The secrets of Ivy Avenue 25, an ordinary house with an extraordinary history

"If John Lennon had chosen to go to New Zealand, there would never had been the Beatles."

Mark Standing at 25 Ivy Avenue

Some houses are holy. Only because a Beatle has lived there. Mendips, Forthlin Road, Dakota, Tittenhurst Park, Friar Park, Cavendish Avenue... But one house has been forgotton in this list. A house which is so important because it was the silent witness of a decision that changed the world. A decision from a 5 year old kid. His name was John Lennon. The house you can find in Ivy Avenue, Blackpool. Mark Standing (47), the owner: "What if John had chosen to go to New Zealand, there would never been the Beatles. Essentially it could be put in a very, very big historical turning point and it happened right here."

By Dominique Verschuren

In June 1946 Alfred Lennon spent holiday with his son in Blackpool. It was a lovely time, the two together. They stayed a while at 25 Ivy Avenue, in the house of Billy Hall, Fred's friend, and his wife. They decided to migrate to New Zealand. That was a good idea, Fred must have thought. So he decided to join, with the little John. One day, Julia, John's mother showed up to get her child back. The parents argued about him. Fruitless. So Fred asked John: What do you want? Come with me to New Zealand or stay with your mother in Liverpool? John wanted his parents got back together. That was out of the question. So he preferred to join his father. He gave the same answer when Fred asked him once again. Julia accepted the decision and walked away. At that moment the little John started to panic. He ran to his mother. She took him with her and disappeared. Fred saw his son back when John was already a Beatle and had conquered the world.

This scene, this dramatic story, should have happened at 25 Ivy Avenue in Blackpool. Mark Standing, the owner of the house, discovered that just a couple of years ago: "The way I found out was that a friend wanted to send me something in the mail. He wanted to find the postcode. So he googled this address and he came up with list's of John Lennon's houses. That was in 2005. I read the website, quite interesting and sent an e-mail to all my friends with the news: John Lennon lived in my house!"

That sounds great: 'John Lennon lived in my house.' But how reliable is that? Standing: "On that website they put a note to a paper where they confirmed it. It's a bit of circular. The prove of the website is that I seen it on the website and it's now on the paper. So which comes first: the chicken or the egg? The website came first, I'm saying it now in the newspaper about the website. So they take me as a prove which is not totally true. I don't know anything else. I believe it, cause there is no prove to disprove it."

A colleague of John Lennon

Probably the room where 5 year old John
slept during the summer of 1946
(april 2012)

Like that other inhabitant of 25 Ivy Avenue Standing is a musician. He even performed for audiences of thousands of people through whole Europe. He played rock music in the 1980's. But his perspectives are much larger. Standing: "Starting as an bass- and six strings guitarist, last years I'm more in the drumming things: Brasilian, African style. I give workshops with youngsters to create music. We listen to each other during lessons and during playing we try to change and to develop. I can make a living of it. I am what they called the community artist. As a freelancer."

Standing is very artistic. His house is full of sculptures, made by himself. "I do some drama work as well,  acting and improvising. We made plays for youngsters about the dangers of alcohol, about aids, about stranger-a-danger." Just like Lennon Standing never followed guitar lessons and he has a free mind. Experimental music is his greatest love. "Making sound loops, little snips from the television, noises and sounds, put them together. Just like Revolution 9 from the White Album, but then with more rythm. My record company since 1983 called PUMF. I used to release cassettes from the bands I was in. Since 1983 I have 100 releases. Not too much. There was always a change that someone would hear my music and make a lot of money out of it. I want to stay free. It's so sell out these days."

Behind the fronts

Ivy Avenue is now a part of a neighborhood with the same kind of houses. That was different in the time Lennon stayed here. Standing: "I think the house is from the 1930's, so quite new when John stayed here with his father. At the backside there was a Greyhound stadium where they organized races. This street was very far from Blackpool centre, a bit isolated, but close to the beach." In these days Blackpool was a real family beach place. With the leisure parks and the donkey ride. Standing: "Last 20, 30 years it changed, people come for Stag-and-hen parties. Looking for fights and sex, and getting drunk. Blackpool is not a family place anymore."

All those same kind of houses, what happens behind the front? The drama between John and his parents is definitely not the only story of 25 Ivy Avenue. Standing bought the house from his ex-wife, Jenny. "I think she moved in here in 1983. She was here with her husband of the time. They split up and then we got together. We also split up. We had 12 years together. She had a little boy, Matthew. We married and I became his step dad. From his age of four till sixteen. He had difficulty, because he didn't saw his real father that much. He was very anger, shouting to me. She choose for her son. It was difficult... after twelve years. That was in 2003. I stayed here, Jenny wanted to move. Her job had changed. So I bought the house from her. I had already the studio and build the garage anyway. We have kept in touch for one, two years. I haven't seen her for a long time. She's married again. Well, life moves on. Since a year I have a new girlfriend, Emma. Also with kids, but now I'm more a friend than a father. We have both our own spaces and that's a good idea."

House with history

The Blackpool scene was crucial in John's youth. When he came back in Liverpool his mother and aunt Mimi were fighting for the little boy. Mimi took John over and he didn't see his mother for years. So in a short period he lost both his parents. It's one of those traumatic moments that build up a particular view of himself, dictated by demands. He shout it all out on his 1970 song Mother. "Mother, you had me but I never had you/I wanted you but you didn't want me/Father, you left me but I never left you/I needed you but you didn't need me.'

John, 5 years old

Even beside those emotional consequences, that what happened in this place, in this living room, was important in a more historical way. Standing is very aware of that fact: "If the conversation was: 'John, you can choose. You can come with me to New Zealand or you go back to Liverpool with your mum' and if John had chosen to go to New Zealand, there would never been the Beatles. He changed the world, would the world be the same if he'd gone with his dad? Essentially it could be put in a very, very big historical turning point and it happened right here. I can see the importance of what might have happened."

The website which Standing referred to is:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob/pob40.html

(Thanks to Helen Williams)