Mendips: John Lennon's house

A middle class hero protected in green and education



Teenager John in front of Mendips

Sunday morning. Liverpool. Even my socks are wet by the usual showers. I'm going to visit the Sancta Santorum - the place to go if you love John Lennon. Do I love John Lennon? It's much easier to love someone who wrote your favorite songs than someone you live with day in day out. So it's not comparable. I'm on my way to Mendips, donated by Yoko to the National Trust ten years ago: the place were Lennon lived longer than in Kenwood, Tittenhurst or even Dakota.

By Dominique Verschuren

Miriam M'Cauley is the perfect guide. She’s friendly - taking time to laugh, joke and make contact with her audience. The perfect person to keep the legend alive. She was (and still is?) in love with George Harrison, but all four Beatles conquered her heart. M'Cauley can't tell us enough times how lovely Mendips is. And she's right. It's smaller than I expected, more cosy than I thought, but it is indeed a nice place to grow up, located in a lovely green area called Woolton. This is England's greenery at its finest.

I guess without knowing it she refers a myth to the garbage: John Lennon, the working class hero. She proves: it’s complete nonsense. M'Cauley: "A bell system in the house. You could say it's a middle class area. People who lived here were bank managers, consultants, that type of thing. This area is still very popular. A lot of Liverpool’s footballers live here."

But this is not the whole story. John's first address, 9 Newcastle Road, definitely looks more working class. And in a way John was. John’s auntie Mimi Smith had ambitions to reach a higher status than her background. That’s why he grew up in more supporting circumstances: the house (uncle George Smith owned different houses), the education, the structure, the civilization... Mimi only wanted two things: she wanted to keep her cousin under control in which she totally failed. And secondly she wanted him to climb up the ladder which succeeds heavily. Ironically because the first purpose failed.

Battle for little John

John entered Mendips definitely in the summer of 1946. Just after he came back from Blackpool. His mother took him with her, after arguing with his father about John's destiny. Back in Liverpool he would join to life with Julia and her new boyfriend John 'Bobby' Dykins. But Mimi wanted him. Her argument was convincing. Julia had proved for six years that she was not the best mother you could wish. Too young at heart to raise up a child. But Julia won't let John taking away. So Mimi sent an inspector from Liverpool Social Services to Julia who lived together with a new boyfriend, while she was officially married, in a small house without a proper room for the little John. Reasons enough to take John to Mendips. In Mendips John had his own bedroom. There were three rooms: one to receive visitors, one for dining, and a morning room, full of light with lovely side on the garden and easy to heat in the winter.

John's bedroom

After Julia arranged preparations to get John back, it was already too late. According to his niece Leila, Mimi stood in front of John as she wanted to protect him and said to her sister: "You're not gonna get him!"

Mendips carved deep inside his soul

In Mendips John had a lovely time of structure and balance. The education he got, made him complete enough to develop himself as the great innovator of pop music. He was an intellectual in rock history, at the same level with Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Bowie and Bono. And the fundaments he got from his uncle George and his auntie Mimi. Certainly in the first ten years before Elvis conquered his heart and soul he was raised up in a old traditional way. Later on John became a media junk, passive as well active. He not only appeared constantly on the telly, he was also addicted to watch. He innovate popular culture with his music and knew how to manipulate the mass. That's why it is so special to know how he was raising up before Elvis took it over from Mimi and George.

Cause there always stays something deep inside him which was a heritage of those first years in Mendips. M'Cauley: "When John went to live in the Dakota buildings he took the clock with him with "George 'too good' Smith" on it. People would say, why did he take a clock? Well, you only need silence to know why he took it. Most people of John's age remember going to the house and this was the sound they hear. It wouldn't be the television or the radio. It would be the ticking of the clock.”

(Thanks to Helen Williams)