SPEAKER_00: 0:06

There are places I remember for my life Those are magic, some forever not better Some are gone and some remain all these places at better moments with lovers and friends I still can recall Some are dead and some are living my life I've loved them all But of all these friends and lovers There is no one compares with you And these memories lose their meaning When I think of love as something you know I'll never lose affection For people and things that went before I know I've something about them my life I love you more I'm gonna step off the vehicle and we're walking straight ahead for the flash of my gates so the home of John Lennon now Mendips is the name of the home Aunt Mimi's home Aunt Mimi is the lady that would look after John. Aunt Mimi was the eldest daughter of five girls. The eldest daughter was disciplined, educated, and became a nurse in the local hospital down the road from here. When she walked in the hospital, she met a wonderful man, George Smith. George and Mimi began a relationship, he proposed marriage and they were married on the 50th of September 1939 and moved to this wonderful looking house here. But Mimi made it quite clear that if we get married, George, you're a businessman, I'm a career lady, we don't need children. So they were married and they moved to the house. Lovely and calm. The house she left behind had four younger sisters, and Julia was sister number four out of the five girls. She's the one whose father knew she was going to cause the upset. This is Julia in 1948. Freddie Lennon in 1964. They gave us John Lennon, but they were never photographed together. That's the closest I could show you, John's heardance. So they gave us John Lennon, they were married on the on the um the 3rd of December 1938. John Lennon was born on the 9th of October 1940, and they, as I say, were separated by war. War came along, Freddie was away at war as a sailor, and he was sending letters back to Liverpool. Julia would be encouraged by Freddie to go dancing. She went dancing. Unfortunately for him, she met soldiers and sailors. She had a little fling with a soldier, and that soldier resulted in a pregnancy. She's pregnant. Now she can't let him know because it's not his baby, she can't let her father know. Shame on the family. The only person she can talk to for any advice is Mimi. And Mimi was a nurse, and Mimi listened and said to Julia, you are not gonna have another man's baby. It's as simple as that. Julia let Mimi take control. Mimi made a phone call to the Catholic Hospital of Liverpool, and Julia was taken away when she was five months pregnant. Now she stayed full term. On the 19th of June 1945, she gave birth to a little baby girl. The little girl was given the English name Victoria Elizabeth Lennon, but the little girl was taken off Julia forcibly and put up for adoption on a Norwegian family taker and gave her a new name, Ingrid Maria Peterson. John Lennon growing up, he never met Ingrid Peterson. Rumour has it, he found out about her and tried to get a private detective, but in M days there was no internet. In M days there was no DNA. The private detective drew a blank of Victoria Elizabeth Lennon. Yoko Hono found out about the lady in 1992. That picture was taken when they met each other in New York. Now she came back to London and gave the interview, telling everyone that my name is Ingrid Peterson and not Victoria Lennon. I have nothing to do with the Lennon estate today. If she's alive and well today, she's 80 now, fair play to her. Fair play. So if she's alive and well, I hope she's healthy. Keep an eye on the dates here. 19th of June 1945. 1945-46. Julia is now living with a Liverpool man and his name is Bobby. She's still married to Freddie, but that poor man has not come home from war yet. Julia is with Bobby and Julia's pregnant. That's three different pregnancies with three different men in just over six years. Not good. Julia tells Bobby, and Bobby says it's the test of her and made it quite clear, I'm gonna live with you and my baby, and John is not my problem. John is not my son. So John was brought here. He's five and a half years of age. John would be here, he'd be waiting at the gates, and John would watch his mum come off the bus. And when John sees his mum, he opens the gate, he races down to greet her and he's taken into Liverpool. As he got used to his mum's visits, school holidays, John's gonna get that little bit older and he's gonna ask the awkward question. He's asking his mum, where do you go, mum? When you go home, I can't come with you. Where do you go on the bus? How long's the journey? And Julie would say, John, I am your mum, but I live far away from a distance. Mimi is your Liverpool mum. But when John was heading towards 13, he's got a relative from Scotland. John's cousin was nearly 21 years of age, and he said to John, Tomorrow I'm going to show you your mum's home. John said, What bus do we get? We don't get the bus, John. We walk. She's over there. She's literally 10 minutes over there behind the golf course. And when John knocked on the door, he was absolutely heartbroken to realise he's been lied to. Because Julia has got two daughters. Julia five, Jacqueline, three. Half sisters that he gets to know about now. All the time he didn't know. And this here is where John was given the home truth by Mimi that your father has disappeared, and your mum Julia is now living with another man. She doesn't want to look after you, John. I'm the one who looks after you here. Everything's settling