Mendips, John Lennon's Childhood Home at 251 Menlove Avenue

Mendips is the semi-detached house at 251 Menlove Avenue in Woolton, south Liverpool, where John Lennon lived with his aunt Mimi from the age of five until he was 22. It carries an English Heritage blue plaque, is Grade II listed, and belongs to the National Trust, which shows the interior on booked tours.

A 1933 semi named after the Mendip Hills

The house was built in 1933 and named Mendips after the Mendip Hills. Lennon moved here in July 1946, aged five, from 9 Newcastle Road in Wavertree. His aunt Mimi Smith and her husband George brought him up. He stayed until mid-1963, when he was 22.

On 15 July 1958 Lennon's mother, Julia, was hit and killed by a car about 30 m north-west of the house.

Mimi sold Mendips in 1965.

What the Grade II listing protects

Historic England listed the house at Grade II on 28 February 2012 (list entry 1405216). It gives two main reasons. One is that this was Lennon's home from 5 to 22. The other is architectural: it is an ordinary 1930s middle-class semi that survives much as it was while he lived there.

The listing picks out details that tie the rooms to him. Mimi put up bookshelves in the lounge to push him towards his studies and away from music. The front porch was enclosed to muffle the noise of the musicians rehearsing, since the early Beatles used the house as a practice space. Paul McCartney has recalled that "Please Please Me" and "I'll Get You" were written here.

Plaque, purchase and restoration

English Heritage added a blue plaque on 7 December 2000, the day before the 20th anniversary of Lennon's death. The same year a TV film crew took away about 150 bricks during renovation work.

In March 2002 Yoko Ono bought the house and gave it to the National Trust. The Trust restored the interior to how it looked in the 1950s and opened Mendips to the public on 27 March 2003.

Getting inside

You cannot walk in off the street. The interior is shown only on the National Trust's guided minibus tour, which also covers McCartney's home at 20 Forthlin Road. The tour must be booked in advance and runs from March to October. Morning tours leave from bus stand 2 at Liverpool South Parkway station and afternoon tours from Speke Hall. The minibus is fully accessible, and bookings can be changed online up to 24 hours before.

One visitor's 2023 account describes Lennon's bedroom as a small box room at the front upstairs, and says the light in it is left on each year on 9 October, his birthday.

Strawberry Field around the corner

Strawberry Field, the Salvation Army site Lennon played in as a boy, is about 400 m from Mendips in a straight line, and unlike the house it is open daily without a tour. Penny Lane is about 2.8 km to the west.