitchy' for a couple of years giving birth to her first child by Dykins (also named Julia) on the 5th March 1947. Shortly before the birth of their second child, Jacqueline, the family moved to this council house (about 2 miles South West of Menlove Avenue).
Julia would still see John occasionally, she would visit him at Mendips and he would come to stay with her new family here. It was John's mother who encouraged his artistic nature and she witnessed her son playing on stage with his skiffle group The Quarrymen before she tragically died on the night of 15th July 1958 (when John was 17), Julia was killed in a road accident just a short distance away from Mendips at a nearby intersection when she was crossing Menlove Avenue towards her bus stop, she was struck and killed by a car driven by an off-duty police constable*. As Alfred Lennon had never agreed to a divorce, Bobby Dykins had been unable to marry her, Dykins was later killed in 1966 when his car skidded and crashed into a lampost on Penny Lane.

*Eric Clague, in his mid 20's at the time, who later claimed that Julia stepped out into the road without looking and that there was nothing he could have done to avoid hitting her. However, Clague had not passed his driving test at the time and, as a result of the incident, he was suspended from the force (eventually leaving to become a postman, ironically Paul McCartney's address on Forthlin Road was one of the houses on his round). On an American TV show in 1972 John claimed that Clague had been drunk at the time of the accident. In 1998 The Sunday Mirror newspaper managed to track down Clague who expressed his regret, saying that his guilt had troubled him for years and that it became worse as the Beatles success grew, their constant media coverage reminded him of the accident every day.

1959-1960
Flat 3 Hillary Mansions, Gambier Terrace
Liverpool L1
As John turned 19 his best friend at Art School, Stuart Sutcliffe, was evicted from his flat at 9 Percy Street, Liverpool. Forced to look for another place to stay, Stuart moved into the largest of three rooms in this Gambier Terrace flat that was part of a long Victorian/Georgian building overlooking the construction of the Anglican Cathedral, it was also very close to the Liverpool Art Institute where they were both attending. The other two rooms were taken by Stuart's friend Rod Murray and his girlfriend. John effectively moved in with Stuart soon afterwards. The ’Flat’ had a shared toilet and was furnished with mattresses on the floor, an empty coffin, and a stolen Belisha Beacon. In July 1960 (by which time John's group The Quarrymen had mutated into The Silver Beatles and fulfilled their first professional engagement backing Johnny Gentle in Scotland) an edition of the Sunday People newspaper ran an article revealing the depths of the Beatnik lifestyle “This is the Beatnik horror” which included a picture of Stuart lying on the floor of this flat.
 

1960
Bambi-Filmkunsttheater,
33 Paul-Roosen Strasse,
Hamburg,
West Germany
The Beatles arrived in Hamburg on 17th August 1960 having secured a long term engagement to play in the notorious red light district where John would live in even worse conditions than the “depraved” Gambier Terrace. John (rhythm guitar), Paul McCartney (lead guitar), George Harrison (lead guitar), Stuart Sutcliffe (bass) and Pete Best (drums) were installed as a resident band at Bruno Koschmider's Indra club, he also owned a small cinema where the Beatles had to sleep in a small room situated behind the screen which had bare concrete walls, no heating and the smell of the toilets drifting in from next door, they'd be woken each morning by the sound of the day's opening movie. The band played for four and a half hours each weekday night and six hours a night at weekends. On 4th October the Indra was closed and the Beatles then began playing at Koschmider's other club, the Kaiserkeller.

