The family home where John Lennon practiced with Beatles bandmate Sir Paul McCartney as a teenager has sold at auction for almost £280,000. The modest three-bedroom semi in Blomfield Road in Allerton, Liverpool, played a instrumental role his musical development.
The Pebble-dashed property was the home of his mother Julia and dubbed 'the House of Sin' by his aunt Mimi, who he lived with as a youngster. But John would regularly visit his mother, who became like a "young aunt or big sister" figure to him in his teenage years and would host regular jam sessions in the bathroom.
Omega Auctions said the house - described as a generous sized corner plot with front, side and rear gardens - was bought by a UK-based "big Beatles fan" for £279,500. From 1950 to 1958 John’s mother Julia and his sisters, Julia and Jackie, lived in the three-bedroom council house with his mum’s new partner John ‘Bobby’ Dykins.
Lennon lived with his aunt Mimi in nearby Menlove Avenue and was a frequent visitor to the house during the 1950’s, where he would often stay over. Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney rehearsed at the house when they formed their first band The Quarrymen as teenagers in 1956.
The house was seen as a place they could both escape to and practise without fear of complaints from neighbours or aunt Mimi. Former Quarrymen bandmate Eric Griffiths once said of the house: "I shall never forget the hilarious bathroom jam sessions she shared with the budding Beatles.
"The bathroom in our little house in Blomfield Road was probably one of the smallest in Britain. To see John, Paul, George, Pete Shotton, Ivan Vaughan, my mother and probably a couple of hangers-on scrambling around inside, trying to find a place to sit, was like a comedy act.
"They would be squeezed into the bath, perched on top of the loo seat, propped up against the handbasin, squatted on the floor, and standing with one leg up on the edge of the bath to support a guitar. Even getting the door closed was a feat.
"The reason for their unusual venue was that the bathroom was the next best thing to a proper studio. The wall tiles and the linoleum on the floor were perfect insulation, not unlike studio soundproofing."
Julia Lennon was killed in a road accident on July 15, 1958, when John was just 17. John, who had been due to spend the summer holidays with her at the house, opened the door of the property to a policeman who informed of the tragic news.
After his mother died the house was reclaimed by the local council once they discovered that Julia and Bobby were never married.
John, who died in 1980, last visited the home in 1970 when he took wife Yoko Ono on a visit to his old Liverpool haunts. The couple drove up to the house in their white Rolls-Royce and were shown around.
The house, which was last auctioned in 2015, is currently a stop-off point on the Beatles Tour.
