John Lennon's Birthplace Plaque, Oxford Street, Liverpool

John Lennon was born at 6.30pm on 9 October 1940 in Liverpool Maternity Hospital on Oxford Street, Liverpool. The hospital closed in 1995 and the building became student accommodation. A round black plaque, placed by Northern Design Unit on what would have been his 60th birthday in 2000, marks the spot and is dedicated to his mother, Julia.

A plaque addressed to his mother

The plaque is a dark disc on a red-brick wall. Across the top it reads "This is not here". Below that is an image of Lennon's eyes behind round glasses, then the line "To Julia Lennon, nee Stanley, a son", with his name as a signature and his dates, 1940 to 1980. The last lines say he was born here, in the former Liverpool Maternity Hospital, at 6.30pm on 9 October 1940. Small print at the bottom credits Northern Design Unit and the date it went up, 9 October 2000.

Open Plaques and Wikimedia Commons both record it as a black plaque. One tour site calls it blue, but the photographs show a black disc.

Where to find it

The hospital's postal address was Oxford Street, which is how most sources describe it. Its main front, though, faces Cambridge Court, a side street, and the plaque coordinates on Open Plaques fall there rather than on Oxford Street itself. The old hospital's foundation stone and opening stone are also on the building, and both are photographed on Commons.

The plaque is on an outside wall. The building behind it is student accommodation.

The hospital building

Liverpool's maternity hospital goes back to 1841 and moved several times before it reached Oxford Street. Princess Mary laid the foundation stone for the new building in March 1924. It closed in November 1995, when the city's maternity services were merged, and the building was converted into student accommodation.

Lennon was not its only well-known baby. Actor Tom Baker, broadcaster Janice Long, actor and writer Colin Welland and the Walton sextuplets of 1983 were also born there.

Born in an air raid?

A familiar version of Lennon's birth has his aunt Mimi running to the hospital through a German bombing raid. Liverpool was heavily bombed between August 1940 and January 1941, but 9 October fell in a lull and the city was not raided that night. The photographer who documented the plaque for Commons calls the air-raid story a myth, and Beatles FAQ traces it to Mimi's own later memory.

For the house where Lennon grew up, see Mendips in Woolton.