John Lennon

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9 October 1940 - John Winston Lennon Was Born

“Working Class Hero”

A Working Class Hero is something to be, sang John. Working Class? Not a chance.

John was born in Oxford Street Maternity Hospital (Liverpool) on 9 October 1940, and brought home to 9, Newcastle Road (Wavertree) in the Penny Lane area. He was brought up from the age of five in his Aunt Mimi’s house at Mendips (Woolton). Woolton is a middle-class area, no question. The house has a name, Mendips, a middle-class custom, and an association with a range of hills in the prosperous south of England.

When he met his dad after a long absence as a boy, he asked if he should call him “Pater”. Pater!! A southern, upper-class name for your dad, and not something most Liverpool people would dream of doing.

He shared a flat with Stuart Sutcliffe at Gambier Terrace (Liverpool), and also spent the night at Cynthia’s flat at 93 Garmoyle Road (Wavertree) where Julian was conceived. Cynthia had lived in Hoylake at 18 Trinity Road (Wirral). After he and Cynthia married at the Mount Pleasant Registry Office (Liverpool) they lived in Brian Epstein’s flat at 36 Falkner Street (Liverpool).

John’s mum moved to 1 Blomfield Road (Allerton), not far from Paul’s house at Forthlin Road. She was knocked down and killed on Menlove Avenue (Woolton) close to Mendips. She was buried in Allerton Cemetery (Allerton). Her two daughters then lived with Julia’s sister Harriet at the Dairy Cottages (Woolton).

His schooling started at Mosspits School (Wavertree) before Mimi moved him to Dovedale School (Allerton).

At the age of eleven, he moved on to Quarry Bank Grammar School (Allerton) where the Quarrymen were formed.

After Quarry Bank School he enrolled in the Liverpool Art College (Liverpool) where he met Cynthia and Stuart.

Musically, the important event was at St. Peters Church (Woolton) where his friend Ivan Vaughan introduced him to Paul McCartney on 6 July 1957.

He of course famously commemorated some of his favourite places in Strawberry Fields Forever (Woolton), Penny Lane (Penny Lane/ Allerton) and the original draft of “In My Life” (Wavertree).

He also engraved his initials on a tree, though I am not going to reveal where it is, to preserve it.

He would go for a drink in Ye Cracke (Liverpool) or the Philharmonic Pub (Liverpool).

John of course was brutally gunned down on 8 December 1980, and died aged only 40.

Read the book for the full details of John’s life.