down. John can stay here, he can go to his mum's, he can stay here and go to his mum's. Everything's settling, John's going to school. Sadly for John, his wonderful uncle. He didn't tell his wife the extent of his illness. Uncle George was not very well. He passed away of cirrhosis of the liver. The 5th of June 1955, aged only 52. Mimi was all alone with John come 1955. In 1955, 56, sorry, John Lennon was in that bedroom and he's listening to the radio. And who came on the radio singing Heartbreak Hotel? Elvis. Elvis. The King, the Messiah. John goes to school, everyone's going crazy for Elvis. He's brought a magazine home to show Aunt and Mimi, and Aunt Mimi took a picture of Elvis and went, The guitar's okay for Elvis, John, but you will never make a living with the guitar, will you? John will not get a guitar here. He's going to go to his mum, and his mum bought him his guitar. Now he's got the guitar in the house, he's in the bedroom, he's in the mirror, he thinks he's Elvis, he's hanging his feet on the floor. Aunt Mimi downstairs tells John the only time you're going to play the guitar is the glass porch at the front door. And if you were lucky to walk along the road in 1956, you see John Lennon. 12 months later, you'll see two guys in that doorway: John Lennon, Paul McCartney singing harmonies together. Sadly for John, the 15th of July 1958, Julia comes to the house for a cup of tea and a catch-up with her sister. Around about 8 30, 8 45, she said goodbye to Mimi at the gate. She walked down to the junction, and when she got to the end of the road, she waved and walked in the road and got killed by an off-duty police officer who was driving his car home from work. That man was PC at a clague. That poor man hit Julia, she didn't give him a chance. He was in the court of Liverpool, but charges were dropped because witnesses said the lady walked in front of the car, but the lady didn't watch where she was going. Accidental death was recorded at that junction there. The year after losing his mum, John then had become a student of art. He walked into the art school and met a wonderful lady with dark hair and sensible clothes, Cynthia. But John's idea lady was the French movie star Bridget Bardot. So the blonde hair replaces the dark hair, the short skirt replaces the long skirt. Everyone's asking Cynthia, what are you doing? What are you doing with an idiot like him who's going nowhere? The two of them made an unlikely couple, that's for sure. In 1962, John Lennon had to make a quick phone call to Brian Epstein and explained that there's a problem. His girlfriend's pregnancy, he's getting married. No, you're not. Yes, I am, but no, you're not, John. Pop stars cannot sell records and be married. It won't happen, John. I can't let it happen. I've got too much money rolling on this, riding on it. John insisted, Brian, she's having my baby, I'm getting married. The date was set for August the 23rd, 1962. John and Cynthia were married at Liverpool Register Office. While John was on tour in 63, news got through to John, he's become the father of Julia. That picture was taken there in the garden. Look at John's haircut, he's right on the brink of something special that's about to happen for him. John moved down to London in October 63, and the Beatles are going to be guaranteed success now. Mimi was living here, she decided to let the house be sold in 65. The man who lived in the house when I came to see the house for the first time in 1981 was Mr. Berkey. Mr. Berkey passed away in 1994. His son handed the house, got given to him, and the son didn't want the house, and his son sold the house to Yoko Ono. Yoko Ono bought the property and gave it away to the National Trust. And Andy, who you met before, the guy, he's in charge of the two houses now. So National Trust run this house and run Paul McCartney's house in tandem. Good for Yoko to do that. Well she does a lot of good stuff. You know, people, the university I'm going to show you later, the University of Liverpool has got the Yoko Ono building today. She does a lot of good stuff, and you know, people just don't seem to want to accept this. They think, oh, she broke up the Beatles when she didn't. She did not, they were already on the way. They were on the way, they had to for their own sanity. Have a look along the piece of grass here. I want you to imagine it's nice and warm, it's 1948, and John Lennon is playing with his cousin. Oh my god. There you go. And if you look at the tree, it's going towards the left. And the car is a 1940s car, and there's a couple of cars down there. John, cousin David, and Aunt Mimi, you can see. So there you go. And this house found even more music fans in 1994 when this house was chosen to be the front cover of the rock group Oasis. Oh Live Forever. Live Forever was a tribute to John Lennon and Johnny Rotten. As I say, well, you know, Sid Vicious real or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you want a story, you want to believe, but listen, John Lennon, and this the front cover of the house. That was the symbol.

SPEAKER_02: 11:55

So it's fairly obvious that Ringo had a different, his family had a different economic status.

SPEAKER_00: 12:00

Ringo, George, Paul, John. But John lived in a house full of lies. You know? He lived at the nicest house, but the house full of lies the secrets. Mimi was a wonderful woman, but that lady, she had a job in her hand bringing John up. And John idolised for her, really. He did love her because at the end of the day she was there for him.