1960-1961
The Top Ten,
136 Reeperbahn,
Hamburg
West Germany
Peter Eckhorn opened Hamburg's Top Ten club at the end of October 1960 to where the Beatles defected to play with Tony Sheridan* and, after falling out with Bruno Koschmider, take up residence in the attic above the club. But their long stint in Hamburg came to a sudden end when George (who was under age) and then Paul and Pete were all deported after Koschmider had involved the police in an act of revenge. On 10th December 1960 John voluntarily set out on the long train journey back to Liverpool alone (with his amplifier strapped to his back), Stuart Sutcliffe had gone into hiding to stay with his new German photographer girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr. Hamburg had been a gruelling affair, but it had proved to be the making of the Beatles as musicians.
Following a series of gigs at the Cavern Club in Liverpool (which would soon become synonymous with the band), the Beatles returned to Hamburg on 1st April 1961 for a 13 week run at the Top Ten club where they again slept in bunk beds in the attic room above the club. It was during this engagement that they were invited to back Tony Sheridan at a recording session for Polydor Records in June which resulted in the single My Bonnie reaching no.5 on the local singles chart. Although Stuart Sutcliffe was at the recording session, he did not play on the record as the Beatles had settled into a foursome with McCartney switching to bass. Stuart was now pursuing a career as an artist and enjoying an intellectually stimulating relationship with Astrid Kirchher, John was said to have been jealous of Stuart at the time and this may have been the reason for his otherwise unprovoked attack on his best friend in May 1961 as they walked down a Hamburg street, Lennon delivered a kick to Sutcliffe's head which left him lying semiconscious on the pavement with blood pouring from his head and ear as John ran off leaving Paul to help. Stuart forgave John and their friendship continued as normal, but he soon began to experience headache problems which grew worse to the point of him suffering pains so excruciating that he sought to throw himself out a window, only to be restrained by Astrid and her mother. On another terrifying occasion Stu blacked out without losing consciousness and believed he had been struck blind.

*It was Tony Sheridan who introduced the Beatles to Preludin pills which boosted their energy levels.

1962
Grosse Freiheit 30
Hamburg
West Germany
The day before the Beatles arrived for their third stint in Hamburg on 11th April 1962, Stuart Sutcliffe died of a brain haemorrhage. John would live out the rest of his life in a shadow of guilt believing that he had been responsible for the death of his closest friend.
On the 13th April the Beatles opened the Star Club, the first in a seven week run of gigs at the new venue during which they lived in rooms across the street which were rented by Manfred Weissleder (the owner of the Star Club), the rooms were in the same building as the "Gretel und Alfons", a pub frequently visited by the Beatles. The band were now managed by Liverpool record shop owner Brian Epstein who had sought out the group the previous November following a number of requests for the German My Bonnie single. Epstein arranged for the group to stay in hotels during two further two week stints at the Star Club in November and December 1962; First the Hotel Germania, Detlev-Bremer-Strasse 8 and then (over the Christmas period) they stayed at the Hotel Pacific, Neuer Pferdemarkt 30.

*Those who speak German are advised to check out this link.

Cynthia Powell's Flat :- 19??-1962
93 Garmoyle Road
Liverpool L15
John had met Cynthia Powell (Born in Blackpool on 10th September 1939) at Art college back in September 1957, they became an item about a year later. At that time she lived with her mother on Trinity Road in Hoylake, later she had this one room bed-sit on Garmoyle Road. Cynthia became close friends with Paul McCartney's long term girlfriend Dorothy Rohne who moved into a flat next door, but in the summer of 1962 'Dot' was unceremoniously dumped just as the Beatles were beginning to show signs of making inroads into London and recording history, Paul told her that with so many girls now available to him, he no longer wanted to be tied down*. Cynthia feared a similar fate and with her mother away in Canada she was now completely broke and had to apply for public assistance (dole money), then suddenly, 4 years into her relationship with John, she was pregnant.

*Paul had almost married Dot some time earlier after she became pregnant, but she suffered a miscarriage after three months and the wedding was cancelled.
 

1962-1963
36 Falkner Street
Liverpool L8
When John hastily married Cynthia on the 23rd August 1962, Brian Epstein allowed them to use this ground floor flat, free of charge, as a wedding present. It was comparative luxury to the flat on Garmoyle Road. A few months later the Beatles (now with Ringo Starr on drums) released their debut single Love Me Do, this was soon followed by the chart topping Please Please Me in the new year. John's son, John Charles Julian Lennon, was born at Sefton General Hospital on the 8th April 1963. Shortly afterwards the family effectively moved in with Mimi at Mendips although John was now spending much of his time in London as the Beatles quickly began to establish themselves as the top entertainment act in the country.

Source material for this article includes books listed in the Library, in particular (for part one) Pauline Lennon's book "Daddy come home". Many thanks to Dennis for the photo and info on 'Dairy Cottage', Louis Denaro for numbering the house on Ivy Avenue and to Angela Di-Pierdomencio for information on Sydney and Madge Lennon.

Last update to this page - December 2007